Also probably worth mentioning though that, without Michael Jackson, there would be no New Edition, since the Jackson Five were clearly and blatantly New Edition's template, just like New Edition were clearly the template for New Kids on The Block (and therefore indirectly the Backstreet Boys and *N Sync) later.

Also, not sure how Jam/Lewis (as pervasive in the '80s as Teddy Riley, I would guess) fit into all this, but I was reading an essay by Steve Perry (not the Journey guy) in an old Simon Frith edited collection recently where he said that, of Minnesota's significant stable of '80s r&b stars, only Alexander O'Neal (from Natchez, Mississippi) was sonically or biographically rooted in soul of the deep South. (Which somehow connects with the smoothies-displacing-shouters formulation too, I'd think.)