When Did Soul Music Begin?
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The history of soul music is often traced back to the late 1950s and early 1960s, when artists like Ray Charles and Sam Cooke began experimenting with a more R&B-based sound. However, the roots of soul music go much deeper than that. In fact, you could say that soul music has its origins in the African-American oral tradition.
The Birth of Soul
Soul music is a genre that arose out of the African American experience. It is a blend of rhythm and blues, gospel, and sometimes jazz. The first soul music recordings were made in the late 1950s. However, the term “soul” was not used to describe this new style of music until the 1960s.
R&B and Gospel
The origins of soul music can be traced back to the early 1940s and 1950s, when a style of music known as rhythm and blues began to develop in the African-American community. This style of music was a fusion of African-American spirituals, gospel, and blues. The first recordings of rhythm and blues were made in the late 1940s, and the genre began to gain popularity in the 1950s.
Gospel music is also an important influence on the development of soul music. Gospel is a type of Christian music that is characterized by its joyful, spiritual lyrics. Gospel music was popular among African Americans in the early 20th century, and it had a significant influence on the development of soul music.
Soul music emerged in the 1960s as a distinct genre of popular music. It was a fusion of rhythm and blues, gospel, and pop, with elements of jazz and classical music. Soul musicians often used instruments such as keyboards, guitars, and horns to create a rich, life-affirming sound. The lyrics of soul songs typically explored topics such as love, relationships, struggle, and hope.
The Motown Sound
In the early 1960s, Berry Gordy, Jr. founded Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan. Gordy was born in 1929 in Detroit, the son of a piano player and housekeeper. His parents had eight children, and Gordy was the seventh. He quit high school at age 15 and started his first business venture, a jazz record store called 3-D Record Mart. After several years of struggling to make ends meet, Gordy borrowed $800 from his family to start Motown Record Corporation
The Golden Age of Soul
The golden age of soul music began in the late 1960s and continued into the 1970s. This was a time when African American musicians began to experiment with different sounds and styles, resulting in a new genre of music that blended gospel, R&B, and pop. The result was a sound that was both soulful and funky, and it quickly became popular with both black and white audiences.
The Stax Sound
In the early 1960s, soul music was pioneered by artists such as James Brown, Sam Cooke, and Jackie Wilson. The genre began to take shape with the emergence of Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan. However, it was the unique sound emanating from Memphis, Tennessee that would come to define soul music for generations to come.
The so-called “Stax sound” was a fusion of gospel, R&B, and pop that was created by producer/songwriter Steve Cropper and engineer/producer Donald “Duck” Dunn. Artists such as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Booker T. & the MGs helped to turn the small regional label into a national powerhouse. The Stax sound came to embody the struggling yet hopeful spirit of the African American experience in the 1960s and 1970s.
Though it enjoyed a brief moment in the spotlight, the golden age of soul music came to an abrupt end with the untimely death of many of its most popular artists. Nevertheless, the impact of soul music can still be felt today in genres such as hip hop and R&B.
The Philly Sound
The Philly Sound was a musical genre that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Philadelphia. It featured a distinctive blend of soul music and R&B that was syncopated and often had a fast tempo. The Philly Sound was often marked by its use of horns, strings, and elaborate arrangements.
The Philly Sound developed out of a need for record producers to find new ways to appeal to the growing number of African American listeners. at the time, most popular music was made by white artists for white audiences. But with the rise of Motown and other African American-owned record labels, there was an increasing demand for music that reflected the experience of black Americans.
In the late 1960s, two Philadelphia-based producers, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, began experimenting with different ways to create soul music that would appeal to black audiences. They quickly found success with a series of songs that featured a horns-and-strings arrangement style known as the “Philadelphia sound.” The Philly Sound soon became one of the most popular genres in soul music, rivaling Motown as the preeminent label for African American music.
Gamble and Huff’s productions helped make Philadelphia one of the most important cities in soul music. Many other producers and artists from Philadelphia would go on to have successful careers in soul music, including Gamble and Huff themselves, who continued to produce hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The Philly Sound remains an influence on contemporary R&B and hip hop producers today.
The Modern Age of Soul
While the roots of soul music can be traced back to the 1950s, the modern age of soul music began in the early 1990s. Soul music is a genre that combines rhythm and blues, gospel, and pop music. The genre first gained popularity in the African-American community and later spread to other groups.
Neo-Soul
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a new style of soul music emerged on the American music scene. Dubbed “neo-soul” by music industry insiders, this new sound was a throwback to the classic soul sounds of the 1960s and 1970s, but with a modern twist.
The most popular neo-soul artist of the early 1990s was D’Angelo, whose debut album “Brown Sugar” was released in 1995. D’Angelo’s success paved the way for other neo-soul artists, including Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Jill Scott.
Neo-soul quickly gained popularity with fans of all ages, but it was especially popular with young African Americans who were looking for a new sound that reflected their own experiences. By the end of the 1990s, neo-soul had become one of the most popular genres in Black music.
Contemporary R&B
The term “contemporary R&B” (also known as simply “R&B”) is used to describe the modern iteration of soul music that began in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Unlike earlier forms of soul, which were directly influenced by gospel music, contemporary R&B is a secular genre that is strongly influenced by hip-hop, pop, and electronic dance music. Artists such as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, TLC, and Boyz II Men helped to bring contemporary R&B to the mainstream in the 1990s.
