VH1 Soul
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The channel debuted in 2000 as part of the "MTV Suite" lineup of digital/satellite channels that included new MTV and VH1 channels that played non-stop music videos, as well as several new Nickelodeon-spinoff channels, for example Nick GAS, NickToons Network, Noggin, VH1 Classic, CMT Pure Country, MTV2, and MTVX. The "MTV Suite" package was sold to cable companies and satellite providers as a bundle, so they could either choose to offer their customers all the channels or none of them.
For its first couple of years, VH1 Soul's main focus was on R&B and soul videos of the 80's, 90's, and live performance clips from even earlier years. Janet Jackson, Prince, TLC, Usher, Tony Toni Tone, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder were some of the channels' main staples. By 2003, the channel removed most of the pre-90's videos that it had once played, since they were often played on VH1 Classic's Classic Soul program. The channel then gradually began to focus a little more on underground, alternative, and old school hip-hop videos, as well as continuing to break new R&B musicians.
Presently, a modest selection of R&B hits from the past ten years, as well as several 80's and early 90's hip-hop videos, can be seen on VH1 Soul. Several of the more R&B-influenced, more socially conscious, and less thuggish modern-day rappers and their newest videos can also be regularly seen in heavy rotation on VH1 Soul; for example: Missy Elliott, De La Soul, Kanye West, Common, and Talib Kweli. Still, once in a while, VH1 Soul airs an older 80's or early 90's R&B/soul hit that is also old enough to be seen on VH1 Classic, for example Prince's "Kiss", Mariah Carey's "Vision Of Love", Stevie Wonder's "Superstition", or Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You". But, these older videos are currently played with far less frequency or variety as they were during the channel's beginning.
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