Alicia keys

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

She is growing on me right now, which I find somewhat surprising because I haven't liked R&B for like a year now. I think she is oneof the few artists out there that has some substance. I like her new single, "How Come You Don't Call," but I was wondering if anyone knows who originally sang that song. I want to hear the original version too.

[Guest Mark4steamboat]

i liked Fallin but thats about it.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

Have you heard her new single yet?

[Guest]

I have heard all three of her singles. Shes a good singer and plays a mean piano but I dont see whats the big deal about her. Her songs all suck though and the lyrics are so dumb assed it makes me laugh. Shes not the worst out there but I am mystified why she gets all this praise when she only seems to be singing gay lovesongs.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

What would you rather have her sing about?

[Guest Kinetic]

I think most of her praise comes from the fact that she's the first decent thing Stevie Wonder's had anything to do with in almost thirty years.  People love Stevie.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

That and the fact that R&B is an extension of pop music right now, just like rap is. Not to take any credit away from Miss Keys, but there is a lot of crap out there.

[Guest starvenger]

>Shes a good singer and plays a mean piano but I dont see whats the big deal about her.

 

Pretty much that's the big deal.  Mind you, that didn't help Tori Amos any but I digress...

 

>Not to take any credit away from Miss Keys, but there is a lot of crap out there.

 

That's true, but that's the music industry for ya - churning out generic music acts faster than a rabbit reproduces, and hoping that one manages to create a hit single.

[Guest Flyboy]

I have her whole CD and I love it.  The girl can really sing.. but that's just my opinion.  Plus, I'm pretty open-minded to stuff.

[Guest]

What would you rather have her sing about?

If she wants to sing about that then fine. I think its boring for someone to sing about the same thing over and over again.  This doesnt go just for her either. Especially with love...it seems like all some of these artists have experienced in life is realtionships

[Guest]

>Shes a good singer and plays a mean piano but I dont see whats the big deal about her.

 

Pretty much that's the big deal.  Mind you, that didn't help Tori Amos any but I digress...

I said she was GOOD singer...not great. Her voice is unintresting to me. And the piano thing is a big deal because theres not alot of young artists out there doing it. Shes nothing special at all.

[Guest El Satanico]

I hate hate haaaate modern r&b. I love OOOLD r&b(i like straight blues more) but just can't stand modern r&b. Modern r&b just always sounds way too cheesy. I'm not exactly sure when good r&b turned into shitty modern r&b, but i'm thinking it was when disco got big and everyone from the r&b genre started making disco music. Now i actually like SOME disco but when it got popular it was terrible stuff and everyone started doing it.

 

However while i hate modern r&b i do admit that alicia Keys does have talent.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

I don't buy much into hype, but in my opinion Alicia Keys certainly lives up to her hype.  My mom bought her CD and, having listened to it all, her vocal and piano talents certainly hold up past the singles, which is a big deal considering its pop/modern R&B (which I do agree on the whole sucks, and is a true travesty to older R&B acts which actually had soul in their voice and actually featured both rhythm and blues).  Whether she's anything special or not obviously varies from person to person, but she's one of the best new artists to come around in a while.  Too bad she won't be around much longer since she won the "Best New Artist" grammy...

[Guest evenflowDDT]

And as for her having to sing about love... name a pop star or modern R&B star who hasn't sung about love on a hit single.  Love and sex are what sells in the American pop music scene, and always have.  Even "classic" rock singles from the '60s and '70s were about love and sex.

 

And as for relationships being all these pop stars have experienced, its very likely.  It's not like they've had to grow up on the streets, or even live/work in suburban blue-collar desperation.  They've had silver spoons in their mouths all their lives, even the "lesser off" pop stars.

[Guest Ripper]

Her new single is a cover of a Prince(da mu-fuckin man) song.

 

I think that Alicia brought overall talent to the table and that is where the hype comes from .  She wrote, arranged and produced basically every track on the album.  How many artist can say that.  

 

And as for the old school R&B...Let me say it and I am sure that alot will disagree.   Old school had some damn fine SONGS, but most of them couldn't pull it together for a entire album.  I mean, Stevie Wonder could but guys like Marvin Gaye and others had sucky albums with really great singles.  Nowadays, people pick up thier compilation and greatest hits albums and say how much better stuff was back then.  I'm sorry but most of the time, their real albums would be full of experimental music that basically sucked.  I do say there is alot of crap out today(I can't remember the last male R&B singer I gave a crap about that wasn't from Philly) but singers like Alisha Keys and India Arie have amazing talents and deserve all the hype they get.

[Guest]

And as for her having to sing about love... name a pop star or modern R&B star who hasn't sung about love on a hit single.  Love and sex are what sells in the American pop music scene, and always have.  Even "classic" rock singles from the '60s and '70s were about love and sex.

I didnt say those people were any better. I think its stupid to write songs only about one subject. If youre going to write love song after love song at least do them differently instead of the same boring way. Then she must be doing music only to make money which would make me have no respect for her at all.

 

And as for relationships being all these pop stars have experienced, its very likely.  It's not like they've had to grow up on the streets, or even live/work in suburban blue-collar desperation.  They've had silver spoons in their mouths all their lives, even the "lesser off" pop stars.

How does being priveliged make you think theyve had more relationships? Just asking. I am sure alot of them didnt have money growing up...just because some did doesnt mean they all did.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

What would you rather have her sing about?

[Guest Ripper]

I perfer artist to be real.  If she has experienced love and lost, write about love and lost.  If you haven't been through pain and death, don't write about it.  If you aren't and never have been a thug, don't write like you are/were.  

 

I appreciate someone that writes about what they really are going through over someone that writes about what everyone wants to hear.  You can Chastise Jay-Z and other rappers all you want for talking about money, but really, if they started rapping about haveing to struggle in a 9-5 to make ends meet, when we know they worth 9-10 figures, are you REALLY gonna take them seriously. Miss Keys is keeping it real.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

And as for relationships being all these pop stars have experienced, its very likely.  It's not like they've had to grow up on the streets, or even live/work in suburban blue-collar desperation.  They've had silver spoons in their mouths all their lives, even the "lesser off" pop stars.

How does being priveliged make you think theyve had more relationships? Just asking. I am sure alot of them didnt have money growing up...just because some did doesnt mean they all did.

Oh, I didn't mean that just because they were privileged they've had more relationships.  I meant that that may have been the only thing they've ever experienced that would be worth singing/writing a song about, unless they want to be annoying little dorks like Cash Money and No Limit and piss people off by singing about how materialistic they are and how much money they have.

 

I agree that there are severe limitations to pop music, but that's why it is pop music.  Even someone who isn't intentionally "selling out" is unable to try much, if anything truly new, no matter how "outside of the box" or unique they are supposed to be.  It's the sad truth of pop music.

 

As for money, they all have.  I review CD's for my school newspaper, and reading all the bio's that come with the CD's, even the "underpriveleged" popstresses were somehow able to afford expensive vocal training and studio time for recording and distributing demo's.

[Guest El Satanico]

Then she must be doing music only to make money which would make me have no respect for her at all.

Oh please like anyone else under a big label and labeled as pop she will be the studios "bitch" and will do as they tell her to do. If the label wants her doing nothing but "love songs" she will be doing nothing but love songs UNTIL she is succesful enough and making the studio enough money to be able to walk in and tell the guys in charge what she wants to do.

 

Sure some claim that it's selling out but it's actually just doing what you have to do to survive and be succesful enough to at some point do whatever you want. It's no different then movie directors agreeing to do "Hollywood" movies that are probably below them. Which they are just doing that so they will be able to work within Hollywood yet still do what they want. I don't personally like Steven Spielberg much but he is respected by many and he has made his fair share of "Hollywood movies" and can now make any movie he wants. I don't see many claiming that he's a sellout that only cares about making money.

[Guest Ripper]

When someone else names me all the other R&B singers that are using a classical  music, old school R&B blend in their music today.  Alisha is doing what she wants to do with her album, and it is apparent due to the fact it sounds like nothing else out there. Her music is anything but cookie cutter.

 

I see where you are coming from though.  You can look at Pink and see that.  Yeah, I know you guys call her music "pop"(when exactly did "pop"ular music become a type of music anyway.  Metallica was popular, so by definition they are pop music) there fore she must suck, but if you look in comparison to her first album(she wrote basically none of the songs, her image and music was dictated by the record label) and her second( she is doing here own thing look wise(like it or not...I do) and her album has elements of rock on some songs, hip-hop on others, blues on others, techno on others...she basically did what she wanted, wrote most of the songs and all) she is taking more control of her career.  I think that it might have hurt her longevity but she can at least say she did something that she can be proud of.

 

 

Besides, anyone with a dog named "Fucker" is cool in my book.

[Guest hardyz1]

Bah.  If I want a piano playing chick, I'll take Vanessa Carlton.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Bah.  If I want a piano playing chick, I'll take Vanessa Carlton.

...or Norah Jones.

[Guest redbaron51]

I'd bang her though.

 

Actually i don't mind her, but i rather listen to something else than her though.

[Guest Ripper]

She does have more talent than those other girls though.  I have alot of respect for someone that did basically every thing on their album(wrote, produced, arranged...just everything)

[Guest ant_7000]

I rather listen to her also than the others, I like her work ethic she's hungry and wants get even better,  I got her album it's ok other people told me that have her album that they didnt care for it too much when first listen, but after a while her music just grows on you after you listen to it. But she has special talent is going around for a long time.

[Guest HellSpawn]

I like her music, like someone said here I like different genres of music, and Im sure I'll buy her CD way WAY before I spend my money buying Eminem or another crap like that.

[Guest]

Eh. Other than being hot, Alicia Keys is too middle-of-the-road to interest me. Her music has a sexiness to it that has nothing to do with her eye-pleasing looks--I find a lot of PJ Harvey's music sexy but I don't find her particularly attractive--but she has all the lyrical depth of a lovelorn teenager writing in her diary about the boy with the locker next to her's. I can imagine having Keys play in the background whilst in the physical act of love, but I would never listen to her at any other time.