History Of Soul Music
Soul music is a genre of African American popular music that led to many later genres, from funk and dance music to hip hop and contemporary R&B. It developed in the USA in the late 1950s from African American church music called "gospel music". After slavery ended in 1865, African Americans weren't welcome in the churches of white Americans, so they built their own churches and sang Christian songs with African-American vocal styles and rhythms. They sang joyful, up-tempo gospel songs while clapping and moving to the beat, and they sang slower gospel songs that expressed deep feelings like yearning for God's love. These different styles led to the two main styles of soul music.
Image right: Al Green, one of soul music’s greatest singers. Photo: Mike Douglas Show / Public Domain
Early Soul Music
The first soul songs were created when gospel songs were changed into secular songs by rewriting the lyrics. Joyful, up-tempo gospel songs became up-tempo soul songs, while slower gospel songs became romantic love songs. An example of the up-tempo style is R&B artist Ray Charles' 1954 song I've Got a Woman (Way Across Town), a secular version of the old gospel song I've Got a Savior (Way Across Jordan). Another example is Ray's first crossover hit What'd I Say in which he uses a gospel-music call and responseto exchange sexy "oohs" and "aahs" with the Raelettes, his femalebacking singers. An example of the slower style is former gospel singer James Brown's 1956 song Please, Please, Please in which he changed a gospel song about yearning for God's love into a song about yearning for a girl's love.
Another gospel singer who changed gospel songs into secular songs was Sam Cooke. Sam had joined the gospel group Soul Stirrers as a teenager, but he was forced to leave the group in 1956 after recording the song Lovable, a secular version of the group's gospel song Wonderful. His beautiful yet powerful voice can be heard on his first 1957 crossover hit You Send Me. The song was so popular that it replaced Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock at the top of the pop-music charts. It was the first of nearly thirty crossover hits he recorded before writing his last and greatest songA Change is Gonna Come in 1964. The song expressed his yearning for an end to racism, but before it was released Sam was murdered in Los Angeles. Even though his life was cut short, his success opened the way for many other African American soul singers.
Video: Sam Cooke singing about racism in America in the last song he wrote, 1964’s A Change Is Gonna Come
Northern Soul: Detroit and Chicago
The most popular style of soul music in the early-60s was Motown's pop soul. In 1959, businessman Berry Gordy started Motown Records in the northern city of Detroit, Michigan. His songwriters and artists created the "Motown sound" and produced dozens of pop-soul hits that young Americans loved. Motown had nearly eighty top-ten crossover hits from 1960 to 1969, and Motown's house band the Funk Brothers played on nearly all of them. They were skilled jazz musicians who could also make great pop music. They made the rhythms on Motown songs easy for white listeners to hear and dance to by playing tambourine and rhythm guitar on the second and fourth beats of each bar. They also had female singers like Diana Ross and The Supremes use girlie pop-music voices instead of their natural bluesy voices, as blues great Etta James had done on her classic soul song I'd Rather Go Blind.
Some of Motown's best singles include You've Really Got a Hold on Me and The Tracks of My Tears by The Miracles, Uptight (Everything's Alright) by Stevie Wonder and I Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye, whose 1971 album What's Goin' On isnow regarded as one of the greatest albums in the history of popular music. Motown's biggest hit was I'll Be There by The Jackson 5, featuring eleven-year-old Michael Jackson on lead vocals. With his amazing talent, young Michael could sing in any style including classic soul, as in the song Who's Loving You.
A very different style of soul developed in Chicago, Illinois. Curtis Mayfield and his group The Impressions had been recording for Vee-Jay Records since 1956, but in the early-60s Curtis became involved in the civil rights movement. He began writing powerful songs about the problems African Americans were facing, such as poverty, racism and injustice. These songs included Keep on Pushing, We're a Winner and his biggest hit People Get Ready, now regarded as one of greatest songs ever written. In 1970 Curtis began his own record label, Curtom Records, and released a series of classic soul albums including his sound track album for the film Superfly.
Southern Soul: Memphis
The two main styles of soul music that developed in the Southwere a powerful, dynamic style called "deep soul" and a smooth, beautifully-produced style called "Memphis soul". Both styles developed in Memphis, Tennessee, with Stax Records producing deep soul and Hi Records producing Memphis soul. Stax produced records with driving R&B rhythms played by their mixed-race house band Booker T. & the M.G.'s and funky brass riffs played by their horn section The Mar-Keys. As well as recording their own hits like the classic R&B instrumental Green Onions, the house band played on dozens of deep-soul hits like Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour and Sam and Dave's Soul Man and Hold On, I'm Comin'.
Video: Sam and Dave performing with Booker T. & The M.G.’s and The Mar-Keys in London (possibly the best footage of live soul music ever shot)
Booker T. & the M.G.'s also played on the records of Otis Redding, Stax's biggest star. Otis had a strong voice that was perfect for up-tempo soul, but he could also use a softer voice in romantic soul ballads. His dynamic performances on the Stax European tour and at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 made him a huge star worldwide with hits like I've Been Loving You Too Long andRespect. His greatest song was his last recording (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay. Like Sam Cooke three years earlier, Otis never saw the release of his greatest song. He died in a plane crash in December 1967, just three weeks before its release. His death shocked the world, but Stax survived and artists like Isaac Hayes and The Staple Sisters continued to release classic soul records.
The Memphis soul produced at Hi Records was some of the most beautiful soul music ever made. House band the Hi Rhythm Section provided a solid beat and a funky feel to which house producerWillie Mitchell added strings, horns and backing singers to create a rich soul sound. Hi Record's biggest star Al Green had many crossover hits in the early 70s including Let's Stay Together andCall Me. He also recorded the gospel-soul classics Take Me To The River and Love and Happiness.
Other soul artists from the South include Aretha Franklin, who brought female gospel styles to soul music in the mid-60s, and Percy Sledge, whose 1966 single When a Man Loves a Womanbecame one of soul's biggest-selling records. Both these artists, as well as many others, recorded some of their best music with a group of soulful white session musicians called the Swampers at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Soul Music's Influence
Soul music led to many later genres, including funk, hip hop and contemporary R&B. Funk developed when soul artists like James Brown and Stevie Wonder began extending the rhythmic groovesin their soul music. Hip-hop developed when DJs in the late-70s began rapping over soul and funk grooves, and contemporary R&B developed from the music of artists like Al Green and Aretha Franklin. Contemporary R&B artists like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey became some of the biggest-selling artists of all time, while more recent singers like Mary J. Blige, Beyonce Knowles and Macy Gray are also very popular. Other styles that have developed from soul include neo soul and modern British soul. Major artists in these styles can be found in the listing below.