OPO: New Jack Swing

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Anyone citing anything Bobby Brown will get dealt with real quick (well, you can if you want, but do you really want to?). Preference is given to anything early, like before '88.

― Dan I., Tuesday, 11 February 2003 04:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Al B Sure "Off on your own" (o, wait, that should be on the masturbation thread)

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 04:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Clearly "Can I Talk To You" by Jodeci. *Swoon*

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 04:33 (twenty-three years ago)

GUY! GUY!! GUUUUUUUYYY!!!!

sorry.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 07:29 (twenty-three years ago)

"Teddy's Jam"

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 07:44 (twenty-three years ago)

o yeah, GUY: the future (forget my AlBSure vote)

― gaz (gaz), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 09:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Preference is given to anything early, like before '88

even though it didn't start till like 92

― schnell schnell, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 13:31 (twenty-three years ago)

anyway, CLEARLY 'no diggity'

― schnell schnell, Tuesday, 11 February 2003 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

poison

― minna (minna), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 13:36 (twenty-three years ago)

johnny kemp - just got paid.

― michael wells (michael w.), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 17:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Keith Sweat - "I Want Her"

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 17:28 (twenty-three years ago)

schnell - you clearly have no idea what new jack swing is.

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 17:35 (twenty-three years ago)

the problem is it was only NAMED thereabouts 92 but rilly was intended to describe something which had existed for some years already and was just about on its way out.

I think blackstreet really ushered in a post-new-jack era with a fundamentally different attitude towars incorporation/fusion of hip-hop and R&B.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 20:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Rolling Stone's article on Bobby Brown, summer 89 - "King of the New Jack Swing"; and you know Rolling Stone didn't coin the term.

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 20:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Sterling is as ever OTM. except that 'No Diggity' was the end of new-jack to me (as opposed to usher-ing in a new post-new-jack era).

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 20:25 (twenty-three years ago)

didn't new jack swing die around 92 due to Guy breakup / Bobby Brown followup flopping, but due especially to Dr. Dre (and R. Kelly to an extent) changing up r&b radio enough to yield thing like the ill-fated BBD followup?

anyhow, throw the Winans' "It's Time" on the pile, and if New Jack Swing (which sound more and more like an outgrowth of the Jam and Lewis sound in addition to the r&b reaction to hip-hop) hasn't aged as well as I thought it would (ie "Every Little Step" doesn't sound as good as I thought it did in 89) it still marks the moment when r&b radio was forced to finally play hip-hop (and not just at night).

― James Blount (James Blount), Tuesday, 11 February 2003 20:26 (twenty-three years ago)

seven months pass...

can i pick three? guy - wanna get with you, r. kelly - she's got the vibe, tony toni tone - it feels good.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Monday, 29 September 2003 08:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Anything from the "East Coast Family" - Boyz II Men, Another Bad Creation, Bel Biv Devoe. Strictly for junior high school dance nostalgia.
Does anyone else remember when they showed all the different bands in that one Bel Biv Devoe video, and they flashed a clip of an all-white sort of proto "boy band" called "Sudden Impact"? They never came out with anything!
So, yeah, all that stuff. The rest? Let me quote Ice Cube: "You can New Jack Swing on my nuts!"

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Monday, 29 September 2003 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

ABC!!!! damn i'd forgot about them.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Motownphilly back again...

― adaml (adaml), Tuesday, 30 September 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

eighteen years pass...

This one is easily in the top 3, I think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB54dZkzZOY

― Punster McPunisher, Monday, 16 May 2022 04:48 (four years ago)

classic as they come

― corrs unplugged, Monday, 16 May 2022 06:50 (four years ago)

classic for sure, but not New Jack Swing. Soul II Soul were from the same era, but theirs was a different type of r&b, sound and (crucially) beat-wise.

This blurb (which may or may not be self-written by the band) focuses on this as well:

At a time when the highly mechanized sound of new jack swing was dominating contemporary R&B, the group — led by producer, songwriter, and occasional vocalist Jazzie B — found a way to synthesize breakbeat-driven hip-hop and house music with the elegant dancefloor R&B of disco-era groups such as Barry White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra, MFSB, and Chic.

...and it doesn't even mention the crucial reggae element in their sound.
check out Maxi Priest's US number one "Close To You" from the same period to test your definition of New Jack Swing in relation to the Soul II Sound sound.

― butt-mooning is a polysemous word, hoss! (breastcrawl), Monday, 16 May 2022 08:52 (four years ago)

Also, Soul II Soul is British and New Jack Swing was an American phenomenon. Soul II Soul is in the UK neo-soul lineage that produced trip-hop.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 16 May 2022 12:43 (four years ago)

yeah it's not the new jack swing beat

was never the biggest new jack swing fan tbh, or that is to say, I never really got it... remember getting very into 90s/00s r&b and NJS and Teddy Riley seemed like the originators but I was much more interested in Timbaland, She'kspere, Neptunes, couldn't really make the connection

― corrs unplugged, Monday, 16 May 2022 12:52 (four years ago)

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