Neo-Soul is a term captured by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990’s. The music has a very distinguished and less conventional sound then R&B. Its music is made up of soul, jazz, jazz fusion, funk, pop, r&b and quiet storm. Developed in the late 1980’s-90’s as a “Revival” movement neo- soul still today have the same mind provoking lyrics that tells a story or gives an opinion shared by many. No matter of your race, sex or religion when you listen to neo-soul it will give you an immediate understanding of what it is that artist is trying to convey to his audience. The neo-soul music is just as diverse as the people that listen to it. Its followers are made up of a melting pot of different cultures, backgrounds and influences.
Now we all know that it just wouldn’t be the entertainment industry if there wasn’t any controversy and neo-soul do come with its share. There are some people that believe that labeling any style of music may imply or send a message that one genre of music is ending. This has been the main problem for neo-soul music, some artist as well as fans thinks that neo-soul has replaced or is trying to replace soul music and the two couldn’t be any more different. Once you know the artist then it will be easier for you to recognize the genre. When you think of soul music you imagine artist like Aretha Franklin, Patty Labelle and Barry White oppose to neo-soul artist such as Arykah Badu, Maxwell and Prince. Some people would never know that Prince is categorized as neo-soul. Soul music and R&B are very different but you could not have one without the other. People have pretty much accepted neo-soul and it is definitely here to stay.
All of the elements that I spoke of make up the Neo-Soul community which is