What is Neo-soul?

Neo-soul is a genre of popular music that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This genre is often characterized by its smooth, jazzy vocals, funky basslines, and soulful lyrics.

A brief history of neo-soul

The history of progressive soul (as it is called sometimes) can be traced back to the late 1980s when artists such as D’Angelo, Maxwell, and Erykah Badu began to experiment with a more jazz-influenced sound. These artists were influenced by the work of classic soul artists such as Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin, as well as by the emerging acid jazz scene.

Characteristics

Neo-soul is typically characterized by its smooth, jazzy vocals, funky basslines, and soulful lyrics. Tracks of the genre often feature live instrumentation and samples of classic soul recordings.

Maybe not the perfect example of my beats, but check out New Day, released on one of my previous LPs. I sampled vocal chops here (woman singing actually). I quite liked the mix. It fairly changed the vibe of the LP as well. Give it a spin below:

By the way, they are my Tokyo bootleg videos from 2019. If you wish to find more, search for ‘Tokyo’ at the bottom of the page.

Sub-genres of neo-soul

There are many different subgenres, including:

So the literature says. Personally, I wonder if we can call them sub-genres of neo-soul. I believe it is more of a fusion that happened there. Of course, I am no expert on jazz history, but some of the listed genres are pretty different, I believe the core (jazz and soul), that serves as a base, they were all built on.

That would be my short and brief article. If you wish to read more about other areas, such as etymology or the latter decline of the genre in the early 2000s, click on the link above. Or simply drop a comment below.

My aim with this article was to give a quick overview and offer some artists if you are interested in this genre. From my perspective, the genre is more like an inspiration. I rarely use vocal chops as part of Latte Chill project, though listening to the artists above, maybe I should… 🙂

Originally published at https://lattechill.com on February 7, 2024.