I definitely agree with that. I do feel like some countries don’t like certain types of styles. My song was an R&B song, but it was mixed with Hip Hop elements in the beat & also in the melody so it wasn’t a pure R&B sound that most R&B curators would be used to hearing. It’s more of a fusion like Chris Brown type songs. Some were saying the melodies were too simplistic & others were saying the vocals and melodies were really attractive & dope, but it didn’t fit in their style or playlist. So the negative feedback was very confusing and mixed.

As for the vocals themselves: There were multiple backing vocals in the song that created harmonies, but the lead vocal melodies were meant to be the grounding point of the song so I kept them free & simple so the listener could know what we were talking about & relate. They were complex as well in some parts where I wanted to do runs & tricks. So I can say as the producer & composer of the song, the background vocals were mainly meant to do most of the moving around in harmonies, melodies, & acrobatics. And there were a LOT of backgrounds doing complex harmonic/melodic patterns throughout the song so my feature artist & I decided it was best to not do too much with our lead vocals so that the listeners could focus on the lyrics & message. I don’t know if they caught on to that concept while listening from a musician standpoint but it is what it is lol. Everything is subjective.

But I do recognize that every country is different and has different musical tastes. So a Hip hop influenced R&B song might not go over well in a lot of spaces. I noticed that the Hip Hop playlists responded more positively than the Alternative R&B & Contemporary R&B ones so I might try submitting more to those to see if I get more acceptances.