What Happened To The Voices?

I was listening to some old school r & b on my way home from class and I was wondering what happened to the male r and b singers? Is it me or are their voices becoming weaker and weaker? I mean back in the day they had Rick James ( Fire & Desire is still the best duet ever made, I don't care what anyone says), Luther, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass, Peabo Bryson (Feel The Fire! What?!?), you get the point. Now it seems like all we have are a bunch of substitute teachers. I always figured that if I had the talent to sing well, I'd want to sing like Peabo Bryson... and I'd sing "I'm So Into You" to a girl and sweep her off her feet, hopeless romantic fantasies I know, but bear with me.

It seems that the caliber of voices has steadily gone down. I mean in the 90s we had Boyz 2 Men and Dru Hill, Brian McKnight, Babyface, Joe, Jodeci, Silk, R Kelly. They were our equivalents of Luther and them. However, as great as they were, our parents would tell us in a minute that they couldn't hold a candle to Stevie Wonder. Since the 90s, the talent has just considerably gotten worse. I'm not saying that the guys out now are bad singers, it just seems like theire voices aren't strong. Female vocalists still have powerful voices. We got Jennifer Hudson who has a great voice, Beyonce is a great singer when she's singing and not man bashing, Jazmine Sullivan is the new kid, but still can blow, Keyshia Cole is coming into her own, but people still question her talent, mary J is still putting in work. So the female side is still killing the r & b scene. Who do the men have out now that is decent? We have Musiq who's a great singer, Jamie Foxx who has a great voice, Ne-Yo, writes some of the best material, and John Legend who people think is bringing back that old school feeling, but I haven't really liked anything he's put out since his first album. Other than that we have a bunch of teenyboppers and swooners. Guys that can't sing great, but their looks keep the girlies squealing (Trey Songz, comes to mind, no homo).

So what is the problem? Is it the content? It can't be that because Rick James wrote about sex all the time (give it to me, super freak), so when people argue that the music has become mysogynistic...I say nah! The lyrics were more subtle back then, because Billy Paul wrote about having an affair with "Mrs. Jones" and I didn't know what the hell he was talking about for the longest time. Now the lyrics are more up front, is it because our generation has the vocabulary of a twelve year old? Or are songwriters just trying to appeal to a wider audience? I think that may be the problem, trying to appeal to a younger audience. No one makes grown and sexy music anymore.

Another theory is that male r & b artists don't have any soul anymore, they don't make you feel the music like the old schoolers did. That could be true, I find myself relating to the older music more than the new school music, but is that the lack of soul or me just growing up?

The sad part is that it's only on the male side that I'm feeling this contempt because I love Jazmine Sullivan, Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia, Jordin Sparks, Alicia Keys, and sometimes Beyonce and Keyshia Cole, when they're not man bashing. I feel their songs, but Trey, Chris Brown (Pre-battered woman), Omarion, Marques Houston, B5, Ruben, etc. I'm not feeling, maybe because they're not singing to me or about me, but then again neither was Luther(....I think) and I felt his music.

What do you guys think, is male r & b music declining or is it just me?