I maintain that genre is secondary to the writing of the song. If you find yourself with a set of lyrics or complete song that does not fit the mode you originally intended, bonus: you can write in other genres.

Much of the rock variations we listen to now descend from blues via rhythm and blues. Early rock’n’roll is also quite different from the rock music of the ’60s.

While rock has splintered into so many sub and sub-sub genres they resemble grains of sand. There are doubtless audiences now who aren’t aware what the band they’re patronising are classed as nor try to fit their music into one type or another.

It is of no more than curio value, possibly, that rock keeps reaching for ever more precise classification, r’n’b just seems to have broadened or simply leapt to encompass sounds and sensibilities quite different from one another.

Does anyone connect current r’n’b with that of Lee Dorsey?

I’m unlikely to be able to help you with Rihanna and have no interest in going anywhere near Chris Brown but you can see that many of the perennials and universals apply to this tendentious grouping: love, loneliness, job, money and the lack thereof, urban environment (sometimes contrasted with regional)

I think it’s fair to say that rhythm and blues – like blues before it – doesn’t do whimsy. The humour, should it come at all, is in realised situations, not idle fancy.

Nobody Knows My Hometown

Buried away in the back blocks the boondocks
way out the back of beyond
If you're looking to get out of the way
you'll find that's where I'm from

Nobody knows my hometown
They're never going to see it in their lives
Nobody knows my hometown

Not even satellites can capture those distant nights
Nothing but natural light
stare at the only stars to entertain us

Nobody knows no
Nobody knows
Nobody goes 
Nobody shows
my hometown

Nobody knows where I'm from