THe hiSToRy of Neo SouL,,,

1980s–1990s

Neo soul's musical development occurred during the 1980s through to the early 1990s with the work of musical acts such as Prince, Tony!Toni!Toné!, Terrence Trent D'Arby, Joi, and Mint Condition, whose music deviated from the conventions of most contemporary R&B at the time. Influential to neo soul, UK act Sade achieved success in the 1980s with music that featured a sophisti-pop style, incorporating elements of soul, pop, smooth jazz, and quiet storm. Other British progenitors of the neo soul movement at the time included Omar Lye-Fook, Young Disciples, D'Influence, Urban Species, Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies, Soul II Soul, and Carleen Anderson.

During the early 1990s, the neo soul movement continued to grow with releases by Zhané, Dionne Farris, Groove Theory, Tony Rich, and Meshell Ndegeocello. The commercial breakthroughs of D'Angelo's Brown Sugar (1995), Erykah Badu's Baduizm (1997), Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (1996), and Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) have been credited by writers with helping to shape and raise the neo soul movement to commercial visibility during the late 1990s. Lauryn Hill's debut album was one of neo soul's primary successes, achieving massive sales, critical acclaim, and five Grammy Awards. Both Hill's and Badu's successes helped pave the way for such female neo soul artists as Angie Stone, Jill Scott, India.Arie and Alicia Keys. According to music journalist Greg Kot, musical collective Soulquarians, consisting of such artists as D'Angelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Mos-Def, Common, James Poyser, and Q-Tip, contributed significantly to the neo soul movement during the late 1990s to the early 2000s with its members' "organic soul, natural R&B, boho-rap". Following a minor decline in its hype, neo soul's mainstream popularity increased in the late 1990s as it impacted more mainstream-oriented R&B radio, while influencing contemporary R&B acts to incorporate some of its textural and lyrical elements. In his song "When a Woman's Fed Up" (1998), R&B artist R. Kelly incorporated a more soul-based sound and referenced Erykah Badu's "Tyrone" in the lyrics.

2000s

Since 2000, artists such as Jill Scott, Alicia Keys, John Legend, India Arie, Nicole Atkins, Musiq Soulchild, Sy Smith, Eric Roberson, Dwele,Goapele, Omar Lye-Fook, Eric Benet, Platinum Pied Pipers, Erykah Badu, Bilal Oliver, Raphael Saadiq, Amy Winehouse, Tweet, Noora Noorand Kem, etc., maintain Neo Soul. Recent major neo soul artists also include Dwele, Lucy Pearl, Floetry, Glenn Lewis, Res, Anthony Hamilton, Bilal, Hill St. Soul, Rahsaan Patterson, Stephanie McKay, Malina Moye, Emily King, Raheem DeVaughn, Gnarls Barkley, Sy Smith, Joss Stone, Ledisi, Cleveland, Ohio's Conya Doss, Cincinnati-Bred artists Ja'Meze & the Spoken word soul collective Shades of J, Big Brooklyn Red, Antonia Jenae, The Square Egg, Britain's Julie Dexter, Laurnea, N'Dambi, Gaelle, Rachael Bell, Joy Denalane, Aya, Divine Brown, Asa, Lady Seoul (AeKyung Yoo) and Angela Johnson.

Many indie soul artists are hardly known at all except within a certain geographic region like Conya Doss from Ohio, etc. Some artists have garnered exposure on the music video channels MTV2 and VH1 Soul, while others like Maxwell, Erykah Badu and D'Angelo, are known by mainstream America through Major Label promotions (Radio/Tv/Print Media), and live appearance such as D'Angelo's performance on VH1'sMen Strike Back 2000 and Badu's role in the movie Blues Brothers 2000. D'Angelo's critically acclaimed 2000 album Voodoo has been recognized by many critics as a masterpiece and the cornerstone of the neo soul genre. The New York Times writer Ben Ratliff 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". However, the 2000s decade later saw a decline in output by neo soul recording artists.

Music writer Tyler Lewis attributed the decline to "the downside of the rejection of the term ('neo soul')", writing that:

"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."

- Tyler Lewis -