The last half-decade has been a transitional one for contemporary R&B. One of the dominant...

Applause comes easy to Usher. Wednesday night he earned most of his cheers through his demanding footwork, but ovations followed him pretty much no matter what he did. Banter with the crowd? That’s a cheer. Hump the mic stand? Even bigger cheer. Flash his abs? Those ensuing shrieks from that move must have turned heads...

R&B crooner Usher flirted with fame throughout the ’90s, marketed as a teen-friendly alternative to R. Kelly, but it was his 2004 blockbuster Confessions, the second-best-selling album of the 2000s, that cemented his...

Of all the teenage R&B singers spawned by the ’90s, none proved themselves more enduring than Usher, who would go on to become the best-selling singer of the 2000s. A generation of R&B fans watched Usher grow up, maturing from fresh-faced kid with impeccable dance moves into a conflicted...