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Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul)Ross, Sean. " After a False Start, The Neo-Soul Genre Picks Up Steam on the Mainstream Track ". Billboard: May 8, 1999. Retrieved November 2, 2011. is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe the style of music that emerged from Soul music and contemporary R&B. Evolving from soul music, neo soul is distinguished by a less conventional sound than its contemporary R&B counterpart, with elements ranging from funk, jazz fusion, hip hop and rock music. It has been noted by music writers for its conscious lyrics.
Neo soul developed during the 1980s and early 1990s, by Black-Americans in the United States, as a soul revival movement. It earned mainstream success during the 1990s, with the commercial and critical breakthroughs of several artists, including D'Angelo, Maxwell, Erykah Badu, Aloe Blacc and Lauryn Hill. Their music was marketed as an alternative to the producer-driven, digitally approached R&B of the time, although many of them were ambivalent about the term.
Since its initial mainstream popularity and impact on the sound of contemporary R&B, neo soul has been expanded and diversified musically through the works of both American and international artists. Its mainstream presence declined during the 2000s, although newer artists emerged through more independent means of marketing their music. In his book The Essential Neo Soul (2010), music journalist and culture critic Chris Campbell writes that, while the genre has been "woefully misunderstood", there is "a historical and social relevance that validates its designation as the current face of alternative progressive soul music (in both underground and overground circles), complete with a distinct origin and developmental evolution". According to Mark Anthony Neal, "neo-soul and its various incarnations has helped to redefine the boundaries and contours of black pop."Neal, Mark Anthony (2003). " Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation ". Routledge: pp. 117–118. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
In a 2010 article for PopMatters, music writer Tyler Lewis said that neo soul has been received with much controversy: "Given the way black music has been named by (usually) outsiders ever since the blues, the reaction to the name by artists who ostensibly fit into the 'neo-soul' category represents a wonderful example of black self-determination in an industry that is still defiantly wedded to narrow definitions and images of black folks."Lewis, Tyler (September 28, 2010). Review: Airtight's Revenge . PopMatters. Retrieved September 28, 2010. Jason Anderson of CBC News compares the etymology of neo soul to that of "new wave" and comments: "neo-soul is still an effective tag to describe the mix of chic modernity and time-honoured tradition that distinguished the genre's best examples. Neo-soul artists tried to look both backward and forward, acting in the belief that a continuum might exist."
Noting that most of the genre's artists are singer-songwriters, writers have viewed their lyrical content as more "conscious-driven" and having a broader range than most other R&B artists. AllMusic calls it "roughly analogous to contemporary R&B.". AllMusic. Retrieved April 26, 2010. Dimitri Ehrlich of Vibe said that they "emphasize a mix of elegant, jazz-tinged R&B and subdued hip hop, with a highly idiosyncratic, deeply personal approach to love and politics". Music writers have noted that neo soul artists are predominantly female, which contrasts the marginalized presence of women in mainstream hip hop and R&B. Jason Anderson of CBC News called neo soul a "sinuous, sly yet unabashedly earnest" alternative and "kind of haven for listeners turned off by the hedonism of mainstream hip-hop and club jams." Neo soul artists are often associated with alternative lifestyles and fashions, including organic food, incense, and tuque.
According to music writer Peter Shapiro, the term itself refers to a musical style that obtains its influence from older R&B styles, and bohemian musicians seeking a soul revival, while setting themselves apart from the more contemporary sounds of their mainstream R&B counterparts. In a 1998 article on neo soul, Time journalist Christopher John Farley wrote that singers such as Hill, D'Angelo, and Maxwell "share a willingness to challenge musical orthodoxy".Farley, Christopher John. Music: Neo-Soul on a Roll. Time. Retrieved May 9, 2010. Miles Marshall Lewis commented that 1990s neo soul "owed its to '70s soul superstars like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder", adding that "in concert, Erykah Badu and D'Angelo regularly covered Chaka Khan, the Ohio Players, and Al Green, to make the lineage crystal clear." In citing Tony! Toni! Toné! as progenitors of the genre, Tony Green of Vibe viewed that the group pioneered the "digital-analog hybrid sound" of neo soul and "dramatically refreshed the digitalized wasteland that was R&B in the late '80s".Green, Tony. " Props: Tony! Toni! Tone! ". Vibe: 168. May 2003. Retrieved November 2, 2011. Neo soul artists during the 1990s were heavily inspired by the eclectic sound and mellow instrumentation of Gil Scott-Heron's and Brian Jackson's collaborative work in the 1970s.Bordowitz, Hank. " Gil Scott-Heron ". American Visions: June 1, 1998. Retrieved November 2, 2011. All About Jazz cited Jackson as "one of the early architects" of the sound and his early work with Scott-Heron as "an inspirational and musical Rosetta Stone for the neo-soul movement".
NdegéOcello's 1993 debut album Plantation Lullabies was later credited as the beginning of neo soul; according to Renee Graham of The Boston Globe, it was "arguably the first shot in the so-called 'neo-soul' movement". The success of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s 1993 album Sons of Soul was also viewed as a precursor to the soul music revival in the mid-1990s. Cheo Hodari Coker said in 1997 that the album "largely sparked the soul music revival that has opened the door for a new generation of singers who build on the tradition of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder".Coker, Cheo Hodari (January 12, 1997). Time to Jam—or Jam? – Los Angeles Times . Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 25, 2011. Allmusic editor Leo Stanley wrote that by the release of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s follow-up album House of Music in 1996, "their influence was beginning to be apparent, as younger soul singer-songwriters like Tony Rich and Maxwell began reaching the R&B charts. Like Tony! Toni! Toné!, Rich and Maxwell relied on traditional soul and R&B values of songwriting and live performances, discarding the synth-heavy productions of the late '80s and early '90s".Stanely, Leo (August 1, 2003). House of Music – Tony! Toni! Toné! | AllMusic: Review . Allmusic. Retrieved June 24, 2011.
A few hip hop groups are cited as well. Malcolm Venable of Vibe highlights the early work of hip hop band The Roots, who used live instrumentation, as a precursor to neo soul's commercial breakthrough in the mid-1990s. Kierna Mayo, former editor-in-chief of Ebony, said that alternative hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest's early 1990s albums The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders "gave birth to neo-everything ... That entire class of D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, and Lauryn Hill".
After a brief marketing downturn, neo soul gained more mainstream popularity in 1999 with commercial successes by Hill, Maxwell, Eric Benét, Saadiq, and Les Nubians. It impacted mainstream radio while influencing contemporary R&B acts, such as R. Kelly and Aaliyah, to incorporate some of its textural and lyrical elements. In Kelly's song "When a Woman's Fed Up" (1998), the singer incorporated a more soul-based sound and referenced Badu's 1997 song "Tyrone" in the lyrics. Other female artists broke through with their debut albums, including Macy Gray, Angie Stone, and Jill Scott. Although Scott's album Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 would not see release until 2000, she co-wrote and sang on "You Got Me" (the 1999 hit single by hip hop band The Roots) and received further exposure as a supporting performer on the band's tour that year. "Thanks to her stint on 'You Got Me' and subsequent live shows", Joel McIver wrote, "Scott can be credited as the first female artist to emerge in Erykah Badu's wake who could seriously claim to have challenged her superiority at the top of the neo-soul tree".
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the musical collective Soulquarians—consisting of such artists as D'Angelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Bilal Oliver, Mos Def, Common, James Poyser, J Dilla and Q-Tip—contributed significantly to the neo soul movement with what Greg Kot described as its members' "organic soul, natural R&B, boho-Rapping".Kot, Greg. " A Fresh Collective Soul? ". Chicago Tribune: 1. March 19, 2000. Retrieved November 2, 2011. The collective developed through the production work of The Roots' drummer and producer Questlove.
Other successful performers marketed as neo soul at this time included Bilal, Musiq Soulchild, India.Arie, and Alicia Keys, who broke through to broader popularity with her debut album Songs in A Minor (2001).Seymour, Craig (February 2002). " The Re-Energizers ". Vibe: 68–73. Retrieved November 2, 2011. According to AllMusic biographer Andy Kellman, although Bilal may have been the "one R&B artist for whom the neo-soul categorization seemed limiting", his 2001 debut album 1st Born Second was an "exemplary" release for the genre and a top-10 R&B chart success. Hip hop acts such as The Roots and Common, also associated with the Soulquarians, released albums that incorporated neo soul: Phrenology (2002) and Electric Circus (2003). Commenting on neo soul's hype, Daphne Brooks wrote in 2004, "The increasing attention paid to heavily hyped 'neo-soul' artists such as Jill Scott and India Arie ... suggests that cultural memory is now recognized as a marketable aesthetic strategy of expression in contemporary pop."
In August 2019, Okayplayer journalist Keith Nelson Jr. published a piece highlighting 11 recording artists who are "on the precipice of pushing neo-soul forward" into its third decade of existence: Steve Lacy ("cut from the abstract neo-soul cloth of Frank Ocean where you're just as likely to have a jam session as you are to hear philosophical quips"), Mahalia ("singer-songwriter, with honeyed vocals ... songs of love and anguish typically exist in narratives, similar to Jill Scott, who paved her path"), Adrian Daniel ("experimentation and vulnerability that is reminiscent of fellow Brooklynite Maxwell"), VanJess ("sister duo float between the soulful chemistry of Floetry and the unapologetically assertive of City Girls ... artful sexual empowerment"), Donovan ("avant-garde singer and instrumentalist ... bedroom intimate vocals and emotive production"), Ari Lennox ("can make Tinder plights sound rich with soul ... akin to Erykah Badu"), Marco McKinnis ("Anthony Hamilton meets D'Angelo ... hazy ambient sounds"), Baby Rose ("exquisitely guttural voice makes love palpable"), Kyle Dion ("a register so high it sounded like tearful begging"), Lucky Daye ("his love odes are imbued with a Raphael Saadiq-esque adventurousness"), and Iman Omari ("a faint Bilal tinge ... music that leans heavy on a jazz/hip-hop").
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