Van Morrison has described modern R&B as "very unrhythmic" and "very robotic".
In an interview with the London Times, Morrison said of his musical education: "I didn't grow up on Top of the Pops. It wasn't like, turn on the radio and get the Top 10. So that is where I am coming from - jazz, blues, folk, the beat thing."
He continued: "I can't relate to it now, what they call R&B. It doesn't have any rhythm in it. It doesn't have any blues.
"To me it is very unrhythmic. It's very robotic. Words take on different meanings after a while."
He added: "It's like soul: I don't know what that is now. To me, soul was like Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Bobby Bland, Solomon Burke, Bobby Womack. But what is it now? It is just a word. It can mean anything.
"What is jazz? Some of the stuff that they say is jazz, I don't know what it is. Blues also."
Morrison's new album, Duets: Re-working The Catalogue, is out now.
