Quote:
Originally Posted by Gavin B.
The answer is yes. Modern day Soul/R&B artists like Janelle Monae, Alicia Keys, Eryka Baduh, Eli Reid, Frank Ocean, Jamie Lindell, Jazmine Sullivan, Mayer Hawthorne, Nenah Cherry, Jose James, Nicolette, Raphael Saadiq, Sharon Jones, and Seal have added elements of jazz, trip-hop, dance music, rap music and rock, but their music remains within the framework of classic soul music.
Modern day soul music is radically different from the classic sounds of Stax & Motown of the Sixties and very different from funk & disco music of Seventies R&B music.
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Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu are not "soul" artists. Erykah started off as a soul artist with "Badiusm" but her other albums after that have been very eclectic and hard to categorize. Janelle has always been eclectic. They do make soul music but I wouldnt call them "soul artists" because they experiment with many different genres. They are soul, rock, funk, hip hop, alternative, rap, jazz, blues, etc
Prince did alot similiar things in his music as well as other artists before them so I wouldnt call their the fusion of many genres "innovative"... creative? YES
Alicia Keys is just an R&B singer. Her first album was more "blues" than soul in my opinion but she seemed to have moved to a more pop sound with her R&B music
These bunch of artists specifically
Frank Ocean, Miguel, The Weekend etc They make alternative contemporary R&b. Frank is by no means a "soul" artist. He does display alot of emotion in his singing but I wouldnt call the type of music he makes "soul"
The reason why its radically different from the past is because most of these artists that are labeled "soul" are not soul artists. Most R&B artists are NOT just soul and alot of these artists experiment with other genres. There are not alot of new generational "soul artists" within the pop world.
A soul artist is someone like Anthony Hamilton or Amy Winehouse who makes traditional R&B music and some of the other mentions you named