This has nothing to do with R&B sounding "dated." Relationship drama (i.e. courtship, romance, breakup's, makeup's and sex) from a sassy and urban-esque perspective have always been key themes of R&B/Soul, going all the way back to the days of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, The Drifters, etc. And there's no reason that should change. These are universal subjects that everyone can relate to, so acting as if these are stale topics to still be singing about makes no sense. What the hell else are artists supposed to be singing about? Dated, my behind. Pop and country stars sing about the same damn things too! As someone else said, that's merely an excuse to justify or sweep the much uglier issue as to why R&B is being cold-shouldered under a rug. --- To add perspective to all this, R&B has ALWAYS had less of an immediate overall mainstream audience than Pop. R&B artists (on average) have ALWAYS sold less than their Pop counterparts. That's nothing new. Furthermore, music sales are down across the board for all genres and styles. It isn't just R&B and Hip Hop fans downloading what they can get for free instead of paying for it. That's a problem for the entire industry. Thanks to the Internet, the industry is the midst of crisis, and so more than ever they're clinging to, promoting and mass producing what they think they can still make a profit from: pop; while neglecting what they think won't (in this case R&B.) Meanwhile, the oblivious general public just gets behind what they are exposed to in large quantities. Most people don't go searching for alternatives. Unfortunately, this is all happened during a generational shift, which means that people born post-1990 are blindly accepting what's been happening over the past hand ful of years. So, unlike the 25 and up crowd, they don't question why R&B is on the backburner, go searching for it or even really relate to it because it wasn't what the industry was mass producing during their coming of age. --- R&B artists don't need to radically their sound, nor does the genre need to be overhauled to the point where it becomes something else. That's crazy. That's like asking Wes Craven to write a family-friendly script for Disney. What artists like Tank, K. Michelle, Keyshia Cole, Brandy, Monica, etc., etc. need to do is open their eyes, see what's going on, learn to work smarter and assemble better, tighter-knit, more creative and shrewd teams that are savvy enough to play the industry at its own game. Don't depend of a record labels promotions department to do right by you, because they won't. You can't just be a singer/performer anymore, now more than ever they've got to get better at manipulating and outwitting the system for their own benefit. If they do a good enough job that creates a big enough buzz in their favor, then the fickle industry will come around to their side. But fairness and good will are illusions, and the days of a record label taking care of its (black) artists from the start are obviously done. It's not fair that this racist bias is in place against black artists, but it is. If these R&B artists tighten up their hustle and learn to become better Chess players, they'll see more success. If they're just gonna record what they think is good music, sit and wait for it to be properly handled by the higher up's, then get frustrated when that doesn't happen, then they may as well just go work at a Karaoke bar. Tank needs to get off his butt and meet with some sharper managers, agents, publicists and attorneys who can do a better job than whoever has been running his show.