{"id":213690,"date":"2016-05-27T18:59:22","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T22:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/172.24.32.11\/daily\/2016\/05\/27\/open_line_friday_a_question_on_the_evolution_of_pop_and_r_b_music\/"},"modified":"2017-07-10T10:58:35","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T14:58:35","slug":"open_line_friday_a_question_on_the_evolution_of_pop_and_r_b_music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/05\/27\/open_line_friday_a_question_on_the_evolution_of_pop_and_r_b_music\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Line Friday: A Question on the Evolution of Pop and R&B Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Here\u2019s Edward, Washington, DC. \u00a0Great you called, Edward. \u00a0Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: \u00a0Hello, Rush. \u00a0Good afternoon, and happy Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

RUSH: \u00a0Thank you, sir. \u00a0Same to you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: \u00a0Thank you very much. \u00a0Hey, Rush, I want to kind of turn away from politics if I could and ask you a question that I\u2019ve been really kind of dying to ask you for a long time. And it has to do with your career as a disc jockey when you started out your career in radio. \u00a0You know, one thing I have noticed — and it has to do just specifically about music, I\u2019m curious, my question is, what has happened to the quality of pop and R&B music that was present in the late sixties and early seventies that has never been able to be reproduced in pop and R&B music since that time?<\/p>\n

The people I\u2019m speaking of are like Al Green, the Detroit Spinners, Stylistics, there is that kind of great period of music that still endeared to this day, and it\u2019s my belief that pop music has never reached that height anymore. \u00a0And I even see that reflected in comments from younger people that I hear who are acquainted with that music that you used to spin, but they say, “I wish I could have grown up in that era. I just wish we had that kind of music.” \u00a0There\u2019s just not those types of names like Barry White anymore. And I\u2019m curious, I have a theory on it, but I\u2019m curious from your point of view, as someone who was in that arena, why that is.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: \u00a0Well, you know, a lot of this is generational. \u00a0My parents, when the Beatles hit, were asking, “Why aren\u2019t there people like Frank Sinatra anymore?”<\/p>\n

CALLER: \u00a0Yes. \u00a0Yeah.<\/p>\n

RUSH: \u00a0So part of this is just generational. \u00a0You\u2019re specifically asking about R&B and how did it morph from that to hip-hop and rap?<\/p>\n

CALLER: \u00a0Yeah, and, you know, that is like a classic, you know, when you — Al Green, you know, it\u2019s like a classic R&B.<\/p>\n

RUSH: \u00a0Oh, yeah, the artists. There\u2019s Roberta Flack. There\u2019s Donny Hathaway.<\/p>\n

CALLER: \u00a0Right.<\/p>\n

RUSH: \u00a0There\u2019s James Ingram. \u00a0There is any number of them.<\/p>\n

CALLER: \u00a0How about the recently deceased Billy Paul?<\/p>\n

RUSH: \u00a0Oh, yeah, Billy Paul. \u00a0Billy Paul had one of the greatest versions of Your Song.<\/p>\n