You’ve heard it. Heck, you’ve probably said it: “They don’t make music like they used to.”
But is it true, or is it just a subconscious bias? In the article “They Don’t Make Rock Like They Used To . . . or Do They?” I argued that music hasn’t changed or devolved: in fact, it’s quite the opposite — there’s more amazing music out right now than ever before. What has changed is how music is distributed and the flattening effect that it has on mainstream radio. To read the argument in full, check out the article here.
To back up my point, I featured two dozen modern bands making retro-inspired rock music. Now, it’s time to check out some modern artists that are doing the same thing for R&B and soul. We’ll check out some of the coolest acts putting a modern spin on classic R&B and soul à la Motown, Stax Records, and Southern soul, Philly soul, neo-soul, funk, and disco.
What’s Goin’ On: Motown Revival
In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr., a former record shop owner, professional boxer, and songwriter, launched Tamla Records to promote his work as a producer for local Detroit R&B acts. A year later he changed the name to Motown Records, a portmanteau of “motor” and “town” to pay tribute to his Detroit roots. Berry was from a family of entrepreneurs, but it’s hard to believe that even he could have anticipated the impact Motown Records would have on the world. The sound of Motown was crafted for maximum popular appeal, with propulsive rhythms, earworm melodies, and a bright, energetic production style that made it stand out on the radio.
Motown played a major role in bringing African American music into the mainstream, and its artist roster is astounding. From the Temptations, the Supremes, and Marvin Gaye to Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, and the Jacksons, Motown launched the careers of numerous legendary performers who were often supported in the studio by the label’s world-class house band, the Funk Brothers. More than six decades later, Motown is still going strong. Their sound has diversified over time, but they’ll always be associated with the deeply infectious form of soul and R&B they pioneered in the 1960s and ’70s.
Thee Sacred Souls
A three-piece act from San Diego, California, Thee Sacred Souls channel the smooth and soulful sounds of early R&B and soul. The trio of singer Josh Lane and multi-instrumentalists Alex Garcia and Sal Samano came out of the gate swinging, securing a contract with Daptone Records (best known as the home of Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings) after their very first club date. With stunning vocal melodies supported by a smattering of doo-wop, and low-key, period-correct arrangements, Thee Sacred Souls will transport you back to the golden age of R&B.
Trish Toledo
Another California-based R&B and soul revivalist, Trish Toledo, has a sound and vibe that hearkens back to 1960s girl groups, such as the Ronettes and the Supremes, and legendary divas like Barbara Mason and Aretha Franklin. While Trish draws on the past for inspiration, she has crafted a sound all her own and is one of the most electrifying voices in retro-soul.
The Dip
Seattle will forever be known as the birthplace of grunge, but throughout the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, it had a healthy soul scene. The Dip, a seven-piece ensemble, carries on Seattle’s soul tradition merged with a reverence for Detroit R&B. Known for their incredible live performances, the Dip’s exceptional musicality and pitch-perfect pop sensibilities have captured the hearts of an ever-growing audience.
Lady Wray
Nicole Wray, now known by her stage name Lady Wray, started her career in the late 1990s after garnering the attention of Missy Elliot. At the time, she seemed destined for pop stardom, but fate had different designs. After her career stalled, Lady Wray reconnected with her passion for old-school R&B, and she has reinvented herself as retro-soul practitioner of the highest caliber, infusing her songs with the passion and drama that has always been one of the hallmarks of classic R&B.
Curtis Harding
A native of Saginaw, Michigan, Curtis Harding was raised on Motown soul, and it shows. Curtis fully embraces the vintage stylings of classic R&B and incorporates elements of garage rock, psychedelia, and gospel into the mix. The result is “slop ‘n’ soul,” the name of the genre Curtis created to describe his diverse, retro-inspired sound.
Motown Revival Gear Favorites
Ain’t That Good: Southern Soul Revival
While Motown was delivering soul and R&B to the world from Detroit, a rival to their dominance emerged in the South. Founded by siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, Stax Records was home to many iconic artists, including Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, and Booker T. and the M.G.’s, who pulled double duty as the Stax house band on many of the label’s most popular releases. Like Motown, Stax developed a signature sound that was the natural result of many of the same musicians performing in the same room recorded with the same equipment. However, in contrast to the polish of Motown, the Stax sound was raw and insistent, with an attitude that made it attractive to rock ‘n’ rollers.
Other notable southern soul record labels include Goldwax Records and Hi Records in Memphis, the latter of which was home to Al Green. And we can’t forget the groundbreaking Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also known as the Swampers), whose work for FAME studios and Atlantic Records was instrumental to the success of numerous artists, such as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, and inspired rock artists, including the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Wesley Bright & the Honeytones
Wesley Bright & the Honeytones hail from Akron, Ohio, yet this Midwest band has a sound steeped in Southern soul. Raw, evocative, and catchy, Wesley Bright & the Honeytones created real-deal, old-school R&B that’s impossible to resist. Why is that stated in the past tense? Because Wesley has put his musical career on hold to focus time on his family and his other passion — beekeeping!
Lee Fields & the Expressions
North Carolina native Lee Field’s musical history stretches back over 50 years to the release of his first single in 1969. Yet, unlike many of his contemporaries, Lee refused to alter his sound to whatever was fashionable at the time. This decision led to him leaving the music industry for nearly a decade for a career in real estate. Thankfully, Lee couldn’t ignore the call of the stage and returned to music into the late 1990s. Today, he continues to treat fans to his stunning vocals and uncompromising old-school sound.
Charles Bradley
Though he passed away in 2017, Charles Bradley is included on this list because he, like Lee Fields, was an indefatigable voice of classic R&B. Charles was a something of a musical late bloomer who struggled in obscurity for much of his life before finally releasing his debut album on Daptone Records in 2011. Though his time as a recording artist was brief, he left us with a gripping collection of albums and songs that sit confidently among the greats of soul music.
Devon Gilfillian
Another Southern artist dealing in retro-inspired soul is Nashville, Tennessee’s Devon Gilfillian. Devon inherited his love for old-school R&B from his father, who exposed him to legends like Otis Redding, Ray Charles, and the Temptations. That made a deep impression on Devon, who has committed fully to creating R&B in the classical mold, even going as far as re-recording Marvin Gaye’s seminal album What’s Going On? in 2020.
Black Pumas
Vocalist Eric Burton and producer and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Quesada make up Black Pumas, a self-proclaimed psychedelic soul band based in Austin, Texas. Released in 2019, the duo’s eponymous debut album made a major splash, earning them a Grammy nod for Best New Artist. With a penchant for cinematic flourishes, Black Pumas evoke the epic soul sound of Bobby Womack, Curtis Mayfield, and Luther Ingram with a rock ‘n’ roll edge that has attracted a wide audience.
Southern Soul Revival Gear Favorites
Life Is a Song Worth Singing: TSOP Revival
During the 1960s and ’70s, Philadelphia was cultivating its own rich soul and R&B scene, which later was referred to as “Philly soul” and “the sound of Philadelphia” — or TSOP, for short. At the center of TSOP was Philadelphia International Records, founded in 1971 by the songwriting and production duo of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Gamble and Huff created a staggering number of hit songs for artists such as the O’Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass, and the Jacksons.
TSOP differentiated itself from Motown and Southern soul with its intricate string arrangements (often performed by the world-famous Philadelphia Orchestra), use of heavy brass, and propulsive rhythms, which would pave the way for the emergence of disco.
Aaron Frazer
One of the founding members of Durand Jones & the Indications, Baltimore, Maryland’s Aaron Frazer stunned audiences with his crooning falsetto and undeniable drum chops. It was no surprise that Aaron would eventually record a solo album, and his 2021 Dan Auerbach-produced debut Introducing… was everything fans were hoping for and more. Not restricted to a single era or style, Introducing… pulls from the entire soul lexicon. But perhaps because of Aaron’s Mid-Atlantic roots, there are strains of TSOP all over this exceptional record.
Joey Dosik
A frequent collaborator with Vulfpeck, Joey Dosik has proven himself as a top-notch multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. But he is also a spectacular songwriter, as evidenced on his 2018 album Inside Voice. Bright and effervescent, Inside Voice is retro-soul with glossy TSOP-style flare, full of soaring melodies, lush arrangements, crackerjack playing, and exceptional engineering.
Monophonics
Endorsed by Stax Record’s Al Bell as one of the best live soul bands he’s ever seen, Monophonics are helmed by producer, songwriter, and vocalist Kelly Finnigan. This San Francisco-based band creates epic soul music, supported by a full assemblage of horns, strings, and percussion. In the studio, they keep it old school — you can almost smell the mercurochrome-like scent of aging electronics as you listen.
Silk Sonic
By far the most popular act on the list, Silk Sonic is the power duo of Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars. Fans of both artists know that they’re huge fans of R&B who have consistently incorporated hallmarks of bygone eras into their music. With Silk Sonic, Anderson and Bruno have focused on re-creating 1970s soul, and they’ve nailed it down to the finest detail. However, Silk Sonic never feels like a retread. Their music is fresh, exciting, and timeless.
The Sound of Philadelphia Gear Favorites
Other Side of the Game: Neo-soul
During the 1980s and 1990s, a fresh variation on R&B and soul emerged: neo-soul. Unlike the prior soul subgenres, neo-soul wasn’t a localized movement. Rather, it was comprised of an international roster of artists, including Prince, Terence Trent D’Arby, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Soul II Soul, Lisa Stansfield, and Jamiroquai. During the mid-1990s, neo-soul artists D’Angelo, Maxwell, and Erykah Badu conquered the charts, opening the door for other now well-known acts, including Alicia Keys, India.Arie, and Jill Scott.
Neo-soul drew inspiration from classic soul artists and incorporated elements of jazz and experimental music while always remaining smooth, emotional, and evocative. These artists broke from mainstream R&B by appealing to a discerning audience in search of music that was more personal and presented a higher degree of musicianship. Neo-soul’s moment in the sun was relatively short-lived, but its spirit survives in a new crop of artists like these.
Durand Jones & the Indications
Throughout the 2010s, Durand Jones & the Indications cemented a reputation as a knockout retro-soul act. While their early work reflected a deep love for Motown, Southern soul, and TSOP, the band’s latest offerings incorporate an expanded a lexicon of neo-soul and progressive soul, along with smatterings of disco, funk, and psychedelia.
Free Nationals
The Free Nationals are a four-piece progressive soul band from Los Angeles, California. They are perhaps best known as Anderson .Paak’s backing band and now as the sound behind the singers in Silk Sonic. Their eponymous 2019 debut album is a guest-packed whirlwind of neo-soul full of gobsmackingly solid playing and infectious hooks.
Leon Bridges
At just 32 years old, Leon Bridges has established himself as a force in modern R&B by going back to its roots. Leon leans heavily into his vintage aesthetic from his music to his wardrobe, but some modern and experimental flourishes push his 1960s and ’70s soul stylings firmly into neo-soul territory.
Moonchild
Los Angeles, California’s Moonchild draws inspiration from the last 60 years of R&B to produce their own brand of alternative R&B and neo-soul. The trio of Amber Navran, Max Bryk, and Andris Mattson has garnered plenty of critical praise and endorsements from several notable soul and R&B legends, including Stevie Wonder.
Safa Liron
Safa Liron is an independent singer, songwriter, and producer from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Since 2019, she has released a small but entrancing collection of singles and EPs. But if these soulful tunes are any indication of what to expect from a full-length release, then we can’t wait for this 24-year-old’s debut LP to drop.
Neo-soul Revival Gear Favorites
The Groove Line: Funk & Disco Revival
Funk and disco are often lumped together as extensions of R&B and soul — we’re guilty of that right now! However, while both genres are designed to get you moving on a dance floor, they approach that assignment in very different ways.
The birth of funk is often attributed to James Brown and his 1970s backing band the J.B.’s, which included funk royalty Clyde Stubblefield, Maceo Parker, and Bootsy and Catfish Collins. After leaving the J.B.’s, Maceo, Bootsy, and Catfish joined Funkadelic, who, in their numerous iterations, became the face of funk music for many fans. Funk ran the gamut from radio-friendly, groove-packed hits by the Ohio Players and Kool & the Gang to jam-heavy, musical free-for-alls by Parliament, Zapp, and the Meters to socially conscious takes on the genre by Curtis Mayfield, Sly and the Family Stone, and Stevie Wonder.
Where funk tended to veer into the absurd and esoteric, disco took a more straightforward route, adapting and streamlining funk’s propulsive rhythms for maximum danceability. Disco’s rise was aligned with an explosion of dance clubs across Europe and the United States, and the worldwide disco fever culminated in 1977 with the release of the film Saturday Night Fever and the accompanying soundtrack, featuring the Bee Gees. This massive record spent over 100 weeks on the Billboard album charts and brought disco to the suburbs. However, it also signaled the end of the disco craze, ushering in a massive backlash that effectively ended the genre by the end of the decade. That said, several contemporary artists are revisiting the alluring shimmer of disco and bringing it back for modern audiences.
Jungle
What started as a laptop-based electronic music project in 2013, Jungle has evolved into one of the best neo-disco and funk bands around. Powered by the production duo of Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland, Jungle is simultaneously laidback and energetic, with Gibbsian falsettos floating in a sonic whirl of guitars, synths, and strings tethered to a bedrock of groovy rhythms.
MonoNeon
Bass player, singer, and musical experimentalist MonoNeon gained prominence with his YouTube performance videos starting in 2013. Since then, this prolific artist has released numerous albums and experimental works, and he has performed with Ne-Yo, Mac Miller, Nas, and Prince. Apart from his distinctive playing style, MonoNeon has also developed a unique, signature look that’s as bold and recognizable as his music.
Thundercat
Session phenom, Thundercat has laid down bass for everyone from Erykah Badu and Kendrick Lamar to N.E.R.D and Moses Sumney — he was even a member of legendary crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies. Thundercat’s solo work traverses the experimental path blazed by 1970s funk artists, full of humor, creativity, and prodigious playing.
Vulfpeck
As much of a concept as a band, Vulfpeck is a modern take on 1970s funk. Vulfpeck’s core members — Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss, and Joe Dart — are obsessed with old-school session players, so it makes sense that they surround themselves with a rotating cast of exceptional players. Solid musical chops combined with a sense of quirky fun make Vulfpeck one of today’s must-see live bands.
Ghost-Note
Led by percussionists Sput Searight and Nate Werth of Snarky Puppy, Ghost-Note is a progressive funk band that indulges in the experimental extremes of funk music. With Ghost-Note, rhythm plays a leading role, but it’s accompanied by brain-bending, jazz-influenced arrangements and further enhanced by a spectacular roster of guest musicians.
Funk & Disco Revival Gear Favorites
Spotify Playlist
Check out all the bands on Sweetwater’s official “They Don’t Make R&B Like They Used to . . . or Do They?” Spotify playlist!