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Soul music is a type of music which grew out of rhythm and blues and
gospel during the late 1950s and early 1960s among African Americans in the
United States. Soul music usually features individual singers backed by a
traditional band consisting of rhythm section and horns. The development of soul music was
spurred by two main trends: the urbanization of R&B and the secularization of
gospel. Artists like
Ben E. King,
Ray Charles,
Sam Cooke and the
Everly Brothers mixed the passion of gospel vocals with the catchy, rhythmic
music of R&B, thus forming soul in the late 1950s. Socially, the vast audience
of white teens who had been listening to (primarily) watered-down white covers
of black R&B and rock hits began demanding records by the original black
artists, such as
Little Richard and
Chuck Berry. By the late 1950s, this had caused several record labels to
seek out marketable versions of black music. The most influential labels were
Stax, based out of Memphis, and Motown, based out of Detroit.
During the 1960s, soul music was popular among blacks in the US, and among many
mainstream listeners throughout the United States and Europe. Blue eyed soul
artists (white musicians who performed for white audiences) like the Righteous
Brothers achieved the greatest success in the short term, though artists like
Aretha Franklin and James Brown have proven more enduring. Other prominent soul
performers of the period were Bobby Bland, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Joe
Tex, Along with blue-eyed soul came a large number of regional varieties of
soul.
By the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other
influences, and artists like Marvin Gaye (What's Going On) and Curtis Mayfield (Superfly)
released album-length statements with hard-hitting social commentary. Artists
like James Brown had led soul towards a dance-oriented jam festival, resulting
in 1970s funk bands like P Funk, The Meters and War. During the 70s, some highly
slick and commercial blue eyed soul acts like Hall & Oates achieved mainstream
success, along with The Delfonics and similar Philadelphia soul groups. By the
end of the 70s disco was dominating the charts and funk, Philly soul and most
other genres were dominated by disco-inflected tracks.
After the death of disco in the late 1970s, soul superstars like Prince (Purple
Rain) and Michael Jackson (Off the Wall) took over. With sultry, sexually
charged vocals and dance-able beats, these artists dominated the charts
throughout the 1980s. Female soul singers like Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson
and Tina Turner also gained great popularity during the last half of the decade.
In the early 1990s, alternative rock, hair metal and gangsta rap ruled the
charts, though New Jack Swing groups began to merge hip hop and soul.
Boyz II Men was the most popular of these groups, which quickly fell out of
favor. During the later part of the decade, nu soul, which further mixed hip hop
and soul, arose, led by Mary J. Blige, D'Angelo and Lauryn Hill.
credit: wiki
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