I listen to and keep up with current music of every format. I do enjoy some of it. It also gives me a perspective of how things have changed over the years. In the case of 60s-early 80s soul, the themes were often romantic (so common back then yet largely taboo today, read a book called "Shadow of The Rose" by Charles and Jennifer Upton about the death of romance in our culture), positive/uplifting, or social commentary. Today the themes in R&B tend to be raw sexuality, male dominance, crass materialism or "the club".
Seems to be all genres, as well as some of the people who play the older music who tend to be about raw sexuality, not necessarily male dominance, but definitely crass materialism and "the club". It also figures largely into the writing for television "sitcoms", which aren't even funny anymore. We are dealing with people who haven't a clue as to what they have missed, are missing, and will never get - and they will have one dreadfully difficult time of it when they are at the mercy of the generation that follows them. At least my generation is sufficiently solid, as is the generation of my parents, that we are not shaped by animalism. The following, by The Ray Charles Singers, would most certainly be a foreign language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlAFhl8IXzY
