Ethnography

Ethnography - Contemporary R&B

Introduction

Throughout this Ethnography we will be exploring Contemporary R&B throughout the 1980's and its origins. We will be uncovering the several aspects that can help us understand the genre of music, the visual representation associated with that genre, what sounds to specifically listen for, where and how we interpret the music, (e,g, whether at a concert with friends dancing, or in your own company in your room, listening to the meaning of the song) And a few more factors. 

Sonic

In the 1980's there were multiple genres that were fused together to form R&B these genres included; Hip-Hop, Soul, Funk and Pop. Many popular artists in this genre at the time were The Jackson 5, Michael Jackson as a solo artist, Prince, Stevie wonder, Marvin Gaye and many other artists whom we may go over during the course of this Ethnography.
 One of the more interesting features in Contemporary R&B is that the drum beat can range from a fairly upbeat, fast tempo, to a slower relaxing speed and its mainly dependent on the artist on which of these the drums will follow. However one thing most Contemporary R&B tracks have in common, is that a lot of the time the drums will open the song followed by the bass or the other way round, then the vocals will kick in and hook the audience. Furthermore in the background there will more often than not be a synth that sounds like an alarm or phone ringing. From the prince song When Doves Cry at 25 seconds the synth kicks in and plays on and off throughout the song. Also in this song you hear the bass kick in first, followed by the vocals.

We can cross reference this with The Jackson 5's Can You Feel It. Where the drum and bass kick in at the same time starting off the song at 50 seconds. But there is a synth but not one simulating a ringing sound.
  
However as I said earlier, the 1980's was an early stage for Contemporary R&B so there are many different styles, which means ultimately the style you hear will depend on the artist, for example Can You Feel It and When Doves Cry sounded more towards the pop genre whereas if you listen to Did I Hear You Say You Love Me by Stevie Wonder the feel of blues is more than noticeable right from the start of the song. But the upbeat drums which is shared between all three tracks I have embedded so far is still in the mix.
 
Visual
The 1980's played a crucial part in the visual aspect of music as the first music video to be released on tv by MTV was released in 1981 and it was The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star. Even though This is not an R&B track yet alone a contemporary track, this paved the path for artists like Michael Jackson to start releasing his own music videos, because only a year after the first music video released, Michael Jackson released the world renown 'Thriller' music video. I believe both these two music videos to be a turning point in the music industry no matter what the genre is. Adding visuals to music means we can see what the artist wants us to see or possibly broadens our imagination to stimulate thoughts on current issues in the world or what the artist is addressing.  
Also an interesting aspect to consider when discussing the effect visuals hold within in music is clothing and hair, for example the Jackson 5 all had afros during their time in the group, and often wore similar coloured or styled clothing if not both. This is shown in the picture below.

Technological
The technological side of Contemporary R&B is interesting since the 1980's was known as a turning point for most genres. The use of synthesizers in most songs during this time is noticeable and as i touched on earlier the groove (the drum sounds and bass sounds) which may have been taken from neo soul, play a very interesting part as its almost a must for a song to be classed as R&B. The early 80's were known for the introduction of midi and recording digitally to music, which is a huge addition to the creation of music as it helps in plenty of ways. This is not to say that there were not ways to sequence without midi because there were but with midi the prices for midi sequencers dropped allowing it to be much more accessible to people with lower budgets and it made sequencing possibly easier. A lot of instruments were then replaced with synthesizers. Furthermore Cd's were released in early 1980's/late 1970's which makes listening to music a lot more accessible.

Mediatic
Since this was the 1980's most people would goto gigs or festivals to listen to music, however there were people who could afford record players, which weren't too expensive at the time but most families would tend to only have one and mainly in their family room. With the release of the Cd it meant that cd players would be more frequent in family homes as it was cheaper although the quality wasn't as good as record players or even live, it still was the most modern thing at the time, so families would listen to either cd players or record players together in the sitting room as a form of entertainment. However as i said earlier i think that the most popular way for listening to music would be by going to the concerts and tours and gigs as that way you're getting a live experience. I think the majority of R&B is meant to be danced to, with the exception that quite a few types of R&B encourage to deeply think about the song and the meaning behind it to possibly help deal with any hardships you could possibly be going to the the artist relates to.

Temporal
Generally the contemporary R&B songs last around of a maximum of 5 minutes and a minimum of just under 3, however when it comes to the music videos this can increase by double all more as their might be another message the artist is trying to get across which would make it all the more interesting and possibly even make you feel more intwined with the song. However with albums there may be extra tracks which can only be listened to our bought along with the album as a special edition and an incentive to buy the whole album rather than individual tracks you're interested in.

Corporeal
The majority of R&B does tend to have voice in it, however if we look into prince's original purple reign, that track had no vocals to begin with and that track was still popular, furthermore tracks which could have been influenced of Miles Davis who rarely had vocals if any on most of his tracks, wouldn't surprise me if the artist decided to follow the same route and leave the vocals out.

Discursive
Contemporary R&B was the after math of blues, neo soul and jazz, there will be underlying issues from these three which generally relate to black people being oppressed, however the majority of contemporary R&B barely mentions such subjects so for me personally I almost feel as if contemporary R&B is a celebration of freedom to be able to experiment with music as freely as the artist chooses to and to express themselves without the racial oppression motivating them.