Thankfully, some refreshing sounds have bubbled up through the miasma. Their source: a new style of soul and R&B–dubbed “neo-soul”–that rose up from grassroots clubs rather than music industry boardrooms and opts for using live instruments as well as cutting-edge hip-hop techniques. Granted, soul has usually been associated with the long-gone Motown era, and R&B has come to mean too slick, too sappy, too overproduced. But these new artists are reviving and reclaiming the styles. Macy Gray, D’Angelo and Jill Scott–who released albums in 1999 and 2000–relied on artistry and personality rather than high-priced record company promotion to succeed. Their music first caught on with underground urban audiences and eventually crossed over to more daring mainstream listeners starved for something substantial.
Res, India.Arie, Nikka Costa, Alicia Keys and Bilal have also joined the organic soul revival, with socially aware and emotive lyrics (a la Marvin Gaye) and melodic, funky and even acoustic melodies and grooves. All have released albums in the past five months. Most have honed their skills by either playing the tight club circuit around Philly–an epicenter of sorts for neo soul–or working with independent labels or as backup singers. In the case of Jill Scott, Gray, India.Arie and Res, word spread and eventually major labels picked up their albums. These days, Macy Gray is a big name and India.Arie’s single “Video,” with its empowering lyrics (“Keep your silicon, I prefer my own, what God gave me is just fine”), sits nestled between videos by the surgically augmented ‘Lil Kim and Britney Spears on MTV. Meanwhile, Alicia Keyes is eclipsing Janet Jackson on the Billboard charts.
The grass-roots approach of this genre has enabled women to work outside the very confining and demeaning parameters of MTV culture, which tends to fit them into one of two molds–malleable teen cutie or nasty hoochie mama. The resulting individualism lends a much deeper appeal to the music and an honesty to the movement. These women’s voices are some of the strongest in successful contemporary music.
In the next few months, there are plans for even more soulful offerings: a debut by charismatic jazz-soul crooner Lina and follow-up albums by Angie Stone and Macy Gray. Who knows? With so many albums coming up, neo soul/R&B could be the dominant sound of 2002. If you want to prepare for the impending revolution, here is a list of this year’s offerings, as well as some up-and-coming releases:
ALREADY RELEASED
