The Weeknd’s mainstream breakout combines dark R&B with pop
By Evan Boyd | September 18When Abel Tesfaye dropped a few tracks in 2011 under the moniker “The Weeknd,” it was at a moment when R&B had a taken a turn for the weird. The sex factor so native to the genre was doubled — nay, quadrupled — in strange ballads, while any semblance of emotion was completely erased by ...