soul music

Soul Music

First what is soul music? Soul music is African American created and is a genre of music. The music was kind of a combination of gospel, jazz and rhythm and blues. Soul music began in African American culture as a way to describe the “black experience” back in the late 1950 and into the 1960s.  Soul music normally had the performer try and interact with the people listening to the music with things like clapping and extemporaneous body movements (Wikipedia 2011). Soul music is meant to make the listener feel their emotions and to think about the words that are being sung.

I choose Soul music for my blog. I have never really listened to soul music much but I thought it might be interesting to find out more about it. I know that my parents and grandparents listened to soul music a lot when they were growing up. One thing I did not know was that Soul music came from religious music but I can see some things that are similar when listening to the early days of Soul music.

Soul music also had a lot so branches from is like Motown, Southern Soul, Memphis Soul, Neo and many others. Some of the main early Soul artists were Ray Charles, Etta James, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. One of the first big soul songs was Ray Charles’ I got a woman. When I listened to this I did not realize this was the song Kanye West used in Gold Digger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnI_LuCJ4Ek

 

The 1960s were a time where Soul music really took off. There were many great songs that are still popular today that came from that time and a lot of very well known singers as well. Some of these are Solomon Burke who had three songs, “Cry to Me”, “Just Out of Reach” and “Down in the Valley”, that we well know for this time. One of the other most well-known songs from this time was Ben E King’s Stand By Me which was based on a gospel hymn (Paese, n.d.). Soon after in the mid 1960s many other singers started to become popular as well. Some of these are Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin who was know as the “Queen of Soul”. Franklin made it big in 1967 with one of her most popular songs “Respect”. Other artists like James Brown. Marvin Gaye, Percy Sledge, Stevie Wonder, Al Green and Curtis Mayfield came along with their own styles. Also in the early days of Soul Motown came along and was very important in helping get this genre of music out. Otis Redding help Soul music gain more popularity when he was a huge success at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 (Paese, n.d.). Other very popular Soul artists from the 1960s included James Brown (also called the “Godfather of Soul”), Sam Cooke, and Curtis Mayfield. Another part of Soul music was that the singers often that they had a focus on social problems in the 1960s for civil rights for African Americans. Another reaction was that different versions of Soul started popping up and were a little different in each part of the country. These places all still were singing soul but it was more closely related to how the singers from those regions viewed it. These places included New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Alabama. Below is a link to Aretha Franklin’s RESPECT and Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come. Both were popular Soul songs from the 1960’s with Cooke’s showing the political influence of the civil rights movement.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FOUqQt3Kg0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBlaMOmKV4

 

 

 

Some of the biggest labels that produced Soul music were Atlantic records, Stax and of course Motown. Atlantic records was one of the first major record labels that signed Soul artists and Atlantic also one of the first to promote African American music. Some of Atlantic’s artists included Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Solomon Burke, and Percy Sledge. A second label that helps produce Soul was Stax. Stax was out of Memphis, Tennessee and the artists they had had a style that reflected Southern style with the type of instruments and sultry style of lyrics. Some of their artists included Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, The Staples Singers and Al Green. The last but most important label for Soul music was Motown. Motown was based in Detroit, Michigan and was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. The Soul style of Motown was a little different in that it was a little more like pop music that gospel. Motown was so successful that is was know around the world. Motown was founded by Berry Gordy and they had many of the best African American singers and groups. Some of their most famous were The Jackson 5, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, and the Commodores. Motown had an approach to make their music not just for African Americans but for all people and they were very successful.

 

Soul music changed some in the 1970s. The music became more towards pop than it had been before but was still mainly done by African Americans. However during this time other non-African American artists had started doing Soul Music. One of the main ones during this time was Hall and Oates. Still some very popular Soul songs came from the 1970s. Below is one from Marvin Gaye which still has great meaning today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M


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