Comments on: Speakers you shall find

By: Russ L

Russ L — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:20:40 +0000

Only one extra step removed, I think. R'n'B + Britification whitification = Stones. R'n'B + gospel churchiness = soul, then soul + hip hop and/or modern dance-pop = modern R'n'B.

Obviously that's massively simplified.

This is also hugely off-topic so I'll shut up about it.

The idea of having a shouter seems amusingly quaint, somewhat like BHS itself in fact.

Few seem to remember that Sainsbury's Savacentre in Oldbury (there may be more elsewhere but I've never seen them) was originally co-owned by both Sainsbury's and BHS.

Although really that's off-topic too.

By: Jon Bounds

Jon Bounds — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:13:40 +0000

Ah, in my defence I was in a foul mood about the BHS thing. I'd still contend that both the early R'n'B you speak of and the British rhythm and blues copyists were part of one genre. What gets called rnb these days is a completely different style of music. It's like me inventing a sub-genre of donk and calling it baroque.

By: Russ L

Russ L — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:02:09 +0000

"and who said they could use ‘rnb’ as a genre? R’n'B is early Stones, early Who…"

That's a tired and silly trope, Jon, and usually used by people far beneath you. In terms of first useage, R'n'B "is" Fats Domino, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles etc. You might just as easily tell the old British bands that they can't use the name (admittedly they were only one step removed rather than two).

By: David

David — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:32:30 +0000

Always surprised that Philip Green has been so successful with TopShop, but has totally failed with BHS. The problem is it doesn't know who it is meant to be enticing through its doors…a bit like Littlewoods….it wants to be Marks and Spencers and can't admit it's Primark.