R&B break-up songs have captured the audience’s attention since they have been around. These breakup songs have been able to captive and grasp the attention of their audience. Burn by Usher, End of The Road by Boyz II Men, and Anytime by Brian McKnight are examples of the sub-genre R&B breakup songs. Does the song End of the Road successfully fulfill the characteristics of this genre effectively compared to the two other songs provided?
Artifacts
Burn – Usher
Burn is a breakup song preformed by Usher, who wrote the song along with artists Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox. This song is about a breakup in a relationship. It was rumored to have been written about his personal life, and Usher’s song soon began to top various …show more content…
Brandon Barnes was another artist who helped write this break-up song. McKnight’s Album this song was in reached number one on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Songs, and also reached number thirteen on the Billboard 200 in 1997. End of the Road-- Boyz II Men
End of the Road is a breakup song performed by Boyz II Men that was released in 1992. Kenneth Edmonds, L.A. Reid, and Daryl Simmons wrote this song. This song achieved worldwide achievements. This song spent a record breaking thirteen weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It also won Grammys for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and Best R&B song. “It is ranked as the 6th most successful song of the 1990-99 decade.
Methodology
Generic Criticism is a practice within rhetorical criticism for exploring artifacts in terms of their genre: “the set of generic expectations, conventions, and constraints that guide their production and interpretation.” Generic Application is the type of analysis that is going to be exhibited. According to Foss (2008), “Generic Application is the process of using the description of the genre to determine if the artifact is a good or poor example of the genre” …show more content…
The definition of Contemporary R&B music is “components of blues, soul, pop, and hip-hop, and dance”. CITATION. This genre has many essential elements that are blended together to bring R&B to life. The song also would be put in a subcategory of R&B breakup songs. An R&B breakup song has the basic contemporary R&B elements along with lyrics focused on ending relationships. The situational requirement is that it must be break up song, which this song is. The substantive and stylistic strategies, and organizing principles that are needed to incorporate contemporary R&B are showed in this song. For example, the fact this song best R&B song at the Grammys gives proof that is in fact this type of Genre. The specific lyrics in the song, “Right now, I’m just in so much pain, baby… ‘Cause you just won’t come back to me…Will you? Just come back to me” gives evidence that this is a breakup song, which qualifies this for the sub-category of R&B breakup songs. This song and also with the two other songs provided show different types of R&B breakup songs. These two other songs provided clearly represent this genre, but the song End of the Road goes above and beyond in exemplifying the characteristics of R&B breakup songs. For example, previously stated in the description of the song provided earlier, the song was labeled 6th best song for the entire decade of the 90’s. Anytime was also written in this decade