But it doesn’t take much digging to find that the roots of the genre are firmly planted in Black, brown and LGBTQ+ communities. Many young Black people have accepted this status quo. House has, after all, become synonymous with whiteness, with its figureheads still being mostly white, male DJs, and electronic music festivals such as Creamfields and super clubs such as Ministry of Sound still pulling in largely white audiences, though the same can also be said for most music festivals. This seemingly sudden enthusiasm for house music might at first seem random, or even cynical, if you are to believe the critics. Sure, both had flirted with house in the past – Drake on the top-10 charting Passionfruit, and Beyoncé with Formation, which hinted at New Orleans house offshoot genre bounce, but had largely steered clear, until now. Part of the criticism is rooted in fact: both have chosen to centre a genre that isn’t typically associated with our current perception of commercially successful Black music. Unsurprisingly, this shift in tone by two global powerhouses of R&B and hip-hop has attracted heavy criticism, with the artists being accused of pandering to white tastes – and pockets. But this single offered something new – an unmistakeable hark back to 90s house. Her critically acclaimed 2016 album Lemonade featured some songs that entered new territory – take the country-tinged single Daddy Lessons – but on the whole, it was firmly anchored in the kind of R&B that has been popular and chart-topping for the past decade. It’s been hard to nail down Beyoncé’s sound in recent years. But instead, another curveball: track after track of deep house beats.Ī few days later, Beyoncé teased her new single, Break My Soul, featuring the distinctive bassline of the house classic Show Me Love by Robin S. Fans had hoped for a return to the sounds he made famous: conventional, bassy, euphoric hip-hop tunes to brood to agonised lyrics that would be the mainstay in Instagram captions for the rest of the summer. Its release, just nine months after his last record, Certified Lover Boy, received lukewarm reviews from critics, was unexpected. T his week, Drake treated fans to a surprise drop of his new album Honestly, Nevermind.
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