Blue-eyed Soul - 1980s and Later

1980s and Later

George Michael brought soul influences into his pop music, and was the first white solo artist to sing a duet with Aretha Franklin, in their hit I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me). Michael was the first white male vocalist to hit #1 on the US R&B album charts, with his debut album Faith. His fourth single from the album, One More Try, hit #1 in the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop charts. In 1989 he became the first white artist to win the American Music Award for Favourite Male Vocalist and Favourite Album (Faith) (Soul/R&B). Annie Lennox, of the Eurythmics, was often cited as possessing "soul", and went on to record Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves with Franklin. Around the same time, audiences were struck by the soulfulness of Teena Marie, who exclusively wrote and performed R&B and funk, as well as Michael McDonald, who is also frequently described as a 'blue-eyed soul' artist.

Hall & Oates' chart success was at its highest when their singles got heavy airplay on urban contemporary radio, as was the case with I Can't Go for That (No Can Do), One on One, Say It Isn't So, Adult Education, Out of Touch, Method of Modern Love and Everything Your Heart Desires. Most of those singles charted on the R&B and dance charts, including some #1 hits. Simply Red scored one of the most successful blue-eyed soul ballads of all time in 1986 with Holding Back the Years.

Other blue-eyed soul hits of the 1980s include: Phil Collins' cover version of You Can't Hurry Love, Culture Club's Church of the Poison Mind (1983), Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up, The Style Council's Speak Like a Child, (1983) Eurythmics' Missionary Man (1986), and Steve Winwood's Roll With It (1988). As the decade drew to a close, British artist Lisa Stansfield had considerable success on R&B radio, scoring three #1 R&B hits, the most popular being All Around the World.

A backlash ensued in the late 1980s as some black people felt that white people were cashing in on the popularity of their music. However, the extent of the backlash was not universally agreed upon. In 1989, Ebony Magazine published an article exploring whether white people were "taking over" R&B. The article featured various members of the music industry, both black and white, who believed collaboration was a unifying force, and there was agreement that the future of R&B was not compromised by the contemporary urban sound. A similar article in Ebony, written in 1999 highlighted conflicting opinions about the "blue-eyed" influence; however the source of contention was not about the artistic merit of blue-eyed soul, but rather the economic inequality that persisted in American life and within the music industry. In the late 1990s, artists such as Christina Aguilera, Jon B., Jamiroquai, and 98 Degrees have continued the blue-eyed soul movement.

In the 2000s, Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone, Duffy, and Adele have enjoyed success in the American charts, leading to talk of a "Second British Invasion", "Female Invasion" or "British soul invasion". In 2007, soul artist Guy Sebastian recorded The Memphis Album, a tribute album of soul classics, with many of the original Stax Records musicians, including Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Lester Snell and Steve Potts. Other artists who are a part of the genre in the mid to late 2000s' have included Mayer Hawthorne, Remy Shand, Jamie Lidell and Robin Thicke, who enjoyed considerable success in the R&B charts with the 2007 hit Lost Without U, and Sex Therapy in 2009.