First BIG Blog! American Roots Music

 After listening to all the options listed for this blog for about a half hour the one, I decided to go with is the music genre soul! When I was listening to example songs of each genre this is the one, I felt more connected to. 

Soul music is originated in the United States from the African American community in the 1950s and early 1960s the term soul music has associations with African American pride and culture. During the 60s soul music transformed into an umbrella term for African American music. While just going over The Blues in class last week and seeing how it formed into R&B Soul music is actually a combination of R&B and gospel music. The reason for Soul Music being affiliated with gospel music is because after slavery ended in 1865, African Americans weren't welcome in the churches of white Americans, so they built their own churches and sang Christian songs their own unique way. They sang joyful, up-tempo gospel songs while clapping and moving to the beat and even sings slower gospel songs that expressed deep feelings like yearning for God's love. As I found on this website Origins and Influence of Soul Music (liveabout.com) they state how Soul has a lot in common with R&B and the only difference is the use of "gospel-music devices". How may you ask? well it's a greater emphasis on vocalists and its merging of religious and secular themes as said in the article. 

Soul music was originated in Memphis, and it became widely known is southern United States where most the artist were from. During the 60s and 70s Soul embodied the spirit of social and political changed. This music genre helped paralleled the Civil Rights Movement.

The Roots

Soul music is the result of the combination and merging of previous styles/substyles in the 50s and 60s and now look it's one of the most popular American music. Some of the first performers were Ray Charles and James Brown with such a success from their music white artists started to adopt the sound like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. They just removed most of the gospel message but kept the same musical techniques, instrumentation and feeling. With it gaining popularity from white musical groups this then created a new genre called "Blue-Eyed Soul"

The same article from above gave me some very interesting information about Ray Charles and James Brown that I think would be cool to share with you guys!

    - Ray Charles
Just like Stevie Wonder, Charles was blind. Charles became blind by the age of seven but never stopped him from learning to ride a bike, play cards, use stairs, or even fly an airplane and especially never stopped him from making music. He just used his other senses and was very talented at doing so! He was very influenced by both the pop vocal stylings of crooners like Nat King Cole and the smooth West Coast Blues of Charles Brown. Charles was given a start on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1981 and a total of 13 number 1 hits. 

"I've Got a Woman"

(This is an example of up-tempo style; up-tempo gospels songs became up-tempo soul songs)

    - James Brown
Charles earned the title "Godfather of Soul" and placed 99 songs on the pop charts! Known as "Godfather of Soul" and was the lead singer of the Famous Flames. When he was younger his neighbors taught him how to play the drums, piano and guitar and then he learned more about gospel music in churches and tent revivals 
Here is his number 1 hit

"I Got You (I Feel Good)"

Another popular was Aretha Franklin

Referred to as the "Queen of Soul" in the 1960s. Franklin got a lot of her inspiration from her parents. Franklins mother was a gospel singer and pianist, and her father was presided over the New Bethel Baptist Church and was a minister of national influence. Franklins' parents separated when she was six and ended up going to stay with her father. Her mother sadly passed away from Aretha when she was ten. Franklin then would perform with her father on his gospel programs in major cities and soon was recognized as a vocal prodigy. At age eight-teen she moved to New York and started to produce music. Over the years Franklin received many and many awards for her talent of singing one even being the first woman indicted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Most known song from Franklin, I'm sure you've all heard, is "Respect"

Genres Inspired by Soul

Soul inspired many other genres, even current ones like pop music and funk. Soul actually never went away, it kept evolving. There are Detroit Soul or Motown, Deep Soul, Memphis Soul, Blue-Eyed Soul, British Soul, Southern Soul, Neo-Soul and even other Soul-inspired movements like Philadelphia Soul, doo-wop sound, psychedelic soul (which paved its way into funk music in the 1960s), hyper soul (combination of soul and dance music)

Detroit Soul/Motown 
- Started by businessman Berry Gordy in Detroit, Michigan
- Motown caused Detroit to be known as the center of the pop-oriented brand of soul
- Has a strong rhythmic vibe and heavily influenced by gospel music
- Motown Records was the record label that was responsible for releasing a bunch of popular soul albums/songs during the 70s
- One distinctive sound is the hand clapping, powerful baselines, brass, vibraphone, and strings
- Became popular in 1960s and smooth and glossier in the 70s, leading to disco

Deep Soul and Southern Soul
- Refers to energetic and driving style that combines R&Bs energy with southern the United States gospel music sounds
- Vocals further back in the mix compared to contemporary R&B records by using vibrant horn parts in place of background vocals

Blue-Eyed Soul
- Performed by white artist
- Associated with singers and artists who performed R&B and soul that was somewhat similar to music produced by Stax Records and Motown Records

Neo-Soul
- Mixture of 1970s soul-style instrumentation and vocals with hip-hop beats, poetic interludes, and contemporary R&B sounds
- Subgenre established in early 1990s
- Term Neo-Soul was created by record label executive and producer Kedar Massenburg
- Heavy dose of Fender Rhodes over a grooving and mellow interplay between the drums with deep and funky bass

I hope you all enjoyed learning about or more about the music genre soul! It definitely is something I enjoyed and had no clue there would be so many different types of soul music. 

Citations 

“Soul Music.” Wikipedia, 28 Apr. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_music

critic, Robert Fontenot Robert Fontenot Jr is an entertainment, et al. “Facts about Ray Charles.” LiveAbout, www.liveabout.com/facts-about-ray-charles-2523174.

“History of Soul Music | Vocabulary | EnglishClub.” Englishclub.com, 2010, www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/music-soul.htm.

Admin. “History of Soul Music.” Mental Itch, Mental Itch, 17 May 2019, mentalitch.com/history-of-soul-music/.

Ritz, David. “Aretha Franklin | Biography, Songs, Albums, & Facts.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 18 Feb. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Aretha-Franklin.