Over the past decade or so, the R&B genre has been depreciated by a slew of gimmicky, no soul watered down artist leading to a huge drop in sales for the already suffering music industry. After the likes of Anthony Hamilton, D'Angelo, Maxwell and others came and took steps back. The genre immediately went on life support. Now some old and new artists are pumping life back into the music and Paper Magazine is shedding light on one of the major players in this revival. Miguel who had a small identity crisis issue when he first came on the seen, has finally found his sound and image and has been dominating music charts and stages and is showing no signs of slowing down.
he mononymous, pompadoured singer -- who regularly shops at Opening Ceremony and loves Alexander Wang T-shirts -- is making it very chic to be an R&B star. The same slick sexiness and subtle flair that shapes his wardrobe -- which on the day we meet at a Venice beach wine bar consists of a black leather zipper-neck Saint Laurent shirt and loads of silver rings and bracelets from U.K. rock 'n' roll jeweler the Great Frog ("I'm into silver. It has a more understated way about it.") -- also defines his sound. Miguel, whose swagger rivals Prince's and D'Angelo's, is one of the few artists on the pop charts keeping slowed-down, slow-dancing R&B alive in a music-scape where rap and club bangers are easier for labels to make into quick hits. Drawing on crunchy rock 'n' roll riffs, shimmering pop hooks, hip-hop beats and ambient synths, his music -- a decidedly cool, modern take on the sort of smooth FM sound that conjures soft-focused candlelit love scenes -- is expansive enough to reach indie fans, and catchy enough to explode into Top 40 radio. "I really wanted to stretch musically on this song, not only sonically but structurally, and just kind of remind people that R&B has no boundary," he says on the track commentary for Kaleidoscope Dream. "There's no rulebook to how R&B is supposed to sound." His voice can flip seamlessly from a cool falsetto to yearning soul belts, winning him frequent comparisons to Marvin Gaye, while his lyrics evoke an emotional complexity rarely heard in his home genre. "What I'm trying to say with my music is, 'You don't have to pretend,'" he explains. "'Say what you mean.'"
