R&B was experiencing a year of transition in 1983. Soul music was evolving into urban contemporary, R&B producers were becoming increasingly high tech, and horn funk was losing ground to synth-funk and electro-funk. Also, the hip-hop factor could not be overlooked -- some old-timers insisted that hip-hop was a passing fad, but younger R&B producers realized that rap was becoming the music of choice for many young African Americans and paid close attention to hip-hop production techniques. Inevitably, all of these things affected
Cameo. Released in 1983,
Style is more high-tech than 1979's
Secret Omen or 1980's
Cameosis but not as high-tech as 1985's
Single Life or 1986's
Word Up! It is also an LP that finds singer/producer
Larry Blackmon leading a downsized
Cameo -- while the band had ten members at the start of the 1980s, it only has four on
Style:
Tomi Jenkins,
Charles Singleton,
Nathan Leftenant, and
Blackmon himself. (And by
Single Life in 1985,
Cameo would only be a trio.) Having cut way back on the horns on
Style,
Blackmon makes sure that keyboards and synthesizers play a major role on snappy funk items like "Cameo's Dance," "Aphrodisiac," "Slow Movin'," and the hit title song. On
Cameo's late-'70s albums, keyboards took a back seat to horns -- on
Style, it's just the opposite. Even on a remake of the standard "Can't Help Falling in Love" (a ballad that had been recorded by everyone from
Elvis Presley to
Doris Day),
Cameo is more technology-minded.
Style isn't among
Cameo's essential albums, but it's an enjoyable effort that will appeal to die-hard fans.