What Is Soul Music?
Soul is an African-American genre of music that grew popular in the 1960s. It had a major influence on mainstream music as a whole, and paralleled the civil rights movement.
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Features
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Soul music is an amalgamation of black music styles like gospel and R&B that emerged in the late 1950s. It is characterized by gritty vocals and raw, naked emotion. It is often accompanied by horns and lush strings.
Geography
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Soul music was music of the inner city and places like New York, Memphis, Detroit and Philadelphia were major soul centers. Record labels like Atlantic, International, Stax and Motown released the majority of soul music, each with their own unique spin on the genre.
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Popularity
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In the late 1960s, Soul sat at the top of black music charts, crossing into the pop music charts. It became the American mainstream. Popular soul artists include Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding.
Significance
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As the civil rights movement gained momentum, soul music started to address its issues, as well as symbolize its successes.
Influence
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Soul influenced and continued to be influenced by music from the 1960s and on. Soul's influence is apparent in genres like hip hop and funk. Neo-soul, for example, is soul-influenced music from the 1990s and on combined with hip-hop production techniques.
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