Happy birthday to India Arie, born October 3, 1975.
Happy birthday to India Arie, born October 3, 1975.
The "Neo Soul" label has been slapped on several dozen new artists over the past few years, often by those looking to recapture the combination of musical greatness and social message of many of the great soul artists of early 70s. Where the Motown music factory turned out the most infectious, melodic pop/soul music ever, its slow demise in the 70s coincided with the arrival of the great generation of soul singer-songwriters, led by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Curtis Mayfield. While that great mini-era itself faded as disco rose to prominence in the last half of that decade, it has been remembered as a time when important social issues such as poverty, race, gender and ecology were addressed in an intelligent manner, and with an idealism in the possibility of change that has been missing from popular music for two decades. In fact, it is challenging to reconcile the messages of concern and hope found in 1972 to the despair and "culture of death" that has pervaded popular music, particularly in the last decade. READ FULL BIOGRAPHY