Something I Am Loving

VH1 Soul is having a marathon of videos from The New Jack Swing Era in honor of their upcoming Hip Hop Honors.

Here is their definition of New Jack Swing:

These days hip-hop and R&B are kissing cousins. It wasn't always that way. Thirty years ago, the two genres were seldom mentioned in the same breath.

But in the late '80s, during the era of high-top fades, and parachute pants, producer Teddy Riley and label boss Andre Harrell successfully fused and marketed the two sounds in a sexy, exclamatory music that critics termed New Jack Swing. It sparked a revolution.

"Rappers and singers didn't want anything to do with one another," Riley told The Source. "Singers were soft, rappers were street. But New Jack Swing showed that it was okay for a rapper to have feelings, and that it was cool for a singer to have a little bit of thug in him."

It was a more innocent time: Whitney and Bobby were still respected music-makers, MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice were bona-fide stars, and Will Smith was still calling himself the Fresh Prince. Riley's blend of sweet melody and big beats was so pervasive that it characterized the period; ultimately its sound touched everyone from Keith Sweat to Michael Jackson.

This "era" was during my teen years during my musical coming of age. I put era in quotes because that word seems a bit strong to use. However VH1 uses it often in their promotional materials and are presenting the pioneers of this movement awards at their upcoming ceremony. As I write this, I wonder what makes a musical era. Did I put era in quotes because the music was so light and fluffy that I see it as having less merit or gravitas as other types of music? Can Guy's "Groove Me" and Another Bad Creation's "Playground" be part of a musical era? Or am I feeling strange about being old enough for a time when a style of music I loved is seen as a past era.

New Jack Swing was really huge when I was a teenager. I was into hip-hop and R&B mainly because it all resonated so much more with me then. Now, I suppose I have lost my innocence. Or music sucks now. Who knows?

One thing I have noticed so far about New Jack Swing's songs is that, much like the music of a modern day child of New Jack Swing, Timbaland, each artist has one beat that they begin almost all of their songs with. (Take BBD's I Thought It Was Me or Poison) Then the songs morph into slightly different songs that all sound a bit the same. I am not hating on this style. A good beat is a good beat, even if you use it a 100 times.

The marathon is from A-Z and I am cleaning my apartment (and blogging) to Al B. Sure's Night and Day. I had a massive crush on him. I still have the audio tape of his first and biggest album.

Comments

[The Rover]

Wow - I am so totally right with you. I always feel weird when I see stuff like "I Love The '90s", because I refuse to acknowledge that my formulative years are so far behind us that we can have retrospectives on that time. That is what makes me feel old.

But the fact that VH1 has morphed into VH1 Soul for the weekend? Awesome.