What Is “Soul Music”?

June 26, 2008 by tgrundy · 1 Comment
Filed under: Gospel, blues, jazz, music, soul

OK, so I’m listening to one of my favorite podcasts this past Friday morning, the Friday Favecast by Fave, and at about the 16 minute, 30 second mark he asks a question that I have *NOT* been able to stop thinking about:

“WHAT IS SOUL MUSIC?”

He goes on to define the question further by asking, “How do you explain to a cat over in the UK or over in Japan or Paris what “soul” is?”, especially if they have never heard it before.

“WHAT IS SOUL MUSIC?”

Ever since then I have been thinking about this question and, to be honest, have even become a little obsessive about it. I had to laugh the other day when I noticed that with every song I play or hear now, inevitably I ask myself, “Is this soul?” Like I said… obsessive. {smile}

Well, I thought I would enlist the help of my RIBS readers and throw the question out to all of you. What is soul music to music to you? How do you define it? What is the history of soul music? How would you explain what it is to someone who has never heard it?

I have been researching this topic off and on for the past week and most of what I have read centers around soul music as a “feeling” or an “emotion” that a person has when listening to or singing this music. While that is very much an integral component of soul and I don’t disagree with that definition, I do want to offer another viewpoint as an additional (and very important) component of what soul is:

Soul music has it’s roots intricately intertwined with the experience of Blacks in America to survive and persevere, especially during the years of slavery and its aftermath.

If you break it down there are four different sources which have shaped soul: racial, geographical, historical and economic factors. From a ‘technical’ point of view, it is the merging of R&B and Gospel in the late 1950’s. Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, James Brown and Solomon Burke are commonly regarded as the pioneers of this style of music.

Agree? Disagree? And what about “soul music” today in 2008? Just like I can name Ray, Sam, James and Solomon above as the beginnings of soul, who are the “soul” singers of today that we’ll be talking about 20, 30 or 40 years down the road?

Looking forward to some interesting discussion…

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