Soul was the predominant genre on African-American charts during the ’60s and often made its way onto popular charts as well. South Carolina singer Brook Benton wrote dance novelties like A Lover’s Question for Clyde McPhatter while Motown Records in Detroit and Hi Records Memphis produced deep rooted soul music featuring powerful rhythms and trumpet-driven arrangements.
The origins of soul
Soul music combines gospel music with rhythm and blues and features a distinctive vocal style, making it widely associated with African American experience. Soul originated in America during the 1950s and 60s with artists like Ben E. King, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and Solomon Burke making its presence felt. Later singers such as Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin helped solidify its position within popular culture – as did later styles like funk and disco; today many artists continue performing soul.
At its heart, soul music combines religious themes with secular ones like desire, hardship and romance. Though rooted in rhythm and blues, its vocal style tends to be more spontaneous and energetic than traditional R&B. Furthermore, soul songs typically include call and response between singer and listeners while its signature hand claps and simple steps also hail directly from gospel tradition.
Soul music’s roots can be traced back to the mid-1960s. Artists such as James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone and Al Green introduced soul to wider audiences by merging gospel music with rhythm & blues. Memphis-based Stax Records developed a distinct sound by pushing vocals further back in the mix while using dynamic horn parts reminiscent of Deep South music; its artists such as Booker T Jones & the MGs took inspiration from black gospel shouters in Mississippi Delta and Alabama regions.
In the late 1960s, soul music began to diversify into several distinct subgenres. James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone provided earthier funk-influenced tunes while Al Green and Marvin Gaye offered smoother produced soul. Curtis Mayfield from The Impressions helped define 1970s soul through his topical song writing that tackled social and political issues.
By the early 1980s, soul had given way to funk and disco, which focused on dance rhythms rather than songwriting skills. Yet despite these developments, many elements that define soul music — its direct emotional delivery and ethnic pride–continue to play an essential role in contemporary R&B.
Detroit
Early 1950s African American church music combined with rhythm and blues to produce soul. Gospel songs featured joyful clapping and dancing along to rhythmic beats while simultaneously conveying deep feelings like longing for God’s love. Sam Cooke became widely popular when he used his melismatic vocal style with rhythm and blues; other artists followed suit including Etta James with her earth-shaking delivery and uncompromising approach, Percy Sledge with his timeless rendition of “When a Man Loves a Woman”.
New Orleans was another key center of soul music, featuring producers like Allen Toussaint with his boogie-woogie style piano playing and honking sax honking, Irma Thomas emotional ballads and Ray Charles jazz-influenced melodies. Atlantic Records in New York City founded by white producers Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson was another key producer, producing such classic hits by Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Wonder, the Jackson 5 as well as Smokey Robinson with classics such as “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”.
Berry Gordy’s Tamla/Motown Records played an essential part in shaping soul music. Primarily African-American owned, this label employed some of the best-known R&B artists at that time such as Gladys Knight & the Pips; Diana Ross & the Supremes; Four Tops; and Marvelettes. Tamla/Motown also launched Marvin Gaye who became well known for creating signature soul sounds with powerful messages of freedom and equality through message songs on its label.
By the mid 1960s, New York and Los Angeles had established themselves as major centers of soul music. Hall & Oates and Oakland’s Tower of Power found mainstream success while producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff framed Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes with sweeping strings and pointed brass by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff to form a sound that eventually evolved into disco and funk, eventually giving rise to contemporary R&B, hip hop rap music as its successor genres.
Chicago
Soul music emerged from within the black community during the 1950s. Ray Charles is widely considered to have coined the term with his 1954 hit I Got a Woman; as one of its pioneers he blended elements of blues, country, gospel music to create something entirely new that resonated with African American listeners – later becoming known as soul. Charles showcased its harmonic nature through early recordings that later came to be known by this moniker.
Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin were two other key innovators of this genre from the South. Both vocalists drew upon elements of Southern gospel music – specifically its silky smooth vocal style associated with Gospel Quartets such as The Soul Stirrers – to give their songs an edge, then fused that style onto rhythm and blues music for an intoxicating blend that was at once relaxed yet intense in terms of musical tension.
Motown defined soul music in urban America, while Memphis’ Stax/Volt Records reigned supreme when it came to southern soul. From 1960-1968, their classic period saw artists who fused gospel music with R&B and rock’n’ roll into a unique form of Southern soul; this gave rise to genres such as rock soul and disco while making household names out of artists such as Otis Redding, Ben E. King and Solomon Burke.
Soul music’s rise coincided with political unrest within African American communities. Even with economic gains since World War II, many blacks still grappled with economic inequality, segregation and racism within their local communities; this inspired soul music as an avenue of inspiration and change.
At this time, musicians such as Phil Cohran and the Pharaohs used music to express Afrocentric philosophies that opposed racism and segregation. Bands such as Chaka Khan & Maurice White of Earth Wind & Fire provided spiritual empowerment for new generations of African-Americans.
New Orleans
Soul music emerged in America during the late 1950s and early 1960s as an amalgamation of rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel music and secular lyrics, popularized by Ray Charles, James Brown and Aretha Franklin among others. Influences included hand clap rhythms from gospel as well as jazzy rock and roll elements of R&B; over time soul eventually evolved into distinct subgenres such as funk; moving away from its Christian origins while becoming more focused on social and political issues.
Blues harmonic language was an influential force in soul music. You might hear a lead singer and choir sing call-and-response vocals from black church music; many soul songwriters and singers learned their craft at such churches, which later impacted their later careers. Many elements from black gospel such as layer vocals or handclapping remain prevalent today’s soul music.
Ray Charles, widely considered to be the “father” of soul music, combined gospel and rhythm and blues influences into an innovative sound he coined “I Got A Woman”. Other early soul artists like Sam Cooke, Little Richard and Wilson Pickett used similar strategies when mixing R&B lyrics into secular song lyrics.
In the 1960s, three major record labels dominated the soul scene: Atlantic Records in New York City, Motown Records in Detroit and Stax/Volt Records in Memphis. Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson of Atlantic recruited black musicians while encouraging experimentation of different styles; their artists included Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge and Solomon Burke among many others.
Motown’s polished productions of catchy pop melodies and vocal harmonies proved popular with both white audiences as well as African Americans, drawing rave reviews from critics like Rolling Stone. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations all found great success under Motown executive producer Berry Gordy’s direction.
Stax Records was known for emphasizing an earthier sound; examples being Booker T & the MGs songs and recordings by The Staple Singers and Al Green. Isaac Hayes who popularized symphonic soul with Hot Buttered Soul also recorded at Willie Mitchell’s Hi Records in Memphis.