Soul music has been synonymous with African American ancestry that later evolved into other different genres. These genres that evolved from soul music include dance and funk, contemporary R&B and hip hop. It is documented that in the early 1950s, Soul music started in the USA. This new creation by then came from a church service music known as gospel music.
Because of the cultural difference and the racial profiling of the blacks during the slavery days, African Americans couldn’t mingle with the white Americans in church. This made the black Americans build their own churches. They had the chance to sing songs with rhythms and vocal styles created by them. They sang up-tempo, joyful, gospel music while moving and clapping to the beat rhythm then slowing down the tempo to praise and worship songs which led to the building of the soul music style.
Early Soul Music
The first soul music was created by recreating gospel songs to secular music. The once up-tempo, joyful gospel songs were turned to up-tempo songs that became soul music. The lower tempo gospel music was turned to r
omantic love songs.
The up-tempo style example is the R&B musician Ray Charles’ song I’ve Got a Woman, which is a changed version of the gospel music, I’ve Got a Savior. Later soul music examples include The Staple Singers recordings like I’ll Take You There, also Al Green’s recordings done in the 1970s. In the early 1950s, Charles secularized most of the gospel songs which saw the rise of the Soul queen, Aretha Franklin.
Aretha had been working with the Columbia records for not less than six years before her singing finally got the big break, spurred by the songs ‘I Never Loved a Man’ and ‘Respect.’ It is around this time that another artist, James Brown, was making a name for the soul genre.
The Motown records should also be acclaimed the Soul music contender. This is in connection with one of their soul music artist Supremes. Motown records had an array of gospel grit incorporated into their style. The record label produced the Contours song ‘Do You Love Me’ and ‘Can I Get a Witness’ by Marvin Gaye not forgetting Stevie Wonders ‘Everything’s Alright.’ However, their style was immaculate in an attempt to get white teens as fans.