| Neo soul | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | 1980s – early 1990s, U.S. |
| Other topics | |
Neo soul (sometimes calledprogressive soul)[1] is a genre ofpopular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneurKedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged fromsoul andcontemporary R&B. Heavily based in soul music, neo soul is distinguished by a less conventional sound than its contemporary R&B counterpart, with incorporated elements ranging fromfunk,jazz fusion, andhip hop, and topop,rock, andelectronic music. It has been noted by music writers for its traditional R&B influences, conscious-driven lyrics, and strong female presence.
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, includingD'Angelo,Erykah Badu, andLauryn 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 moreindependent means of marketing their music. In his bookThe Essential Neo Soul (2010), music journalist and culture critic Chris Campbell writes that, while the genre has been "woefully misunderstood and its artists mis-marketed", 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".[2] According toMark Anthony Neal, "neo-soul and its various incarnations has helped to redefine the boundaries and contours of black pop."[3]
By definition, neo-soul is a paradox. Neo means new. Soul is timeless. All the neo-soul artists, in various ways, perform balancing acts, exploring classic soul idioms while injecting a living, breathing presence into time-tested formulas. They humanize R&B, which has often been reduced to a factory-perfected product. Like sushi, neo-soul is fresh enough to be served raw.
As a term,neo soul was coined byKedar Massenburg ofMotown Records in the late 1990s as a marketing category following the commercial breakthroughs of artists such asD'Angelo,Erykah Badu,Lauryn Hill, andMaxwell.[5] The success of D'Angelo's 1995 debut albumBrown Sugar has been regarded by several writers and music critics as inspiration behind the term's origin.[5][6][7] While some artists have ignored the label, others have received the designation with controversy because it may seem contrived to music audiences and imply that soul music had ended at some point in time.[7] In a 2002 interview forBillboard, Massenburg said that genre classifications are often unpopular because they may be suggestive of a short-lived trend. However, although he said neo soul is still essentially soul music, Massenburg felt there was a need to market artists of the genre for listeners to have an understanding of what they were buying.[7]
In a 2010 article forPopMatters, 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."[8] Jason Anderson ofCBC News compares the etymology of neo soul to that of "new wave" and comments: "As imperfect as the term may be, 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."[9]
Despite some ambivalence from artists, the term received widespread use by music critics and writers who wrote about artists and albums associated with the musical style.[7][1] African American studies professorMark Anthony Neal has described neo soul as "everything from avant-garde R&B to organic soul ... a product of trying to develop something outside of the norm in R&B".[10] According to music writers, the genre's works are mostly album-oriented and distinguished by its musicianship and production, incorporating "organic" elements of classic soul music with the use oflive instrumentation, in contrast to the more single-oriented,hip hop-based, and producer-drivensampling approach of contemporary R&B.[7][11][12] Neo soul also incorporates elements ofelectronic music,[13]jazz fusion,funk,rap,gospel,rock,reggae, andAfrican music.[14] In her bookMusical Rhythm in the Age of Digital Reproduction, music author Anne Danielsen wrote that neo soul toward the end of the 1990s exhibited a musical development that was part of "a remarkable increase in musicians' experimentation with and manipulation ofgrooves at the microrhythmic level – that is, the level in played music that is usually understood in terms of phrasing and timing."[15]
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.[4][7][12]AllMusic calls it "roughly analogous to contemporary R&B."[17] Dimitri Ehrlich ofVibe 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".[4] 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.[18] Jason Anderson ofCBC 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."[9] Neo soul artists are often associated withalternative lifestyles and fashions, including organic food, incense, andknit caps.[19]
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.[5] In a 1998 article on neo soul,Time journalistChristopher John Farley wrote that singers such as Hill, D'Angelo, and Maxwell "share a willingness to challenge musical orthodoxy".[12]Miles Marshall Lewis commented that 1990s neo soul "owed itsraison d'être to '70s soul superstars likeMarvin Gaye andStevie Wonder", adding that "in concert, Erykah Badu and D'Angelo regularly coveredChaka Khan, theOhio Players, andAl Green, to make the lineage crystal clear."[20] In citingTony! Toni! Toné! as progenitors of the genre, Tony Green ofVibe 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".[21] Neo soul artists during the 1990s were heavily inspired by the eclectic sound and mellow instrumentation ofGil Scott-Heron's andBrian Jackson's collaborative work in the 1970s.[22]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 musicalRosetta stone for the neo-soul movement".[23]
Neo soul originated in the 1980s and early 1990s, with the work of musical acts such asPrince,Tony! Toni! Toné!,Terence Trent D'Arby,Joi,[24] andMint Condition, whose music deviated from the conventions of mostcontemporary R&B at the time.[4][7][12][21] Tony! Toni! Toné!-memberRaphael Saadiq later embarked on a solo career and produced various works of other neo soul artists.[25] Influential to neo soul, UK actSade achieved success in the 1980s with music that featured a smooth jazzy style ofpop rock calledsophisti-pop.[26][27] The band was part of a new wave of British R&B-oriented artists during the late-1980s and early 1990s that also includedSoul II Soul,Caron Wheeler,The Brand New Heavies,Jamiroquai, andLisa Stansfield.[28]AllMusic's Alex Henderson writes that, "Many of the British artists who emerged during that period had a neo-soul outlook and were able to blend influences from different eras".[28] Other British progenitors of the neo soul movement at the time includedYoung Disciples andOmar Lye-Fook,[29] the latter of whom has been cited as "the father of British neo-soul" and an influence on many future artists.[30]
According to Christopher John Farley, Prince had been "carrying a torch for neo soul for decades, refusing to make R&B that played by the rules or fit into comfortable formats. In the mid-'90s, he was suddenly joined by a host of other soul artists who also wanted to break boundaries".[31] American artists that further popularized this sound during the early 1990s includedZhané,Groove Theory, Joi,Tony Rich, andMe'Shell NdegéOcello.[1][32][33][34]
NdegéOcello's 1993 debut albumPlantation Lullabies was later credited as the beginning of neo soul;[35] according to Renee Graham ofThe Boston Globe, it was "arguably the first shot in the so-called 'neo-soul' movement".[36] The success of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s 1993 albumSons of Soul was also viewed as a precursor to the soul music revival in the mid-1990s.[37][38]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".[37] Allmusic editor Leo Stanley wrote that by the release of Tony! Toni! Toné!'s follow-up albumHouse of Music in 1996, "their influence was beginning to be apparent, as younger soul singer-songwriters like Tony Rich andMaxwell 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".[38]
A few hip hop groups are cited as well. Malcolm Venable ofVibe highlights the early work of hip hop bandThe Roots, who used live instrumentation, as a precursor to neo soul's commercial breakthrough in the mid-1990s.[39]Kierna Mayo, former editor-in-chief ofEbony, said thatalternative hip hop groupA Tribe Called Quest's early 1990s albumsThe Low End Theory andMidnight Marauders "gave birth to neo-everything ... That entire class of D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, and Lauryn Hill".[40]
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In 1995, former corporate marketer turned artist managerKedar Massenburg established the record label Kedar Entertainment Inc., through which he released the breakthrough neo soul recordings of artists such as Badu,D'Angelo, andChico DeBarge.[41] Music journalists have specifically credited the successes of D'Angelo'sBrown Sugar (1995), Maxwell'sUrban Hang Suite (1996), Badu'sBaduizm (1997), and Hill'sThe Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) with shaping and raising the neo soul movement to commercial visibility into the late 1990s.[5][1][17][42][43][44] According to Farley, D'Angelo's album "gives a nod to the past, ... mints his own sound, with golden humming keyboards and sensual vocals and unhurried melodies ... His songs were polished without being slick and smart without being pretentious", while Badu "brought an iconoclastic spirit to soul music, with her towering Afrocentric headwraps, incense candles, and quirky lyrics".[31]Baduizm sold nearly three million copies and won Badu twoGrammy Awards.[45] Hill'sMiseducation album featured her singing and rapping, with deeply personal lyrics,[31] and was one of neo soul's primary successes,[1] achieving massive sales, critical acclaim, and five Grammy Awards.[46] The 1997 filmLove Jones capitalized on neo soul's success at the time with itssoundtrack album, which impacted theBillboard charts and featured artists such as Hill, Maxwell, The Brand New Heavies,Me'Shell NdegéOcello,Groove Theory, andDionne Farris.[47][48]
After a brief marketing downturn, neo soul gained more mainstream popularity in 1999 with commercial successes by Hill, Maxwell,Eric Benét, Saadiq, andLes Nubians.[1] It impacted mainstream radio while influencing contemporary R&B acts, such asR. Kelly andAaliyah,[31] to incorporate some of its textural and lyrical elements.[1] 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.[1] Other female artists broke through with their debut albums, includingMacy Gray,Angie Stone, andJill Scott.[17][25] Although Scott's albumWho 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 bandThe 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".[49]
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the musical collectiveSoulquarians—consisting of such artists as D'Angelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu,Bilal,Mos Def,Common,James Poyser,J Dilla andQ-Tip—contributed significantly to the neo soul movement with whatGreg Kot described as its members' "organic soul, natural R&B, boho-rap".[50] The collective developed through the production work of The Roots' drummer and producerQuestlove.[39]
In 2000, D'Angelo released his second albumVoodoo, serving as a further alternative to the mainstream of late 1990s R&B and hip hop, as neo soul reached its apex in the new decade.[54] A production of the Soulquarians,[50] it was an exemplary creative milestone of neo soul.[9][55] Ben Ratliff ofThe New York Times called the album "the succes d'estime that proves the force of this new music: it is a largely unslick, stubbornly idiosyncratic and genuinely great album that has already produced two hit singles".[11] The year also saw Badu's second albumMama's Gun, by which time the singer had been dubbed by writers as "the queen of neo-soul",[45] although she said of the honorific title, "I hated that because what if I don't do that anymore? What if I change? Then that puts me in a penitentiary."[45] Scott's first albumWho Is Jill Scott? sold millions worldwide and proved one of the genre's significant releases.[56]
Other successful performers marketed as neo soul at this time includedBilal,Musiq Soulchild,India.Arie, andAlicia Keys, who broke through to broader popularity with her debut albumSongs in A Minor (2001).[4][17][57] According toAllMusic biographer Andy Kellman, although Bilal may have been the "one R&B artist for whom the neo-soul categorization seemed limiting", his 2001 debut album1st Born Second was an "exemplary" release for the genre and a top-10 R&B chart success.[58] Hip hop acts such as The Roots and Common, also associated with the Soulquarians,[50] released albums that incorporated neo soul:Phrenology (2002) andElectric Circus (2003).[25] Commenting on neo soul's hype,Daphne Brooks wrote in 2004, "The increasing attention paid to heavily hyped 'neo-soul' artists such asJill Scott andIndie.arie ... suggest[s] that cultural memory is now recognized as a marketable aesthetic strategy of expression in contemporary pop."[59]
The 2000s later featured a decline in output by neo soul artists,[8][60] with many of them failing to make a commercial impact after previous successes or not releasing a follow-up album.[47] Badu's commercial viability decreased as each of her releases following her debutBaduizm departed further from that album's music.[9] Hill followed-up her 1998 debut—considered the best-selling neo soul album—with a combative, confessional live album (2002'sMTV Unplugged No. 2.0) in which she expresses her misgivings about fame, and her recording career diminished soon after.[9] Melena Ryzik ofThe New York Times wrote in a retrospective piece on that "era of left-of-center black singer-songwriters", stating "many of them struggled to keep their creative momentum, conflicted about their early mainstream success."[45] Producer and Soulquarians member Questlove elaborated on the artists' regression from the mainstream, saying "I think most of us went through our psychosomatic, quasi-self-saboteur stage. Once we got that first taste of success, I think just the pressure of reacting got to all of us. Some of us released some of the craziest records of our career."[45] Other artists such as D'Angelo and Hill went on indefinite hiatus from the music scene.[9][45] Tyler Lewis fromPopMatters attributed the decline to "the downside of [the] rejection of the term ['neo soul']", going on to say:
The industry, which already has a hard time with unapologetic and complicated black artists, had no idea what to do with all these enormously talented individuals who rejected entire marketing campaigns designed to 'break' them to the record-buying public. As such, albums were shelved or delayed or retooled and artists were dropped from major labels and forced to go it alone, making the first decade of the 21st century the least 'soulful'—however you define it—decade for the industry itself in ... well, decades.[8]
The Boston Globe's Renée Graham wrote of the artists' ambivalence towards the term in a 2003 article on neo soul's standing, "Despite its critical success, if neo-soul had an initial failing, it was the media-created label itself – a term that the artists, whom it was meant to represent, generally rejected".[47] In a 2003 interview, music publicist John Constanza said that "The neo-soul movement is still there, but it's been underground, and it's trying to get the attention of the mainstream again".[47] Mark Edward Nero ofAbout.com stated, "In general, neo-soul has remained almost exclusive to R&B outlets such asurban radio andBlack Entertainment Television ... the majority of neo-soul artists have yet to crossover to mainstream American music listeners, partially because the music's sound generally focuses on artist expression, rather than popular appeal".[61]
After D'Angelo and Hill's withdrawal from the mainstream, Bilal appeared to be another artist from "the soul music vanguard" of the late 1990s and early 2000s to succumb to professional setbacks and fade from the public view, after his heavily bootlegged albumLove for Sale was shelved in 2006, although it developed anunderground following in subsequent years.[62] Smash Gordon, of theFabric club's blog, later called the leak "one of the biggest mysteries in neo-soul history".[63]
In the latter part of the decade, emerging artists such asHeather Headley,Anthony David,J Davey,Eric Roberson, andLedisi signed to independent soul labels and received exposure through independent retailers, neo soul-oriented web sites, college and public radio stations, city club venues, cable networks such asMusic Choice andBET J, and publishing deals as writers and producers for major label-recording artists.[64] Erykah Badu and Maxwell returned from their respective hiatuses and released well-received albums, herNew Amerykah albums and his 2009 albumBLACKsummers'night, and they subsequently toured together.[9][65][66]VH1 Soul's seriesSoulstage, which began in 2007, showcased new music by artists such as Badu, Jill Scott, India.Arie, Q-Tip, and Saadiq.[67][68]
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Since its original popularity, neo soul has been expanded and diversified musically through the works of both American and international artists.[11] The more popular neo soul artists of the 2010s included Scott, Maxwell,John Legend,Anthony Hamilton,Amy Winehouse,Chrisette Michele,Leela James, andRaheem DeVaughn.[25][61] DeVaughn has described himself as an "R&B Hippy Neo-Soul Rock Star", viewing it as a reference to his eclectic musical style.[69] In its 2010 issue on critical moments in popular music,Spin cited D'Angelo'sVoodoo and its success as a turning point for neo soul: "D'Angelo's pastiche of funk, carnal ache, and high-minded, Afrocentric rhetoric stands as neo-soul's crowning achievement. So unsurpassable that it'd be eight years before we'd hear from Erykah Badu and Maxwell again, while Hill and D'Angelo remain missing. But Alicia Keys, John Legend, andCee-Lo picked up D's mantle and ran with it".[60] Evan Rytlewski ofThe A.V. Club discerns "a line of revelatory, late-period neo-soul albums" with the releases of Maxwell'sBLACKsummers'night (2009), Badu'sNew Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) (2010), Bilal'sAirtight's Revenge (2010), andFrank Ocean'sChannel Orange (2012).[71] In the 2010s and 2020s, other neo soul acts includedTyler, The Creator,[72]Fitz and the Tantrums,[73]Mayer Hawthorne,[74]Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats,[75] Sol Chyld andAmos Lee.[76]
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 ofFloetry and the unapologetically assertive ofCity Girls … artful sexual empowerment"), Donovan ("avant-garde singer and instrumentalist … bedroom intimate vocals and [emotive] production"),Ari Lennox ("can makeTinder 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").[77]
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