"Since 2011, the persona inhabited by the singer Abel Tesfaye has defined a developmental period in R&B's history, one largely determined by its proximity to hip-hop, which has continued to gobble up market share and psychic space in the public consciousness. You could point to The Weeknd as the first R&B artist spliced with trap DNA, adopting its coldness, opacity and penchant for shadow."
"Ironic, then, that such a shift seems to have been ushered in by a death not of R&B proper, mind you, but of one of its greatest modern pacesetters: The Weeknd. On his January album Hurry Up Tomorrow, Tesfaye killed The Weeknd, a creature of the night who used falsetto like a siren, drawing groupies to his murky backroom lair. Since then, as if on cue, it finally appears as if the sun is rising on R&B once again, its next pathfinders seeking a new vibe."
Assertions of R&B's death have recurred for years, often met with rebuttals that note an identity crisis rather than extinction. Market dynamics and cultural attention have pushed R&B closer to hip-hop and trap, changing its tone and commercial footprint. High-profile figures have argued the genre needs expansion rather than resurrection. The Weeknd's decade-long persona crystallized a trap-spliced R&B aesthetic of coldness, opacity and nocturnal allure. Tesfaye's creative pivot on Hurry Up Tomorrow symbolically ended that persona, and that rupture appears to open space for new pathfinders seeking different vibes and directions for R&B.
Read at www.npr.org
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