Soul music, which emerged in the 1950s, combines the sounds of rhythm and blues and gospel music.
It is characterized by its tense vocal sound and sometimes uses improvisation, which forms the fundamental part of jazz, as well as auxiliary sounds.
The rhythms in soul songs are stressed by hand-claps and impromptu body movements. Soul music also introduced people to an artistic and a lustful way of dancing, which was somewhat unheard of in those years.
Ray Charles is considered to be the inventor of soul music, with his recording of the song, “I Got A Woman.” It was based on a church song called “My Jesus Is All The World To Me.”
Today you may hear a song and not be able to say whether it’s soul or funk. They may sound very similar to you. But you have to consider the following points.
Soul music is the music of the 1960s. It came to the fore during the period of the Civil Rights Movement. The tone of soul songs that is used in soul music is that of pleading and begging. Funk music was invented in 1970s, during the Black Power movement. The inventor of funk is thought to be James Brown. Unlike soul music, in funk the tone is very demanding.
Not every person can understand soul music and not every person can reproduce the message that lies within each soul song. However, there were people who are now known to everyone as the greatest soul singers. They include Ray Charles (“I Got A Woman” 1955, “What’d I Say” 1959), Sam Cooke (“Be With Me Jesus” 1955, “Another Saturday Night” 1963) and Jackie Wilson (“To Be Loved” 1958, “Lonely Teardrops” 1958).
I am happy that soul music also had great female singers, like Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Dusty Springfield. These women managed to open the gates of paradise on earth.
Soul music turned gospel into art, into a new branch of song that still has enough strength and power to penetrate the soul and create strong feelings of love and pity.
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