Soul

Listen To
James Brown

"Music that arose out of the black experience

in America through the transmutation of

gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of

funky, secular testifying."

Arthur Conley - Sweet Soul Music

RM Radio
Coming Soon

In the 1950s and early 1960s Soul music originated in the US as a popular music genre.

It combines elements of African American Gospel music and Rhythm and Blues. As

such it is an essential ingredient in Modern Popular Music. Catchy rhythms, stressed by

hand claps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important features of Soul music.

Other characteristics are a call and response between the soloist and the chorus, and an

especially tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions,

twirls and auxiliary sounds.

The Best Soul/R&B Songs of the 60s - part 1

Soul music originates from

Gospel and Rhythm and

Blues. In Black American

parlance the term 'soul'
reveals elements of Black

pride and culture. For many

years it was considered

central to some Gospel

groups, and plays a role in

Jazz. As the experts claim

‘during the 1960s, as

singers and arrangers began

using techniques from

Gospel and Jazz in Black

popular music, so

Soul music gradually

functioned as an umbrella

term for Black popular

music at the time.

The term "Soul music"

itself, referring to gospel-

style music with secular

lyrics, is first attested in

1961.

The Best Soul/R&B Songs of the 60s
- part 2

The Best Soul/R&B Songs of the 60s - part 3

The Best Soul/R&B Songs of the 60s - part 4

Ray Charles is often cited as inventing the Soul

genre with his many hits including "I Got a

Woman" in 1954 . Also noted ‘Another view

has it that a decade would transpire until

Solomon Burke's early recordings for Atlantic

Records codified the soul style; his early 1960s

songs "Cry to Me", "Just Out of Reach" and

"Down in the Valley" are considered classics

of the genre. Other soul performers include

Little Richard, Otis Redding), Fats Domino

and James Brown.

Aretha Franklin-Respect

Aretha Franklin's songs such as "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)",

"Respect" (originally sung by Otis Redding), and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man"

are considered the apogee of the soul genre, and were among its most commercially

successful productions. In the late 1960s, artists such as Redding, Eddie Floyd, Wilson

Pickett, and Johnnie Taylor made significant contributions to soul music. By 1968, the

Soul music movement had begun to splinter, as artists such as James Brown and Sly &

the Family Stone began to incorporate new styles into their music.

Many consider the birthplace of soul music to be inner city areas in the northern United

States particularly Chicago. Other cities, such as New York, Detroit, Memphis and

Florence, quickly followed, creating their own soul styles based on their regional gospel

roots.

Florence, Alabama, was the home of FAME Studios. Jimmy Hughes, Percy Sledge and

Arthur Alexander recorded at Fame, and Aretha Franklin recorded in the area later in

the 1960s. Stax Records was also an important location and centre for Soul.

The Detroit-based Motown Records also contributed to soul in the 1960s, with Music

by Motown artists such as Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Marvin Gaye, the

Temptations, and the Supremes did much to popularize what became known as

the Motown sound.

In Chicago, Curtis Mayfield helped develop the sweet soul sound that later earned him

a reputation as the Godfather of northern Soul. As a member of The Impressions,

Mayfield infused a call and response style of group singing that came out of Gospel,

and influenced many other groups of the era, notably fellow Chicago artists the

Radiants.