A black American popular music style. The term soul in black American parlance has connotations of black pride and culture, but its usage in conjunction with music has a complicated genealogy. Gospel groups in the 1940s and 50s occasionally used the term as part of their name, as in the Soul Stirrers. In turn, jazz that self-consciously used melodic figures or riffs derived from gospel music or folk blues came to be called soul jazz by the late 1950s. As singers and arrangers began using techniques from gospel music and soul jazz in black popular music during the 1960s, soul music gradually functioned as an umbrella term for the black popular music of the time, with gospel music in particular providing a rich foundation for the singing styles of many stars. In addition to its association with a cluster of musical practices, the ascendancy of the term is inextricably linked to the Civil Rights movement, and to the growth of black cultural and political nationalisms of the period.
The fact that the term soul was used in conjunction with gospel music, jazz and rhythm and blues points to the interconnection between these different black American musical practices, all of which already shared approaches to harmony, rhythm, melody and timbre. Nevertheless, the genres do differentiate themselves by the way and degree to which these musical elements are deployed and by the subject matter of the lyrics. Thus, the emergence of soul music from rhythm and blues in the early 1960s is more of a shift in emphasis than an importation of new elements from gospel music, as sometimes claimed. However, the increased use of vocal techniques used to signify spiritual ecstasy, intensity and devotion in a secular context intensified both the sense of passionate identification of the singer with the song and the sense of connection between the style of music and the black community. The first rhythm and blues singer to attract attention for his indebtedness to gospel technique was Clyde McPhatter, who was the lead singer on many hit recordings made in the early to mid-1950s with Billy Ward and the Dominoes and with the Drifters. These recordings featured McPhatter's impassioned melismas and call-and-response alternations with other singers in the band to a greater extent than had been evident in previous rhythm and blues recordings. What distinguished McPhatter from singers in earlier gospel-derived groups such as the Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers was the way in which he adopted the dynamic solo style of singers such as Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward to songs with gospel-derived harmonic progressions in which the change of a single word could transform the song back into a gospel number, such as Have mercy baby to Have mercy Lord. Also important during the late 1950s was McPhatter's successor in the Dominoes, Jackie Wilson, a dynamic performer who employed gospel-derived vocal techniques in a pop-orientated idiom.
Ray Charles brought many of McPhatter's innovations into focus in a series of recordings beginning in 1954. Many of these songs used transparently gospel models, as with I've got a woman, which was based on I've got a savior. On these recordings Charles sings in a raspy, exuberant tone full of whoops, cries, bent notes, melismas and shouts, accompanied by his gospel-styled piano and call-and-response patterns between his voice and either the horns or a female backing trio, the Raelettes (see fig.1). The apotheosis of this approach comes in his 1959 recording What'd I say, which not only imported musical elements from gospel music, but which produced a condensed simulation of a black American Holiness religious service. James Brown similarly employed elements from gospel music with the fervour of a Holiness preacher in songs such as Please, Please, Please (1956) and Try me (1958). In contrast, Sam Cooke used a smooth and sophisticated vocal technique, developed in the popular gospel group the Soul Stirrers, to record You send me, a major crossover hit in 1957. His approach to ballads, which conveyed an understated spirituality and sensuality, was a major influence on soul singers of the 1960s and 70s, such as Otis Redding and Al Green.
The early 1960s saw a dramatic increase in gospel-influenced recordings when a confluence of performers, songwriters and record companies began producing recordings in a consistent style that would become known as soul. The early work of Solomon Burke (Cry to me, 1962), Otis Redding (These Arms of Mine, 1963), Wilson Pickett (I found a love, with the Falcons, 1962), recorded on independent record labels such as Atlantic and Stax and directed to a largely black audience, combined with the work of veterans such as Charles, Cooke, Brown and others such as Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland, to mark the stirrings of a recognizable genre. In addition to the melismas, bent notes, and wide range of timbres employed by the lead vocalists, these songs, all of which were in a slow tempo, prominently featured triplet subdivisions that were often articulated in arpeggiations played by piano or guitar. They also frequently featured interjected ‘sermons’ that usually took the form of romantic advice addressed to the audience.
As the term soul music began to enter mainstream usage, black popular music increasingly cut its ties with 1950s rhythm and blues to establish a distinctive 60s soul style. Differences began to emerge between a down-home, Southern soul style identified with the Stax and Atlantic recording companies and with studios based in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and a northern, smooth, or uptown soul style identified primarily with Motown Records based in Detroit. Between the years 1964 and 1966, the gospel techniques employed by lead vocalists continued, while the accompanying instruments acquired added definition through the use of rhythmic riffs. The bass in particular gained added prominence through the increasing use of syncopated patterns, and horns began to be used in syncopated, staccato bursts. Mid- and up-tempo songs such as James Brown's Out of Sight (1964), Otis Redding's Mr. Pitiful (1964), Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour (1965), Jr Walker and the All Stars' Shotgun (1965) and Fontella Bass's Rescue me (1965) all displayed an increased reliance on these features as well as a move away from the shuffle rhythms of the 1950s to the even subdivisions that characterize latter-day styles such as funk, disco and hip hop. Ballads continued to feature triplet subdivision, but with more elaborate arrangements and greater use of horns, particularly in ‘Southern soul’ recordings, or orchestral instruments, especially in recordings produced by Motown. Examples include Otis Redding's I’ve been loving you too long (to stop now), Joe Tex's Hold what you've got, and the Miracles' Ooh Baby Baby, all from 1965. All these artists convey the feeling that they identify passionately with what they are singing about, whether the topic is spiritual uplift, devotion to a mate, troubles in love, or conflicts in the community or broader society. This sense of identification created the effect of fusing the spiritual, the personal, and the political.
During the period 1965–6 recordings by the already successful Motown artists, especially the Supremes and the Four Tops, reached new heights of popularity. Recordings by Southern soul artists such as Redding (fig.2), Pickett and Percy Sledge (When a Man Loves a Woman) crossed over into the pop market. James Brown also began a long string of crossover pop hits and the Chicago-based Impressions had a series of hits with thinly disguised topical themes (Keep on pushing, People get ready and Amen). In 1967–8 Aretha Franklin's Respect, a cover version of a song by Otis Redding, and James Brown's Say it loud – I'm black and I'm proud signalled soul music's entry into a new phase of political engagement. The emergence of Franklin, one of the first solo female stars in the genre (fig.3), had a huge impact: her tremendous range, mastery of all aspects of gospel singing technique, and driving gospel piano playing, applied to consistently excellent material, resulted in a series of brilliant recordings in 1967–70. During this time she sold more records than any other black American artist.
The phenomenal popularity of Aretha Franklin, the ongoing success of James Brown and the grittiest practitioners of Southern soul, and the continued ubiquity of the pop-orientated productions of Motown attested to soul music's continued relevance to a broad cross-section of the US audience in the late 1960s. Musically, many of the characteristics of the 1964–6 period persisted, although in mid- and up-tempo songs bass lines became more active, arrangements became fuller with greater use of multiple guitar parts, orchestral instruments and auxiliary percussion (especially at Motown). Individual parts became increasingly syncopated, especially in the music of James Brown, which in turn led to Funk. A new type of soul ballad, exemplified in songs such as Linda Jones's Hypnotized (1967) and Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's If this world were mine (1968), began to emerge that broke the previous reliance of ballads on triplet subdivisions and began to incorporate more of the textural and rhythmic innovations of the faster songs.
Otis Redding died in December 1967 on the eve of his greatest success, Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay (1968), and the activity and popularity of many of the first wave of soul practitioners declined thereafter. The producers and songwriters Holland, Dozier and Holland, who had been responsible for the bulk of the hits for the Supremes and the Four Tops during the peak 1964–7 period left Motown, while Stax underwent administrative reorganization and became increasingly inconsistent in both artistic and commercial terms; by 1975 the company filed for bankruptcy. As soul music's popularity decreased with the pop audience the industry belatedly recognized its importance in 1969 when Billboard changed the name of the chart for black popular music from Rhythm and Blues to Soul, a name retained by the chart until 1982.
In the 1970s soul music diverged towards a ‘sweet’ soul style that took its cue from Motown and balladeers such as Curtis Mayfield, and towards a ‘funky’ soul style, after James Brown, the Southern soul practitioners and Aretha Franklin. The leading exponents of the sweet soul category resided in Philadelphia. Producers Gamble and Huff, and Thom Bell, along with a core of studio musicians, created a body of work that dominated soul music in the early 1970s. Musical trademarks included crisp, clear recordings enhanced by the generous ‘sweetening’ of strings and brass. The distinctive drum sound emphasized the mid-range, and often accented every beat; in evidence as early as Jerry Butler's Only the strong survive (1969), these musical trademarks reached maturity in the O'Jays' Love Train (1973) and Harold Melvin and Blue Notes' The Love I Lost (1973), creating a rhythmic and sonic approach that set the stage for Disco. The unabashedly romantic sound of the ballads of groups such as the Delfonics (La La means I love you, 1968; fig.4) and the Stylistics (Betcha By Golly Wow, 1972), usually featuring falsetto voices and rich orchestration, also enjoyed crossover success. Recording in Memphis, Al Green had a string of hits in the early 1970s beginning with Tired of Being Alone (1971), and that represented a synthesis of the ‘sweet’ and the ‘funky’.
By the early 1970s the funky stream of soul began to cohere into a style that was increasingly differentiated from soul music. Brown's influence and the influence of bands such as Sly and the Family Stone, who blended Brown's funk style with elements of psychedelic rock, was felt by many soul artists. At Motown the producer Norman Whitfield recorded a series of songs with the Temptations, among others, that showed the company moving in new directions, and clearly displayed the influence of Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. These included Cloud Nine, Ball of Confusion and Papa was a rolling stone, all from 1968–72. The early work of the Jackson Five also falls into this category, as with I want you back (1969). Long-established Motown artists also moved in new directions with concept albums, such as Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On (1971) and Stevie Wonder's Talking Book (1972).
By the mid-1970s the up-tempo numbers in the sweet style began to be called disco. Ballads formed the most obvious aural connection to soul music of the late 60s and early 70s, but by 1982, even Billboard had to concede that Soul was no longer an adequate label for black American popular music in general, and changed the name of the soul chart to Black Music. Aspects of soul music live on in contemporary rhythm and blues, and in the samples of many hip-hop tracks: Salt 'n' Pepa's Tramp (1987) pays homage to Otis Redding and Carla Thomas's Tramp of 20 years earlier. Contemporary usage of the term, however, refers to a style that began with a few scattered efforts of the pioneering singers in the 1950s, gathered momentum throughout the 60s with the twin streams of Southern soul and Motown, and eventually diverged into funk and disco in the 70s.
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DAVID BRACKETT