Replaceable

"Nobody but nobody (and/or Keyshia Cole) competes with Blige as queen of 'organic,' in-the-trenches R&B. But what that quote reveals, mostly, is the gap between the Gen-Xers running nineties music and pop’s modern age, driven by millennials like Beyoncé. The nineties grew skeptical of the formal craft of show business, delighted in dressed-down rawness, quirk, and grit. Pop today seems to share much in common with the generation listening to it: It’s driven, hypercompetent, sensitive to public scrutiny. (Maybe it was overscheduled and helicopter-parented as a child.)"

Nitsuh Abebe in New York discusses the "Winter of Beyoncé."