"You Are My Lady" indeed did make R&B #1, late the prior year or earlier in the year we're looking at now. Allusions to this had to be made when we were there because, you know, no "jumping ahead" here. But if you hear both, you can definitely notice . . . certainly I did . . .
In the R&B world, it's like producers were looking for a "sound" as opposed to trying to stand out or be original. After all, that's what the audience seemed to want.
I think that's very true. But to some degree that was always true in the R&B world - hence the rush to the Shaft sound in the wake of that enormous hit back in '71, which in turn contributed to the rise of disco a year or two down the road. Of course the same thing happened in pop. Remember the wall of beige circa '81, when bland, derivative yacht rock-inspired pap clogged up the charts. Actually, even for the good mellow gold, there was just way too much of it during that era. A bandwagon didn't have to be flashy for everybody to jump on it.
I guess what I should have said is that especially older R&B audiences have always been slow to adapt to different sounds. From about 1967 to 1983, R&B was always on the cutting edge. When rap/hip hop came along in 1979, the generation gap grew wider, but they still co-existed, with the younger folks still keeping a line on what their parents listened to. We'll soon hear more mellow hits from newcomers and veterans like Teena Marie, Surface, Terrence Trent D'Arby, George Michael, Jody Watley, Natalie Cole, and others. Hang tight... BTW, Natalie Cole, like her father, was always a pop artist.
OK, let's go for the next one! A Little Bit More - Melba Moore & Freddie Jackson Week ending November 8, 1986 1 week Never heard this song until just now.
Oh Jeebus, this has Yamaha keyboards slathered all over it like grease on an engine block. And Freddie's outfit is unintentionally hilarious in that video. No memory of this one at all. It's odd, because R&B is all over the pop charts during this period, but the R&B pop audiences were buying actually strikes me as far more adventuresome than the R&B that was topping the R&B charts, which mostly sounds really paint by numbers and is quite unfortunate and dull. I wonder how much of that was audience driven tho vs. how much of it had to do with who controlled R&B radio and - let's be honest here - payola.
Yeah really. I was right in the thick of what was happening at the time with my Club DJ career beginning but missed this one entirely. No great loss apparently
And, there was still a battle between "the establishment" and the youngbloods. The older people hated hip-hop and many still refused to recognize it. I'm sure between that, radio, and payola, it all had to do with why sludge like this went to the top. Not that this song is bad, but it's tearfully boring!
Yeah there's been a real string of them over here. Disappointing. But then the pop charts are kinda going to crap as well during this period. Although at least there's plenty of turnover...
They all sound like they're being pumped out of the same synth. This guy was massive on the R&B charts and could barely get arrested on the pop charts - he never even made the Top 10 over there.
Came close with "You Are My Lady" which biggest peak was in Billboard at #12. Everywhere else was worse - #13 Radio & Records, #14 Cash Box. (Record World was no more by then.) I had mentioned this song in particular in relation to the #1 two songs before this. I was especially surprised, given that there were quite a few that did better on the other two / three publications than on Billboard. Could have been - as has been noted at length, R&B was hardest hit by all the retrenchments in the record biz after the Crash of '79 - and was still being treated as the proverbial red-headed stepchild. The "same synth" was no doubt all that was provided for in the recording budgets. And if so, it shows.
That was true up until the 1-2 punch of Thriller and Purple Rain. After that, R&B got a ton of money and promotion, which is how acts like Janet Jackson and Cameo - among others - were able to have huge pop hits during this period.
No they didn't. Only those certain high-profile artists like Prince and Janet Jackson got the label promotion and extra money because they were suddenly classified as pop artists. meanwhile, the rank and file R&B artists got the same as they had been getting.
I don't believe that, at all. You only need to look at the R&B artists that charted pop post-1984 to see how the landscape had shifted. Promotional dollars were definitely flowing back to R&B acts, complete with well-budgeted videos and plenty of dollars for producers. It went way beyond just Prince & MJ - it's what enabled acts like Janet and others to cross over pop. Where dollars didn't flow, initially anyhow, was to rap. But that was going to change eventually, too.
And that was what I'd referred to in this context - the "rank and file" artists in this genre. For every Michael Jackson, there seems to have been about a hundred Freddie Jacksons, in terms of prominence and promo priorities.
All you have to do is look at the quality of the music videos and record production values of all the #1 charters in this very thread. Except for somebody like Prince or Janet Jackson, the videos were obviously done on a tight budget with no-name directors, and the music is generic. The music will improve in mid-1987, but the video quality will not. Also note the relative wide gap between what was popular on the R&B chart as opposed to the pop chart. It's no wonder the pop thread has been getting all the activity lately. We also haven't heard the last of Freddie Jackson.
Welp...next #1 Love You Down Ready - For The World Week ending December 13, 1986 2 weeks Let me say that the popularity of love ballads within the R&B community was a big turnoff for me during the 80s. I understand it, though, as there was still huge resistance to hip-hop within the radio industry and at the record labels. These non-stop runs of ballads were seen as safe. It is a trend that would carry all the way through the 90s too.
That was the case with most pop acts too, until they established themselves. If anything, budgets for videos began to shrink around this time. I think that had a lot more to do with the dull numbers that R&B radio was promoting. The pop charts were actually more adventuresome. Which was a complete reversal from just half a decade or so before. Yeah, I had listened to R&B stations a bit in the mid '80s but around this period that stopped pretty much for good.
I actually remember this one. Had no idea it was the "Oh Sheila" guys. As dull mid-'80s R&B ballads go it's one of the better ones...
