I can personally say "I'm a lover of music" all genres that I find appealing to me and I truly value music that can make me think about life, love and feelings within myself. Music has the power to make the listener reflect on past experiences, not in a negative way, but makes you more receptive to the issues you are dealing with in your own life. With all that to say, my favorite genre of music is 90's R&B. During that era of music, throughout the early and mid to late 90's, I grew up listening to the sounds of Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, R.Kelly, Toni Braxton and even Mary J. Blige. The honest is that music has been on the decline for the last decay. What attributes separate these artists back in the day compared to artists now in 2016?
1. Vocal Ability
To enter into the music industry male or female, you had to possess a powerful vocal range and have the ability as an artist to be versatile ranging in different genres in music. We have many artists male and female who have exceeded the parameters of what an artist is ? My humble opinion Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey was the only two black women to ever grace a microphone and sell albums and make a lucrative career. Whitney was known for her powerful mezzo-soprano voice and began her humble beginnings singing in the church from her hometown in New Jersey. Later being discovered by Clive Davis, Whitney would embark on a musical career that no woman could ever touch. Question, who is the woman to ever have a number one hit on Billboard Top 100 consecutively each year from the beginning to the late 1990's, her name is Mariah Carey. This remarkable artist possesses a five-octave vocal range which is hard for most female musicians to possess, she set the standard of "what a singer" is suppose to be. Carey's music will always be timeless due to massive albums sales domestically and internationally as well for her longevity in this industry called music.
2. Album Sales
Album Sales in the 90's were paramount to an artist's success in the music industry, depending on the quality of the music, the producers, songwriters and sound engineers who spent countless days and nights helping to perfect the craft of an artist's album would make or break the consumers interest in buying albums or not. The amount of albums that the artist sold held weight, like the fact that Mariah Carey's 1993 album "Music Box" sold an astonishing 32 million copies worldwide. Unfortunately, in the current state of music artists can't even sell music due to sites like iTunes where you can legally buy music and download it to your laptop or your iPhone. Some artists find that the contracts have changed tremendously due to the nature of the music industry.
3. Artists and their Labels
Every artist needs to be signed to a record label to ensure the rights and protections of one's music. During the 90's labels like Columbia, Arista, Motown, MCA, Virgin and Universal. Artists like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey were signed to the most lucrative contracts in history and, also these artists had crossover appeal to sell their music internationally as well as selling sold out concerts.
4. Accolades
Most people say awards are not everything, I disagree, all the artists that I mentioned have won multiple awards including the most prestigious awards like a Grammy award. Most artists who are nominated for many awards for different genres of music or the type music award show like the American Music Awards or MTV Video Awards that gives musicians their recognition for their achievements in music.
5. Longevity
Longevity for an artist is so critical for today. The way we determine the musical resume of an artist is depends on the following criteria: Albums sold worldwide, how many number one hits on the Billboard 100, how many record-breaking moments that an artist can break within a span of their prime and last how many awards does an artist win especially a Grammy award. So many artists come and go, they can have a hit one day and next become irrelevant. The icons who stay in this industry called music show the true platform how longevity is properly sustained throughout their career.
The reality is music has been the evolution of change for a very long time, I always wondered why artists who had no talent would even have a single on Billboard 100 to begin with, versus struggling artists who possess actual skills in singing, producing or writing don't receive the same recognition compared to other artists. I support real musicians getting the opportunity to showcase this thing called music.
