r/BlackPeopleTwitter • ☑️ All of the above • 8h ago

And bring back the yearning!

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7.5k Upvotes

218 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/roronoajoyboy 8h ago

RnB died when people stopped singing in church.
Yeah I said it.

519

u/NicholasThumbless 8h ago

I think it's disingenuous to argue otherwise. Say what you will, but that level of musicality is hard to reach without the early and constant exposure churches provide. When everyone is obliged to sing, you'll just have better odds to find something exceptional.

561

u/RoughhouseCamel 8h ago

People have damn good reasons to turn their back on the church, but we really need regular community gatherings and structured activity. Not just special occasions. Regularly.

156

u/imspecial-soareyou 7h ago

Yeah, I said the Black church did a lot for our community, music, public speaking, politics, civil rights, slavery. You can acknowledge both. And that is how we change it.

People didn’t like that statement, But we don’t like the truth. Being hurt doesn’t change anything. You can only change things by learning from it.

40

u/fappingcricket 6h ago

Yea the change is removing the fear of not going to church all day every day. It becomes a expectant job rather than community building....remove the judgement and praise egos to implement better teaching with humbleness.

13

u/ScottblackAttacks 4h ago

The government co-opted Black Churches. “You want some money don’t ya ?”

11

u/Julian_Betterman 4h ago

And by essentially making it illegal for black people to congregate anywhere else.

41

u/NicholasThumbless 7h ago

Not saying they don't and I don't disagree. Just fascinating to see the hole the church left behind, even with something as innocuous as people's relationship with music.

16

u/RoughhouseCamel 7h ago

Agreed. It’s a lot like noticing how many things got fucked up by the covid lockdowns and work from home.

15

u/TestFixation 8h ago

NFL Sundays are exactly this for me. Thank God for football 

54

u/Pendo-illsmackabitch 7h ago

And if I say football is worse than church, y'all will stone me at sundown

31

u/Road_Whorrior 7h ago

As a former BBQ restaurant worker, I dislike fundiegelical church goers more than football bros. But not a lot, though.

19

u/-ArthurMorgan 7h ago

Worse in what way?

13

u/Clevername582 6h ago

Oh yes the great football wars

9

u/Mgclpcrn14 💦Thirsty for Sukuna (true form)💦 4h ago

Like literally 😭😭 football has a lot of issues — and I mean a lot — but saying football is worse than church is wild in this context. The only context where it's fully worse is literally the physical danger of participating in it cuz football causes so many head and bodily injuries that can be hard to or nearly impossible in some cases to fully recover from. And I'm only even saying that cuz I'm not sure if it would even be possible/fair to compare the bodily harm of football with the physical violence that many are subjected to within the church.

Aside from that, every other issue I can think of that football has, the church has more of it and has for far longer.

3

u/Dufranus 3h ago

Get this MF to the pulpit so they can PREACH!

•

u/junkbingirl 14m ago edited 8m ago

Yeah the institution that holds up discrimination against queer people and covers up sexual abuse *is* worse than football lmao

5

u/chuck354 8h ago

Go to college games and you'll get the singing too

4

u/MARY_ANNE_MCGILICUTY 3h ago

my best community is a queer historical fencing league... because people show up every week and make friends outside of class.

4

u/AnytimeInvitation 2h ago

I turned away from the church but if there's one thing I miss it's the community.

-4

u/OldClothes9618 5h ago

Then do it

Or stop complaining

50

u/Federal_Card307 8h ago

Mariah Carey didn’t grow up dining in the church, she mainly learned from listened to RnB records, and from her mom ( who to be fair was an opera singer). You don’t need the church to be a good singer, there’s gotta be something else, it can’t just be that, though I do agree that’s a part of it.

57

u/Road_Whorrior 7h ago

The point isn't the church, it's the constant focus on music. Mariah had that at home, with a musician for a mother. Church used to be how most people participated in music with any regularity. Now churches are thinning (and the experience of music in the church has also changed for those who are still there) and school music programs are basically the first things to lose funding. The average person is way less likely than they were in the 80s or 90s to be capable of basic music reading. The average person interacts less with music daily in a participatory way than they were in decades prior.

31

u/cicalino 7h ago

"School music programs are the first to lose funding..."

Along with PE, Art, Cooking, Shop, Band, Orchestra... All the things worth living for. If it doesn't train you to work for the man, it doesn't get funded.

14

u/Shirogayne-at-WF ☑️ 6h ago

Basically.

The white suburb I grew up in still has a music program thanks to the upper middle class who find the performing arts trust set up when I was in high school ages ago after the district found itself in a $10 million hole. Most Black communities don't have that collective money to pull together like that when finding gets yanked away, so the church was often the only musical education anyone had access to.

6

u/Road_Whorrior 4h ago

I grew up in a majority Hispanic community in one of the worst states for education at the time. Our schools were poor, but my high school had an incredible music program until pretty much my freshman year. Our marching band had 120+ members, 3 guaranteed competition/exhibition trips a year plus whatever we fundraised for, and paid music by the district. By senior year, we had to score our own marching band music because if we didn't, we couldn't afford to go to 2 exhibitions. We had to double our fundraising to get to the 3rd. Our district also built a new school in the wealthier part of town, which siphoned away a lot of our would-be band kids and booster parents. There were 53 people in the marching band my senior year.

It's a way to take away our communities.

14

u/NicholasThumbless 7h ago

Don't get me wrong, there's certainly ways to get there without it. It's more of a number game in my mind. Church was a social obligation, and to participate people were exposed to formal music training they otherwise might not have had. There's far more room for virtuosity if the average person has access to practice, exposure, etc.

7

u/allpointseast ☑️ 7h ago edited 7h ago

You could just as easily say that Dionne Warwick and her lil cousin Whitney Houston developed their skills singing for their Baptist Church.

Which is the same story for Lauryn Hill.

And that is just out of two churches in East Orange, New Jersey.

25

u/BaronAleksei ☑️ 8h ago

If I did something once a week, every week, for years, and still sucked at it, that’s my fault

10

u/Thelonius_Dunk 7h ago

There's much to criticize the black church on, but there's definitely something that's been missed with less and less people going. The church being a free conservatory is one of them. Younger musicians and singers could learn from older ones, and you'd get practice at least once a week, and performance on Sunday. None of these teachers might've been professionals but the repeated practicing and learning probably helped nurture confidence and a baseline level of skill for people to try music professionally outside of the church.

•

u/Specific_Age500 49m ago

Nearly everyone can sing and dance if they're raised singing and dancing. But it's kind of like language where if it doesn't happen when you're young, you'll never find your voice or rhythm. 

So there's a chance that the person born with the genetics to be the best singer in the history of the planet just never sang. Like how the smartest person to ever live probably just lived their life out in obscurity. They never had access to the education and social circles that could utilize that ability.  

Humanity is just a numbers game and depriving anyone of a full life is at the detriment of us all. 

•

u/NicholasThumbless 23m ago

Well put. Reminds me of a pretty famous quote:

"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."

Stephen Jay Gould

1

u/raptor_mk2 2h ago

Or, and I'm just throwing this out there... We could invest in the Arts in school, expose kids to a variety of music, and give them proper musical (or artistic in general) educations.

You know, like how Detroit had an amazing music education system that gave rise to Motown.

Of course, then people would be able to express complex ideas in compelling ways... And that would cause far too many problems. Better to have regressive AI slop replace music.

•

u/NicholasThumbless 1h ago

I don't know why you're being sarcastic. It's not a controversial take to say that many musicians garnered inspiration or experience from their time in church. Let's use Motown then: Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross all started performing music in their respective places of worship. Pointing out that fact and how it impacted music today is not contradictory to supporting a robust arts system in the contemporary sense. We don't need to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say religious institutions contributed nothing to society.

113

u/CrossP 8h ago

RnB died when the genre left the back door cracked so Chris Brown could slide back in.

17

u/afrobass 8h ago

There's no singing in church anymore? I haven't been since '09, when I left the band for college. What are people supposed to jump to if there's no music?

35

u/pand-ammonium 8h ago

Man, growing up in a super white church and all we sang were low energy funeral-dirges. Wish we had any hymns worth jumping to.

16

u/boxtheglock 8h ago

I went to Catholic school and had to go to mass once a month. Shit used to have me dying when they would start chanting Hosannnnaaaa in the higheeeeest compared to what I heard at my regular church

8

u/afrobass 8h ago

I grew up in a baptist church and a Foursquare mostly white/Asian one. The white churches music was pretty good too! It was mainly neo folk Christian songs, mostly originals. I was in the worship leader's secular band, lol.

2

u/HelloStiletto14 8h ago

I’m picturing Jim Carrey doing his gospel impression and it’s got me tickled internally 😂😂😂

13

u/BaronAleksei ☑️ 8h ago

I think they mean that people do still sing in church, but declining attendance in general means there’s less likelihood of a talented singer learning their fundamentals in church, and if they don’t learn there, do they have somewhere else where they learn?

4

u/Mental_Freedom_1648 7h ago

People don't go anymore. It's a bunch of elderly ladies, for the most part.

3

u/Thelonius_Dunk 7h ago

I think they mean people aren't going to church in general anymore.

3

u/Shifter25 7h ago

Megachurch services are more like concerts. You're not expected to sing along, and even if you did, it's so loud you wouldn't really be able to hear yourself.

9

u/Sec2727 8h ago

Chicken and Egg

Lot of folk stopped going to church establishments

17

u/Powerblue102 7h ago

Many arts and community programs have also loss funding. Prior to the 80s, receiving singing lessons at a community center was normal. Combined with singing in church, as well as if you were in a school choir that entered competitions, that’s hundreds of hours to learn and practice vocal technique.

Then arts and community programs had their funding cut, with many being forced to close if they weren’t able to secure private funding. As with all things that’ve declined/are currently in decline, you really can tie them back to Ronald Reagan.

5

u/agodrevealed 7h ago

Fuck Ronald Reagan and all his homies

5

u/DemiGod9 ☑️ 7h ago

Every single TV One Unsung episode of a group is "I was singing at church with my cousin. I was singing at church with my brother. I invited my friend from school to church and we were singing"

3

u/Oswaldofuss6 ☑️ 6h ago

True. However, we need the same spaces to develop young people with music that isn't tied to religious dogma

2

u/stankdog ☑️ 4h ago

source? From your butt?

3

u/anwright1371 3h ago

I always smile when I’m doomscrolling reels and come across a mostly black church just belting it out, jamming on the guitar and just enjoying life. Growing up Catholic that was not my experience to say the least.

2

u/BlackThundaCat 6h ago

Damn…crazy how I know people were singing at my auntys church this past weekend.

1

u/Excusemydrool 4h ago

Uh people sing in church?

•

u/smokeyleo13 47m ago

I mean, that was a lot of peoples exposure to free and consistent vocal training

750

u/[deleted] 8h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

141

u/Aetheling186 8h ago

Better chances looking for him on islands

115

u/ceilingkat ☑️ 8h ago

Inb4 the downvotes. He def did it. Don’t @ me!!🗣️🗣️

83

u/HighlyOffensive10 7h ago

One of my closest friends says he was protecting the kids. Like what?! From who the other pedos?

12

u/Anubis17_76 7h ago

Someone post that "from what will happen to you if you dont let me in" jesus picture

3

u/Pardybro911 2h ago

Didn’t he have the trumps over and shit?

68

u/PoIIux 7h ago

Prince neither with his disdain for gay people tbh

68

u/Amhihykas 5h ago

Well I hope he’s rolling in his grave knowing that just from how he sounded I thought he was gayer than boy george.

50

u/Nice-Grab4838 5h ago

I just learned Prince was straight from these comments

11

u/michalismenten 3h ago

Same, lol.

5

u/antlestxp 2h ago

He was straight?

27

u/Xbc1 4h ago edited 2h ago

His opinion on gay people wouldn't factor at all. Him being in hell would be about all those 16 and 17 year olds he had a tendency to date. I think a couple of them he became their legal guardians.

12

u/thecheapseatz 3h ago

You could say that about all the musicians from the '70s and '80s

9

u/driatic 2h ago

Doesn't make it less gross though.

•

u/MirageATrois024 1h ago

Not Dolly Parton.

•

u/Fenrir426 37m ago

Yes, and that's why hell as such good osts in media depictions, with the numbers of artists down there

12

u/ItsDominare 5h ago

both of those activities are well represented in the bible just sayin

33

u/CrawlerCoolie 8h ago

Glad someone else said it 😂

18

u/DukeMancannon 4h ago

Yup. The evidence against him was overwhelming. But idiots still think he didn’t do it. “He was just a child at heart” is some next level delusion.

-8

u/Common_Belt 4h ago

Can you post the overwhelming evidence? Since it’s overwhelming, should be easy for you.

17

u/DukeMancannon 3h ago

Sure!

  • 1. He admitted sharing his bed with unrelated children. A grown man in his 40s publicly defended sleeping in the same bed as young boys. In the 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson, he described it as loving and beautiful. Mate, you’re one of the wealthiest entertainers on the planet. Buy the children their own fucking bedrooms.
  • 2. The Jordan Chandler settlement was enormous. Jackson settled the 1993 civil sexual abuse case for more than $20 million while denying wrongdoing. A settlement isn’t an admission of guilt, but paying that kind of money to resolve allegations involving a 13-year-old is hardly reassuring. The criminal investigation ended without charges.
  • 3. Multiple boys independently accused him of sexual abuse. Jordan Chandler, Gavin Arvizo, Wade Robson, James Safechuck and Jason Francia all became associated with allegations against Jackson. Their accounts differed, and some changed over time, but the recurring accusations of sexual misconduct involving young boys are difficult to dismiss as mere coincidence.
  • 4. Investigators found sexually explicit material bearing fingerprints from Jackson and his young accuser. During the 2005 trial, prosecutors presented an adult magazine bearing fingerprints from both Jackson and Gavin Arvizo. Other explicit publications bore prints from Arvizo and his brother. The defense challenged how the materials had been handled, and the prints did not establish that Jackson showed the boys pornography. Nevertheless, the discovery supported an important part of the prosecution’s account.
  • 5. Former Neverland employees testified about alleged sexual misconduct. Several former staff members described witnessing inappropriate behavior involving Jackson and boys. One former security guard alleged witnessing serious sexual abuse. The defense attacked their credibility, including their financial motives and relationships with tabloids. Still, these weren’t merely anonymous internet accusations. They were allegations presented in court.
  • 6. Wade Robson defended Jackson under oath, then alleged years of abuse. Robson testified for Jackson’s defense in 2005 and denied being molested. In 2013, he publicly reversed his position and alleged Jackson had sexually abused him for years beginning in childhood. That’s a major credibility problem for Robson, but it is also consistent with his later explanation that he had previously protected his alleged abuser. Whether that explanation is true remains disputed.
  • 7. James Safechuck alleged an extensive pattern of abuse. Safechuck claimed Jackson sexually abused him repeatedly after they met during a Pepsi commercial production. His allegations, alongside Robson’s, became central to Leaving Neverland. These remain allegations, not judicial findings, but their detail and descriptions of alleged grooming are deeply disturbing.
  • 8. His relationships with children had characteristics prosecutors associated with grooming. Lavish gifts, extraordinary access to a celebrity, sleepovers, amusement-park attractions and intense personal attention were recurring features of Jackson’s relationships with boys. None individually establishes abuse. Taken together with the allegations, however, prosecutors argued they constituted a pattern of cultivating trust and dependency.
  • 9. Gavin Arvizo’s younger brother testified that he witnessed inappropriate touching. This wasn’t simply one boy making an unsupported accusation. His younger brother testified about alleged incidents he witnessed. The jury ultimately found the prosecution’s evidence insufficient, but the testimony was a significant part of the case.
  • 10. The behavior continued to raise concerns after the first investigation. Following the 1993 allegations, Jackson continued defending sleepovers with children. By 2003, he was publicly discussing sharing his bed with boys despite knowing how controversial the practice had become. Even accepting his explanation that the relationships were innocent, his judgment was not.

So the big thing is it’s not any single accusation, settlement, magazine or sleepover. It’s the alleged pattern.

A phenomenally wealthy adult cultivated unusually intimate relationships with unrelated young boys, repeatedly shared sleeping arrangements with children, faced allegations of sexual abuse from multiple individuals, and paid substantial money to settle at least one case.

His defenders can offer alternative explanations for each piece of evidence, and some of those explanations are credible.

But the prosecution-oriented argument is that the cumulative pattern is substantially more troubling.

•

u/Common_Belt 43m ago

You used AI to write your response so I’m not really inclined to reply. Ask your same AI to rebut what you just posted and look what it responds with. Also, post it here for all to see.

•

u/bohawkn 29m ago

Goalposts moved. Incredible stuff, bud.

-8

u/Creepy-Accident-777 3h ago

If it was overwhelming they'd have gotten him back in 2005

•

u/rxchelnotfound47 1h ago

By that same logic Casey Anthony would be rotting in prison. Not every guilty person gets brought to justice.

7

u/2truthsandalie 6h ago

I thought they were referring to the Archangel lol

13

u/Trust_Me_Im_a_Panda 6h ago

St. Michael like “they’re not even making music videos anymore :(“

2

u/ActiveUpset-1268 3h ago

Nice to see the second to top comment be someone with a brain and honest eyes

2

u/GucciSaint 2h ago

Prince ain’t there too I fear

•

u/Historical-Record227 59m ago

Um... there's no proof he did anything? Except for all the evidence ofc, but that doesn't count. He was just an innocent flower who raped those kids cause he didn't know any better.

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u/dnaicker86 1h ago

• Meeting Location: Witnesses (including Johanna Sjoberg) testified to meeting Michael Jackson at Jeffrey Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, in the early 2000s. • No Accusations: The court files contain no accusations of wrongdoing, criminal conduct, or sexual abuse against Jackson. • Testimony: Sjoberg stated under oath that she met Jackson at the house but denied ever giving him a massage or having any untoward interactions with him. • Context: Photos and records also placed Jackson around Epstein's orbit during that period, with associates stating Jackson visited or stayed near the area, though the documents do not link him to Epstein's sex trafficking ring

•

u/dnaicker86 1h ago

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/michael-jackson-jeffrey-epstein-photos-leaving-neverland-1236734561/

"I was his bodyguard when the picture with Epstein would of been taken. We were just viewing houses as Michael wanted to live on Palm Beech [sic] so he can be close to his Barry Gibb. A real estate agent set up the viewings over the course of a week. We never even knew who Epstein was he was not famous then,” Fiddes wrote on Instagram. “He like the other house owners we viewed that week wanted a picture with Michael. “I was there with another bodyguard and Michaels then Dr. That’s it! In 2003! Epstein’s house was for sale so it was one of many lined up to view! Michael never had a clue who he was or the other property owners we met.”

→ More replies (18)

349

u/imjustheretodomyjob ☑️ 🧚🏿 Reclaiming my peace 🧘🏿 8h ago

And a song can only be a hit for like 5 minutes. Artists used to live off one album for YEARS

67

u/NK1337 8h ago

Maybe T.Swift is on to something. She’s out there living the 90s R&B artist life apparently.

26

u/Freyas_Follower 8h ago

I honestly dont think well ever get another star like Taylor again. Theres just too much competion for a person's time now.

What helped taylors music was her family connections to the rising music industry in streaming services like spotify. With her career started before streaming became a dominant entertainment source, Taylor was able to put herself at the forefront of multiple genres, so more people heard her music.

Now, someone doing the same thing already has billions of songs to compete against. Even ones from the 1920s to today.

No other era of potential star had that kind of competition.

Theres also no way to seperate any style anymore. Britney, Queen, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Justin Beiber Butler, Biggie Smalls, Tupac, ect all had their own musical styles that didnt exist at the time. In effect, we cant have another Queen, Taylor, or Justin because they already exist.

35

u/mouse_8b 7h ago

I agree with a bit of this. The death of the monoculture certainly will limit how big stars can get.

Theres also no way to seperate any style anymore

This is just a silly thing to say. Genres still exist, and artists are continually redefining them.

2

u/Freyas_Follower 7h ago

And can you explain how someone can fundamentally change a genre in a completely different way thay doesnt already sound like something that has been done?

25

u/Available-Square619 6h ago

It’s one of those things that we don’t know until it happens and someone does it.

I’m sure the ppl were saying the same shit about classical music lol. It’s hard to think of what it would sound like, but it’s surely possible.

8

u/Trust_Me_Im_a_Panda 6h ago

No because I’m not a musician and idk how musicians do anything until they actually do it. The hell kind of explanation do you want? “Oh if you tweak this sound and slow the tempo down it’ll be a whole new genre of music.” People are STILL creating and redefining, you’re just never going to hear about them without specifically hunting for them until they get big enough that the mainstream gatekeepers start pushing them into streaming algorithms and radio. If you want to do the work, you can find the niche artists on the bleeding edge. If you want to cede that control over to Spotify and SiriusXM, you’re not going to know about them unless/until they get big.

6

u/EverythingIsTaken785 4h ago

How are people upset with you for this?

“Can you explain exactly how to invent something none of us have ever experienced before?” No! Just like I can’t explain how some technological or scientific advancement can happen.

The same way people thought in the 1800s (or whatever) that we’d all get our own personal hot air balloons to ride around town in, we cannot accurately predict exactly how technology, science, film, or music will evolve. What a stupid question, and what a stupid person for replying to you about crashing out ?

5

u/boringestnickname 3h ago

Dude, go to a jazz festival, your local underground concert place, a stoner-doom festival, listen to some fusion, some indie, some electronica, some anything that isn't chart music.

There's new things coming out all the time. You just aren't hearing it because you have the corporate machine tethered to your ears, and pop music died years ago.

3

u/B_Eazy86 4h ago

No one could have predicted the birth of these styles of music before they came along, or the impact they'd have. No one could have told you Dubstep was coming in 1995. No one could have predicted Nirvana in 1968. If things are sounding samey to you, check your algorithm, and know that they'll push what they know is safe, which will tend to be similar to something that's already made them money. But the internet is a vast digital cosmos of music from people you've never heard of. The death of the monoculture doesn't mean innovation is dead. It means taking chances on it by large companies is dying because the pay off will never be the same for them as it was in the MJ days. Taylor has done just fine in the current era, although she seems to do controversial stuff to capture all of her billboard spots at times. Maybe proving even she isn't as big as MJ was at his peak because he didn't have to do any of that to secure the best selling album ever. He was in the right place at the right time to be the king of the monoculture at it's peak. That's all that's changed. Innovation is still out there.

2

u/Udder_Influencer 3h ago

sorry explain? no. no idea how to word feelings about sounds. but it's great when it happens. see below. But the thing is, since you're living in a world where this revolutionary change has happened, the source of the change, the inspiration, probably won't be impressive or meaningful to you even though it's very impactful. Like watching classic black and white movies do a gag you've already seen 1000 times.

RUN DMC - Walk This Way ft. Aerosmith - one of the first and most influential hip hop rock fusion examples

Death - Scream Bloody Gore - one of the first and most influential examples of "death metal"

1

u/AlarmingAffect0 5h ago

You ever hear a Niel Cicierega track?

1

u/LickingSmegma 3h ago

What do Mamaleek sound like?

•

u/ook_the_bla 1m ago

My case study would be Angine de Poitrine.

11

u/WeirdIndividualGuy 6h ago

Disagree. Swift is a very basic sounding artist who is just relatable enough to a specific demographic and was born in a family with the right connections. That’s not exactly an anomaly. Hell, most mainstream musicians these days already have the family connects. If they make catchy-enough music to a big enough demographic, there’s your next T Swift.

Nothing she’s doing is unique or above and beyond, talent-wise. Her success is more “born at the right time in the right place” vs pure talent like MJ

8

u/NomadNuka 7h ago

Doesn't help that Taylor Swift seems to have happily pulled up the ladder behind her

4

u/lurkANDorganize 6h ago

There's always another.

There's something that will exist we can't even imagine.

History will look back at her music and be very confused.

2

u/ChancelorReed 5h ago

You may be right but people were already saying this when Taylor started.

1

u/forever87 6h ago

butler?

7

u/AnyEverywhere8 3h ago

Taylor’s album cycles have lasted ~6 months for most of the last decade.

6

u/three_headed_dog 7h ago

Sade case in point

2

u/spacesluts 3h ago

no need to ask

3

u/Snoozy_Ninja 6h ago

Example: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

2

u/Federal_Card307 4h ago

Ready or not…

139

u/WrapMyBeads 8h ago

Go back to the singing in the rain. I’m tired of hearing about your commitment issues let’s go back to yearning even if we’re lying. Can’t even sadly stare out the window on long drives anymore

17

u/ariasnaps 5h ago

In the rain with an unbuttoned shirt or with a vest grasping at empty air and sobbing.

9

u/WrapMyBeads 5h ago

Lol and you know you gotta spin and fall to your knees

6

u/ariasnaps 5h ago

With a random dance interlude about ⅔ of the way through the video featuring some of the tightest 8 counts you've ever seen right before it switches back to the final chorus.

2

u/WrapMyBeads 5h ago

I don’t know music speak yet I know exactly what you mean.

1

u/ariasnaps 5h ago

Prime examples: 

  • "So Anxious" by Ginuwine. A 4:35 second horny voicemail set to a Timbaland beat. 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DHpUtOcwhyU
  • "If" by Janet Jackson. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTSd4vqnMwo

1

u/WrapMyBeads 5h ago

I was thinking Usher’s U got it bad and Aaliyah’s The one I gave my heart to. Also I don’t think I’ve ever seen the so anxious music vid before but I have heard the dancing portion. Piracy must be the answer

2

u/BLZNWZRD 5h ago

No thank you lol. Thank begging nonsense can stay gone. Though it turned out Im more into Neo Soul anyway

8

u/WrapMyBeads 5h ago

Neo soul is all about the yearning. Who are you listening to

0

u/BLZNWZRD 4h ago

Not to the level of outright begging in RnB. Maxwell didnt beg. Neither did Jill Scott.

3

u/WrapMyBeads 4h ago

Jill Scott has a song where she calls up her “man” and essentially asks him “what does she have that I don’t have”. My Love is the name. And maxwell’s whenever wherever whatever can also be considered begging, at the very least it’s yearning. Neh neh neo soul and rnb have that in common 100%

1

u/BLZNWZRD 4h ago

She also has a song where she recognizes, despite her feelings she needs to walk away from a "self serving, undeserving, constantly hurting me love". They definitely dont, RnB is champion for wah wah wah please dont go. How many times have you heard the phrase "down on my knees, begging you please" in neo soul?

1

u/WrapMyBeads 3h ago

That’s irrelevant. Fact is your notion that she doesn’t beg is untrue. Also songs like golden don’t indicate where she is, they indicate where she’s trying to be. This of course if we assume lyrics align with her reality. Your position lacks support. Also what does that specific line have to do with the general concept of begging?

1

u/BLZNWZRD 3h ago

Quite relevant actually. You used a lyric as an example and so did I.

1

u/WrapMyBeads 3h ago

Mine negates your initial statement. Yours only points out that there is variety in neo soul but that was never in question

74

u/_AYYEEEE 8h ago

Micheal

36

u/popshamhocks 8h ago

I hate when people spell it this way. Gotta be dislexic

63

u/MemphisMane901 8h ago

You gotta open your 3rd eye! Mr. Jackson dedicated his life to use a MIC to HEAL the world!

https://giphy.com/gifs/9lcGp7XYqn86kUL5EO

12

u/DCPHR33 7h ago

Ooh i hate this take but can’t be mad at it 🥴

2

u/popshamhocks 7h ago

Bullshitting is clearly an art

3

u/freetrambopaline 8h ago

As someone that struggles with this, I can only say he called himself MJ to help me out 😂😂

What a legend.

73

u/wahdibombo ☑️ 8h ago

That’s cuz the love is gone. This shit is transactional now in the zeitgeist, so what the fuck do we need a bridge for?

30

u/AmateurCommenter808 8h ago

Thats the problem these days. Too many adlibs not enough bridges.

17

u/boxtheglock 7h ago

I love transactional relationships during the winter. I'll cook and shovel, you throw me some ass and wash the dishes. And we'll figure the rest out and split the heat bill

https://giphy.com/gifs/4WFFSAC3i9tthIRT8v

53

u/OhTheseSourTimes 8h ago

WTF is that other comment though? Lol there are TONS of artists doing music videos and good ones too. I always appreciate it the extra love when an artist makes an interesting video.

20

u/boxtheglock 7h ago

Not many. And you can't just hit BET or MTV and find them. You have to actually search for that shit and hope new ones with similar artist pop up in your algorithm

24

u/OhTheseSourTimes 7h ago

Half right, you really can't just pop in a channel after school and catch every music video. But not many? Homie... TONS of artists. Known and unknown. Just cuz you're not listening or watching them don't mean they don't exist or other people aren't watching.

8

u/catinformant 7h ago

People don't seek out music. Most people stream music and its just the same music they've listened to their whole lives. Radio isn't really a thing anymore so if they are exposed to new music it's usually something that hit their fyp and thats usually pop or hiphop. Tell a 35 yr old that theres new RnB artists and they assume they must not be good because they haven't heard of them. Millenials and older are from an age of being spoonfed music. Nevermind theres probably local artists in their area that are extremely talented.

6

u/Alarmed-Plankton-708 2h ago

I'm 37, and it's so crazy to me when I find a new artist I like and recommend it to friends and half of them say they don't have time to get into a new singer like it's some huge commitment to listen to something new

I am constantly hunting and discovering new music I haven't heard, I have a thirst and I hope I never lose it

2

u/OhTheseSourTimes 7h ago

I can't argue with anything you said and most of that unfortunately comes with age. Once your past your 20s most people stop engaging with new music and it's been like that even before streaming, but nowadays it's even more prevalent unfortunately. I get bored of the same shit so I look for new music every Friday and I have a handful of friends that still keep up, but I know that's the minority.

1

u/catinformant 7h ago

I think they say most people settle into their music around 27. But same I go looking for music because bored.

1

u/OhTheseSourTimes 7h ago

Yeah that makes sense. The 30s seems to be the death knell for a lot of people's music exploration.

•

u/1d3333 1h ago

It’s harder to chance upon a music video anymore to be fair

0

u/BildingInspecter 6h ago

And like half of them have a 5 minute movie before the music starts.

0

u/OhTheseSourTimes 6h ago

Absolutely not lol. There's a few but not an overwhelming amount by any means.

28

u/BomanSteel 8h ago

I swear at some point everyone decided yearning was creep behavior and RnB never recovered.

It was sometimes for sure but, damn.

20

u/TheSorceIsFrong 7h ago

Was around the time a lot of the big R&B artists became known as creeps lol.

24

u/CountOff 7h ago

While we’re at it, I’m tired of this hyper toxic lyrical R&B shit

I’m tryin to break down dancing and crying in the rain, not revel in being a sociopath

2

u/ThirdAltAccounts ☑️ 7h ago

Do you have any lyrically toxic song(s) in mind ?

2

u/jypKissedMyMom 5h ago

The Weeknd and SZA lyrics were I really listen

15

u/kidjay76 8h ago

We have R&B “artists” singing about honey packs.

12

u/legit-posts_1 7h ago

I think it's hilarious that anybody thinks either of those guys are upstairs

10

u/longboi28 7h ago

Michael is NOT in heaven lmao, neither is Prince either he dated tons of high schoolers in his life

12

u/BoyWhoSoldTheWorld 7h ago

I can’t wait tell Pac about subliminal diss tracks.

2

u/ThirdAltAccounts ☑️ 7h ago

LMAO!

He caught one of the last bullets of the (real) rap beef era

6

u/catinformant 7h ago

Bring back dirty macking and heartbreak

7

u/malonkey1 7h ago

You should be getting mad at the industry's incentive structures not at the artists forced to respond to those structures in order to get paid.

6

u/Powerful-Ad-8737 6h ago

Tell Luther they ain’t even going to church no more

3

u/SaintBax 8h ago

They not going to the desert to sing anymore

3

u/Beerswain 7h ago

First one pretending that everything in the sixties wasn't three minutes long.

4

u/GarbonzosGuy 7h ago

Micheal....

3

u/Pickled-Carrot-75 7h ago

One of my favorite P songs is the 20- minute remix of "America"

Also the 10- minute "Crystal Ball"

The album version of "Adore" goes 8min I think

Good shit

3

u/Wooden-Sir7471 7h ago

Once you’ve actually experienced it, yearning is so completely terrible for the guy doing it. I wouldn’t actually wish it on anyone

3

u/Music_Addict23 6h ago

I like Prince, but I swear to God, every time I hear Purple Rain I’m like “goddamn this song is long” lol

3

u/itmebloobs 5h ago

Do child rapists go to heaven?

3

u/sungoddaily 4h ago

Feels like "This is America" was the last music video everyone was talking about as must see/discussed to death.

3

u/AnyEverywhere8 3h ago

And tell Whitney and Aretha they openly don’t care about vocals. Like they used to be ashamed about it and now they claim it with their chests and shout it flatly.

The damn disrespect.

2

u/SiKELIFE 6h ago

Too many singers trying be rappers and thugs.and vice versa.2010s was horrible for this

2

u/stricklybiznizz 3h ago

I aint yearning for anybody knowing i’m just part of a roster lol.

2

u/notbatman1252 3h ago

Lisa Simpson is a sad jazz soul

2

u/Five-Oh-Vicryl 2h ago

Remember when an R&B track would stop you in the middle of whatever you were doing because the song was just so visceral and tapped into whatever emotion you and the artist shared? Powerful stuff. Miss those days

2

u/Kool2021 2h ago

And no one knows what a remix is. Smh.

1

u/Villageijit 6h ago

I dont think mj is up there

1

u/albinoman38 5h ago

https://youtu.be/CWxRN32Z8OY?is=3eURQcuzzDr8jnCT

This a favorite hip hop music video from the past year. Art is still out there!

•

u/raptor_mk2 1h ago

I'm not about to compare it to Thriller, but metal is still in investing in music videos.

Sanctuary - Kamelot

Moonlight Rendezvous - Beast In Black

The Laugh Track - Ice Nine Kills

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u/BuggyMonarch25 1h ago

They ain’t gonna be in heaven but I get the sentiment

-15

u/thealbanation 8h ago

Here before all the police bootlickers claim he was a pedo despite being found non guilty twice

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