As found on the Billboard charts and radio stations like New York's Hot 97, today's R-and-B mostly denotes a tight formula : single-string acoustic guitar licks over synthetic blipping beats like an Atari Pong game, the airbrushed vocals of a lead singer indignant over a sexual promise that's been withheld and a bland group of backup singers taking the chorus in unison while the leader sings sub-Stevie Wonder melisma.
