Staff Editorial: Ladies Sing the Blues

Whether they like it or not, every artist has a trademark. 

While she is widely known as the Queen of Hip Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige rose to fame in the early 1990s for more or less being the contemporary musical expression of the black female broken heart. 

Over the years, other black female singers, like Keyshia Cole, have continued in that tradition, singing the "down" but never "out" songs that empower us in our times of sorrow. However, as these artists experience life transitions, like marriage and family, that change their sentiments and perspective, these changes not only have an effect on their music, but also on the fans who love them for it.

Vibe Vixen recently ran an article asking: "Can Mary J. Blige and Keyshia Cole reach the same success singing happiness?" The answer to that question first depends on how one defines the term "success."

Can they sell equally as many or more albums than in previous years? Can they win more awards? Can they sell out concerts? Are they currently? As non-music statisticians, we don't know. If the question is whether or not they can have the same level of relatability and popularity with their fan bases, our general consensus is that they cannot.

As fans, we're happy that they're happy. We know their stories and we're proud of what they've overcome. (We didn't forget Frankie.) Still, we want to hear "Not Gon' Cry," not "Looking For Someone to Love Me" and "I Should Have Cheated," not…what was the name of Keyshia's last single?

Of course, they both have amazing love songs, so it's not even that they have to sing about the negative aspects of life or relationships.

They are both artists who are capable of being positive examples of women who have turned their lives around, but what happened to channeling the memories and passion into their music? (For Mary, a lot of these changes seem to have more to do with her blatant efforts to try to stay current than with any sort of state of personal bliss.) Ironically, as they have both gotten their affairs of the heart in order, "heart" seems to be exactly what is lacking from their more recent music.

At the same time, we know that we can't expect artists not to grow, and although we support their careers, it is not up to us to dictate their directions. If Mary was still doing exactly what she did in 1994, we'd be complaining about her lack of versatility. Keyshia would have been that wannabe-Mary one-hit wonder, which depending on your perspective…

  Hopefully, we've also grown as listeners. If so, we should not be satisfied to continuously receive the same type of music from them. Like our parents and grandparents, as much as we may be becoming nostalgic for the sentiments of the music of our past, the beauty of good music is that it is timeless. If we really want to hear old Mary or Keyshia (or Monica, or any other female anthem leaders going through transitional periods in their lives and music), we can just go play it.