After blue eyed soul, white funk and white rap, the arrival of pale R&B was of course only a matter of time. While R&B in the 1990s was mainly an African-American affair, almost twenty years later there are many white R&B singers who combine the genre with (trip hop) electronics. Musical preferences are of course not tied to skin color and modern R&B also appears to be able to resolve
… taste limits. R & B used to be primarily a commercial product that critics didn't like, around 2014 the style is hipper than ever. After , and , it's time for Sam Smith (1992) to storm heaven. The singer / songwriter sang on hits from and and was tipped by various media as the breakthrough of 2014. That is very understandable if you listen to Smith's debut In the Lonely Hour. With his velvet falsetto, Smith knows how to pour his emotions into the most attractive form. Enjoying the misery of someone else may not be so nice, but Smith makes it very easy for us. (JE)more