Posted July 4, 200916 yr Thursday, 2 July 2009 16:31 UK La Roux labels R&B 'empty' BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat La Roux's Elly Jackson has labelled R&B as, "very kind of empty, like hollow and not rooted in anything good or healthy". The singer, who is currently number 1 in the UK singles charts with her song Bulletproof, added: "Lyrically it's just like really really bad - I think a lot of it just doesn't mean anything. "I think a lot of it is, 'Baby I love you, I want to kiss you'. It's just like what are you on about? Shut up." La Roux's self titled debut album was released this week [29 June] and is vying for a position in the chart's top ten this weekend [5 July] with a number of Michael Jackson's albums. Continuing on the subject of R&B music she added: "It certainly doesn't make me feel anything special, or doesn't make me think, or go somewhere else in my mind. I just don't get it. "The clothes… I just think it's like basically naked. It has been like that since the nineties, its not just now. I just don't think it's good and there's lots of girls in pop that are 17/18 and they're half naked and it's just 'Why?' "And you wonder if you weren't half naked would you by selling any records? Which obviously is just wrong. "You shouldn't be selling records because you're half naked - if you want to do that be a porn star." Do you agree with La Roux that the whole genre of R'N'B is empty, hollow and not rooted in anything good or healthy or do you think she is talking borderline racist bolloxs?
July 4, 200916 yr She's generalising far too much. Yes some RnB is like that but not all of it. Ugh, compare modern R&B to classic R&B... it has... I agree with La Roux. Earlier on today i was watching 4Music and they were doing a Beyonce Countdown and they rated DIVA higher than SAY MY NAME. Im sure i dont even need to say whats wrong with that comparison. Anyway, apart from the odd few tracks, R&B has become a very generic genre and it DESPERATELY needs to reinvent itself.
July 4, 200916 yr Ugh, compare modern R&B to classic R&B... it has... I agree with La Roux. Earlier on today i was watching 4Music and they were doing a Beyonce Countdown and they rated DIVA higher than SAY MY NAME. Im sure i dont even need to say whats wrong with that comparison. Anyway, apart from the odd few tracks, R&B has become a very generic genre and it DESPERATELY needs to reinvent itself. Maybe R&B artists should just do what La Roux does and make music that sounds like it came out of the genre almost 30 years ago...
July 4, 200916 yr Maybe R&B artists should just do what La Roux does and make music that sounds like it came out of the genre almost 30 years ago... Exactly, artists such as La Roux and Lady Gaga are doing huge things for the Pop Genre
July 4, 200916 yr In a way I think she has a point. But a lot of RnB these days is crossover stuff with pop, so you don't get much 'out and out' RnB these days. Just like the cheese factor with pop music has sort of disappeared a little. And girls being half naked in videos and stuff? Well sex sells. Is a simple as that. It's a ploy that has been used to years within media texts.
July 4, 200916 yr She kind of has a point but La Roux is starting to annoy me a bit now. She's coming across as some grumpy teenager whinging about $h!t that we already know. We know R&B generally has pretty crappy lyrics but we enjoy because it's fun and you can get your groove on to it in a club. So get over it. Edited July 4, 200916 yr by Ash-Wolf
July 4, 200916 yr La Roux is such a c**t, she bitches about everything possible like she's some cool trendy innovator. 'In For The Kill' was utter $h!te and 'Bulletproof' is good but it's hardly as groundbreaking as she and some of her fans like to think so.
July 4, 200916 yr She's a $h!te artist, she needs to put a sock in it :rolleyes: All she does is overrated crap anyway that we've heard many times before, and done better
July 4, 200916 yr Ugh, compare modern R&B to classic R&B... it has... I agree with La Roux. Earlier on today i was watching 4Music and they were doing a Beyonce Countdown and they rated DIVA higher than SAY MY NAME. Im sure i dont even need to say whats wrong with that comparison. Anyway, apart from the odd few tracks, R&B has become a very generic genre and it DESPERATELY needs to reinvent itself. Not sure what that has to do with my post you quoted. You can't say all modern RnB is like La Roux described and all my post was saying is she was generalising too much.
July 4, 200916 yr I agree with her on most points tbh...although I agree with Ashley that RnB isn't really about the lyrics anyway. Having said that, I do love a bit of RnB sometimes. I don't think her saying this really makes her a c**t though. It's just her opinion. :mellow:
July 4, 200916 yr I agree with her on most points tbh...although I agree with Ashley that RnB isn't really about the lyrics anyway. Having said that, I do love a bit of RnB sometimes. I don't think her saying this really makes her a c**t though. It's just her opinion. :mellow: She's starting to act like the ginger version of Lilly Allen in the media tbf. Although, journos do like to stitch up a story, so maybe her comments have been taken out of context a little.
July 4, 200916 yr I actually think unlike La Roux, Lily Allen makes fair comments most of the time and has a very likeable personality.
July 4, 200916 yr The thing with Lily is she was usually spot on with her remarks and slagged stuff off that needed slagging off. La Roux on the other hand is just whining about stuff we already know in such a banal and snotty way and is acting like she's above everyone because she's topped a few "trendy 09" lists. Edited July 4, 200916 yr by Ash-Wolf
July 4, 200916 yr Not sure what that has to do with my post you quoted. You can't say all modern RnB is like La Roux described and all my post was saying is she was generalising too much. Well when R&B has become such a generic genre in recent years how would you expect people to recieve it?
July 4, 200916 yr For someone who just released an album where she's singing some desperately 'meaningful' lyrics in a shrill voice over the sort of music you'd expect from an early 90s video game, she talks an awful lot of trash about music that is anything other than what she's recorded. I suppose she does have a bit of a point, songs like "Kiss Me Thru The Phone", "Love In This Club" etc. are a bit rubbish lyrically. But it's not just R&B that suffers this, every genre does. People have been writing naff songs about love for years, it's the basis of pretty much every song. Why does music have to make you go somewhere else in your mind? I do like lyrics and I wont listen to something if the lyrics are beyond awful but the lyrics don't have to make a whole lot of sense for me to enjoy the song. Heck, Xenomania have last this long: "I could never calculate / Everything out on a plate"; "I'd rather get my jamming words in first"; "Like beautiful robots dancing alone" being just some examples.
July 4, 200916 yr She has her fair share of crap lyrics: We can fight our desires But when we start making fires We get ever so hot Whether we like it or not
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