Awesome Fresh R and B Artist You Will Love
April 16th, 2009 by Classical Music Expert
There’s a brand new R&B artist who just came into public view who makes hot new music, and he is reconfiguring everyone’s notions of what pop, R&B, or radio friendly music should be like. Traditionally, pop music has been considered fun fluff - meaning, it’s like cotton candy. Enjoyable and fun for the moment but not what would be thought of as substantial or meaningful.
It mostly is about one or two ubiquitous topics, like falling in love or out of it, and it utilizes about fifty words that rhyme that show up in the millions of songs put out by the hundreds of singers that all sound precisely the same (think “love” and “above” - you get the idea). This is the kind of music you would use if you had a personal trainer certification and teach an aerobics class. On the opposite extreme, you have what could be described} as serious music. This would describe types of music like classical or jazz, or even lyrically clever and more grown up style bands like Dave Matthews band. This genre is awesome, but is rarely thought of as fun, or the type of music that would make you want to get up and dance. There’s serious music and then there’s fun music - and never the twain shall meet. Until now.
With his hit single Big for Me, Jd Webb is shifting those ideas and categories around. When I was first given Webb’s single to review as a niche marketing webmaster with many music sites, honestly, I was thinking it would be your typical R&B dance jam. “I give it a 10, it’s got a good beat, you can dance to it,” type of music. And Big for Me definitely is danceable fun for your iPod or for the club, to be sure. But it also explores a deeper concept. It’s not just about that heady sensation of first attraction - it’s about a protagonist who is surprised when seeing himself making changes in his life to accommodate his love interest and be more conducive to their life together. It’s not how he usually acts, which is the reason he says, “That’s Big for Me.”
The song starts with the concept of falling in love and explores it on a level that is deeper and more interesting than the surface. And anyone that’s been in love will say that the feelings on that level of love are equally as overwhelming and exactly as awesome as initial attraction - actually, more so! In the same way, Webb’s music has started with the Pop genre and explored it on a level that’s deeper and more interesting. And, exactly like love itself, that’s made it so much fuller and richer - and infinitely better.