Whatever happened to good meaningful lyrics in R&b? What Happened to good R&B in general.

Whenever I find myself in a "lovey" mood and I want to play music to suit that mood I find myself going back in time to get the good soul music.

Why is it that this generation has not produced good solid soul/R&B singers? Its a sad thing that the beauty and sensuality of that is almost lost.

It died when Babyface put out the garbage he put out in 2001 - Face 2 Face.

Seriously. Babyface was setting the standard for R&B...now the standard is set by none other than Usher. While Usher is good, he doesn't have that "blues" counterpart to the rhythm, quite like Babyface had it going on. Babyface was the last of the good R&B artists, in my opinion.

Obviously it was going to shit before this. I blame rap. When the popular music has every other word as nigger, motherfucker and whathaveyou, the meaning is bound to go out.


Don't give up hope on it yet though. Prince just put out the most outstanding album I've heard from anyone in any genre in years, and Joss Stone is rocking the R&B world as well.

Have heard Joss Stone and Anthony Hamilton's efforts and they are good. Meaningful and soulful. Anyone else has any recommendations or great listens to for this genre?