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African Genesis Presents
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African Genesis Presents
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Soul music was the result of the
urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the '60s. Soul
came to describe a number of R&B-based music styles. From the bouncy,
catchy acts at Motown to the horn-driven, gritty soul of Stax/Volt, there
was an immense amount of diversity within soul.
In Detroit, Motown concentrated on creating a pop-oriented sound
that was informed equally by gospel, R&B, and rock & roll. In
the South, the music became harder and tougher, relying on syncopated
rhythms, raw vocals, and blaring horns. All of these styles formed
soul, which ruled the black music charts throughout the '60s and also
frequently crossed over into the pop charts. At the end of the '60s,
soul began to splinter apart, as artists like James Brown and Sly
Stone developed funk, and other artists developed slicker forms of
soul. Although soul music evolved, it never went away -- not only did
the music inform all of the R&B of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, there
were always pockets of musicians around the world that kept performing
traditional soul.
In the first part of the '60s, soul music remained close to its
R&B roots. However, musicians pushed the music in different
directions; usually, different regions of America produced different
kinds of soul. In urban centers like New York, Philadelphia, and
Chicago, the music concentrated on vocal interplay and smooth
productions.
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Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and James Brown
are commonly considered the earliest pioneers of soul music. Solomon Burke's
early recordings for Atlantic Records codified the style, and as Peter
Guralnick writes, "it was only with the coming
together of Burke and Atlantic Records that you could see anything
resembling a movement." Burke's recordings, in the early 1960s, of "Cry to
Me," "Just Out of Reach" and "Down in the Valley" are considered classics of
the genre.
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In Memphis, Stax Records produced recordings by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett \ and Don Covay (Covay also recorded in New York City for Atlantic). Joe Tex's 1965 "The Love You Save" is another classic soul recording. An important center of soul-music recording was Florence, Alabama, where the Fame Studios operated. Jimmy Hughes, Percy Sledge and Arthur Alexander recorded at Fame; later in the 1960s, Aretha Franklin would also record in the area. Fame Studios, often referred to as "Muscle Shoals", after a town neighboring Florence, enjoyed a close relationship with Stax, and many of the musicians and producers who worked in Memphis also contributed to recordings done in Alabama.
Aretha Franklin's 1967 recordings, such as "I Never Loved a Man That Way I Love You," "Respect" (a song originally by Otis Redding), and "Do Right Woman-Do Right Man," are commonly considered to be the apogee of the soul-music genre, and among its most commercially successful productions. During this period, Stax artists such as Eddie Floyd and Johnnie Taylor also made significant contributions to soul music. By 1968, the soul-music movement had begun to splinter, as James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone began to expand upon and abstract both soul and rhythm and blues into other forms. As Guralnick writes, "More than anything else, though, what seems to me to have brought the era of soul to a grinding, unsettling halt was the death of Martin Luther King in April of 1968."
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Detroit was another city which produced some important late-soul recordings; producer Don Davis, from the city, worked with Stax artists such as Johnnie Taylor and The Dramatics. The Detroit Emeralds, on early-'70s recordings such as "Do Me Right," are an important link between soul and the later disco style. Motown Records artists such as Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson contributed to the evolution of soul music, although their recordings were conceived in a more overtly pop music vein that those of Redding, Franklin or Carr.
The Soul Music Center
