soul music is of a genre that combines gospel with rhythm and blues and is mainly American in origin. It is music that was born from being black in America and it was all about singing ear catching rhythms with many a hand clap and other body moves that helped to give a special identity to this music. A major feature of this music was the habit of the singer to ask for and receive responses from the audience and it also included many improvisations and twirls as well as use of additional sounds.
Soul music is deeply rooted in gospel music and also in rhythm and blues and after the forties and the fifties; singers of this genre of music drew a lot of inspiration from hard gospel music. The person who can be considered the father of modern music for the soul is none other than Ray Charles whose wonderful son, I Got a Woman was a true example of what this music is all about.
Ten years later, in the sixties, Solomon Burke, who was employed by Atlanta Records, took the music forward with some true classics including Just Out of Reach and Cry for Me. In addition, singers such as legendary artists named James Brown, Fats Domino and Otis Redding made a big name for themselves despite describing themselves as being rock and roll artists. Little Richards too was a huge influence on the development of this musical format and he combined rhythm and blues with rock and roll as well as some gospel music.
They were followed by Aretha Franklin who sang some spectacularly successful songs including Respect (a number borrowed from Otis Redding) and then there was the excellent I Never Loved a Man. Eddie Floyd as well as Johnny Taylor followed her and made significant contributions to the world of music especially that was meant to stir the soul.
The birth of soul music took place in the US and more particularly in the northern parts of the country. Chicago stands out as one of the original homes of this form of music while New York, Memphis, Detroit as well as Florence have also been major cities where this music was very popular. Each of these cities offered new music that had a regional flavor and bias that ensured that each was very unique, but all were based on gospel music.
Motown Records came out of Detroit and their music was very popular with many of the performers of this music becoming living legends. Names such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye as well as Gladys Knights and the Pips as well as the Supremes and Temptations have all helped to make the Motown Sound popular in every part of the US and in the rest of the world as well.
Chicago gave names such as Curtis Mayfield, who is regarded as the Godfather of Soul from North America.
Soul music took many different forms including the Motown sound from Detroit, deep soul and southern soul from Memphis, Memphis soul and then there was New Orleans soul as embodied by the works of Little Richard and Fats Domino.
Want to find out more about soul music, then visit Neil Brickman’s site on how to choose the best soul music for your needs.
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