Neo-Soul Music Guide: 5 Notable Neo-Soul Artists

Neo-soul is a subgenre of contemporary R&B that merges the classic soul sounds of Stax and Motown Records with grooves borrowed from hip-hop, rock, funk, and electronic music. Major stars of the neo-soul movement like Alicia Keys, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, and Frank Ocean evoke the sounds of 1960s crooners like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and the Reverend Al Green.

From its late 1990s origins to the present day, neo-soul albums have been the most popular in all of R&B, and neo-soul songs enjoy ample representation on contemporary R&B playlists and radio stations.

For roughly fifteen years, the sounds of neo-soul dominated contemporary R&B music despite some artists rejecting the descriptor.

• Naming a movement: Music critics often credit Motown Records executive Kedar Massenburg with coining the term "neo-soul" in the late 1990s, and he used the term to market albums by artists like Maxwell, Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight, Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, and Lauryn Hill. The style that Massenburg described—smooth vocals and catchy melodies atop beats borrowed from hip-hop, funk, and rock—had been pioneered in the 1980s and early 1990s by artists like Tony! Toni! Toné! (as well as member Raphael Saadiq's solo efforts), Prince, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Terence Trent D'Arby.
• A fast rise: Neo-soul reached its commercial apex not long after Massenburg's proclamation. Records like Jill Scott's Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1, D'Angelo's Brown Sugar and Voodoo, Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Macy Gray's On How Life Is, Erykah Badu's Baduizm, and Black Star’s Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star each enjoyed massive sales in the period spanning from 1995 through 2000. Along the way, they also topped many critics' lists of the best R&B records.
• Giving way to other types of R&B: By the end of the 2000s, R&B and dance music pushed further in the direction of synthesizers and drum machines, and the throwback vocals and instrumentation of neo-soul lost a degree of cultural currency. Still, the neo-soul sound endures via artists like Anderson .Paak, the Roots, Questlove, Bilal, Anthony Hamilton, John Legend, Frank Ocean, Musiq Soulchild, and Floetry.

Neo-soul music is renowned for several key characteristics.

1. 1. Melodies evoking classic soul: Neo-soul music is built on the smooth vocals and catchy melodies of 1960s soul music. 1990s and 2000s vocalists like Jill Scott, D'Angelo, and Raphael Saadiq often evoke the singing prowess of 1960s stars like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, and Diana Ross.
2. 2. Contemporary grooves: The rhythm tracks of neo-soul music often consist of samples from hip-hop and funk. In some cases, they incorporate the digital sounds of electronic music.
3. 3. Live instrumentation: Unlike many other forms of popular music topping the Billboard charts, neo-soul music tends to feature live instruments alongside samples and drum machines. This sound is exemplified on D'Angelo's Voodoo, his second album and a touchstone of the early 2000s neo-soul music genre.

To dive into the genre, listen to the music of these notable neo-soul artists.

1. 1. D'Angelo: Singer-songwriter D'Angelo (born Michael Archer) is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary R&B artists. Early records like Brown Sugar and Voodoo fulfill the stylistic archetype of neo-soul, while 2014's Black Messiah pushed new stylistic and lyrical boundaries.
2. 2. Erykah Badu: Critics have called Erykah Badu both the "queen" and the "first lady" of the neo-soul movement, even though she has eschewed the terms. Her debut album, Baduizm, recalled the vocal style of Billie Holiday and the grooves of classic 1970s soul and funk.
3. 3. Jill Scott: Scott burst onto the contemporary R&B scene in 2000 with "A Long Walk," a single from her first album Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1. Four ensuing albums and a successful acting career have kept Scott a mainstay in twenty-first-century popular culture.
4. 4. Alicia Keys: Alicia Keys stands out among her vocalist peers for her prowess on multiple instruments—particularly the piano. She is best known for her first three albums, Songs in A Minor (2001), The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003), and As I Am (2007).
5. 5. Frank Ocean: A leading voice in contemporary neo-soul, Frank Ocean is a singer, rapper, songwriter, and producer. His 2012 debut album, Channel Orange, earned intense praise from music critics thanks to its incorporation of classic soul, funk, hip-hop, psychedelia, and mainstream pop. Ocean continues to be a prominent figure in both music and visual art.

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