Neo-soul developed during the 1980s and early 1990s in the United States and the United Kingdom as a soul revival movement. It earned mainstream success during the 1990s with the commercial and critical breakthroughs of several artists including D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell. Their music was marketed as an alternative to the producer-driven, digitally approached R&B of the time, although many of them were ambivalent about the term, preferring to identify as soul artists.
The term “neo-soul” was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg of Motown Records during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contemporary R&B. Though some say the genre originated in the mid-90s with the work of Raphael Saadiq's former band, Tony! Toni! Toné! and D'Angelo’s 1995 album debut "Brown Sugar." Heavily based in soul music, neo-soul is distinguished by a less conventional sound than its contemporary R&B counterpart with incorporated elements ranging from funk, jazz fusion, hip hop, and African music to pop, rock, and electronic music. The genre is also known for having deeper lyrics than mainstream R&B and a much stronger presence of women artists.
