My Music Pop Soul Masters Series

My Music Pop Soul Masters Series is a blog dedicated to providing information on the best pop, soul and R&B singers of all time. We also offer tips on how to improve your vocal skills.

Introduction

My Music Pop Soul Masters is a concert series that celebrates the legacies of legendary soul, pop and R&B artists. The series features intimate performances by artists who shaped the sound and style of these genres.

The series is produced by My Music, an award-winning television production company that specializes in music programming. My Music Pop Soul Masters is taped in front of a live audience and features interviews and commentary from artists, music critics and historians.

The series began airing on public television in the United States in 2012. It has since aired in more than 100 countries around the world.

What is Pop Soul?

Pop Soul is a genre of music that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It fuses elements of pop music with soul music, creating a sound that is both catchy and soulful. Pop Soul artists often use gospel-style vocals, horns, and funky rhythms to create a sound that is both danceable and radio-friendly. Some of the most iconic Pop Soul artists include Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Diana Ross.

The Masters of Pop Soul

From the moment I began my exploration into pop soul music, I knew I had embarked on a journey that would take me to some amazing places. I knew I would find new music to love, and I knew I would find new ways to appreciate the music I already knew and loved. But I had no idea just how much I would fall in love with the masters of pop soul music.

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr.; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, including “Ain’t That Peculiar”, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”. He recorded more than 30 No. 1 hits for Motown throughout his career.

Gaye’s personal life was turbulent; he was married three times, separated from his first wife for several years while he carried on several extramarital affairs during that marriage. Gaye suffered from depression as a result of his parents’ marriage and his own tumultuous relationship with his father; this led him to attempted suicide several times throughout his life.

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder is an iconic figure in pop soul music. He first achieved fame as a child prodigy with a string of hits in the 1960s. His career really took off in the 1970s with a series of groundbreaking albums that combined elements of soul, funk, and pop to create a unique sound. Wonder is also a highly accomplished singer, songwriter, and musician. He has won 25 Grammy Awards and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Wonder is one of the best-selling artists of all time, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide.

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She is known as the “Queen of Soul” and has won 18 Grammy Awards. Her hits include “Respect”, “A Natural Woman (You Make Me Feel Like)” and “I Say a Little Prayer”.

The Evolution of Pop Soul

Pop soul is a subgenre of popular music that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It combines elements of soul, rhythm and blues, and often Funk. Pop soul artists are generally African-American and their music often deals with issues of love, relationships, and heartbreak. The genre emerged as a response to the changes in the music industry at the time.

Whitney Houston

Houston’s success with her debut album Whitney Houston made her an international superstar. The album featured hits such as “Saving All My Love for You” and “How Will I Know,” and established Houston as a pop/soul force to be reckoned with. Her follow-up album, Whitney, was an even bigger success, spawning hits like “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and “Didn’t We Almost Have It All.” Over the course of her career, Houston would go on to release seven studio albums, all of which were certified multi-platinum. She sold over 200 million records worldwide and won numerous awards, including six Grammy Awards and 22 American Music Awards.

Alicia Keys

Alicia Keys is an American singer, songwriter and actress. A classically-trained pianist, Keys was composing songs by age 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Columbia Records. After disputes with the label, she signed with Arista Records and later released her debut album, Songs in A Minor, with J Records in 2001. The album was a commercial success, spawning multiple hit singles and selling over 12 million copies worldwide. Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and produced the chart-topping single “You Don’t Know My Name”, as well as “If I Ain’t Got You” and “Diary”. The following year saw the release of her first live album and home video, Unplugged (2005), which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and became the best-selling woman’s album of that year.

Keys released her third studio album, As I Am (2007), with J Records. The album sold over eight million copies worldwide and produced three successful singles: “No One”, “Like You’ll Never See Me Again” and “Teenage Love Affair”. She continued to explore classic R&B influences on her fourth studio album, The Element of Freedom (2009), which featured several songs co-written with Liberty DeVitto; it became her first non-number one album to be certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2012, Keys appeared as a judge on the eleventh season of American Idol before releasing her fifth studio album Girl on Fire in November that year. It became Keys’ fifth consecutive number-one debut in the United States on Billboard 200 albums chart after selling 159,000 copies its first week. After a three-year hiatus from music due to motherhood keys returned to recording releasing her sixth studio
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American musician who gained initial fame with her 2001 best-selling debut album Songs in A Minor which spawned a string of hits including Fallin’, A Woman’s Worth & You Don’t Know My Name among other fan favorites..

Beyonce

Beyonce is one of the most successful and popular artists of our time. She has achieved massive success in both the pop and R&B world, and has cemented her place as a true pop icon. Her music is often described as “pop soul”, a combination of her Pop, R&B, and Soul influences.

Beyonce’s sound has evolved significantly over the course of her career. Her early work with Destiny’s Child was very much in the R&B vein, with heavy Soul influence. As she began to pursue a solo career, her sound started to shift towards more of a Pop direction. However, she always retained her R&B and Soul influences, resulting in a unique sound that became known as “pop soul”.

Throughout her career, Beyonce has released some truly iconic pop soul songs. “Crazy in Love”, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”, and “Run the World (Girls)” are just a few of her many hits that have defined the sound of pop soul. Beyonce is truly a master of this genre, and her influence can be heard in the music of many other artists today.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed our Pop Soul Masters series! As always, we were so pleased to be able to bring you such a wide variety of music from some of the biggest names in the genre. We hope you’ll tune in again next time for more great music from the Pop Soul Masters series!