Soul Music

 

 When I listen to music, I tend to like to listen to more mellow music and most of it is classified as “R&B/Soul.” This is the main reason I picked Soul, decided to go more in depth with the genre, and teach you about it while I learn more about it as well.

 

Soul music is a product of the 1950s America. It bloomed from African American Gospel music after segregation in the late 1800s caused church to be separated. Since the church was split, it forced the African Americans to build their own churches and create their own worship songs. At the time of the creation of these separated churches, the birth of two types of soul music formed through the gospels they were singing.

 

After the songs were later rewritten with new lyrics, the two types started to separate themselves. The more upbeat songs with a quicker tempo turned into the up-tempo soul songs, while some of the slower tempo songs turned into love songs that had more romantic meanings.

An example of one of the gospel songs turning into an upbeat soul song can be heard through the music of Ray Charles. There are many times through his career that you can hear the creation of a soul song from an original gospel song. One particular song you can hear this through is Charles’s “Hallelujah I Love Her So” that came from the earlier gospel song “That’s Why I Love Him So.” In the two selections you are able to hear the similarities between the songs, especially between how similar the lyrics are. Ray Charles was able to take this gospel song from the early 1950s and turn it into a soul song with a whole new meaning.

This is “That’s Why I Love Him So” from the Gospel All Stars group featuring James Cleveland as the main vocalist.



The slight change of song resulted in Ray Charles’s “Hallelujah I Lover Her So.”



 

As I’ve previously mentioned soul music has influence from gospel music. Some other music that has influenced soul music is R&B, Jazz, and some rock. Some key elements that it has are the call and response vocals and emotion displayed throughout the song. The songs that fall under the soul genre are typically very catchy songs. They will have a drum or some type of beat to keep the music flowing and There are many different instruments that can be heard throughout this genre of music. Some main instruments are guitar, piano, bass, and percussion.

Personally, I have not always been the type to listen to listen this music, but as time has gone on, I enjoy the sound of it. When I was younger, I listened to the most popular music and mainly whatever was on the radio. It wasn’t until I had a music streaming app on my phone that allowed me to explore more with my music.




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

“Turning Gospel Classics into R&B Classics.” Gospel Roots of Rock and Soul, 7 Jan. 2019, xpngospelroots.org/gospel-classics/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2021.

“Soul Music Stylistic Fingerprints - Music Technology.” Musictechstudent.co.uk, musictechstudent.co.uk/soul/soul-music-stylistic-fingerprints/.


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Comments

  1. Claire MormandoNovember 5, 2021 at 1:49 PM

    I've always been into more upbeat, harder-going music, so I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed listening to soul! I found myself swishing my head around to the first song without realizing it. And I LOVE the piano in the songs. I've always thought of soul as slow and kind of boring, but your song picks were more upbeat than I expected, so that was super cool!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 6, 2021 at 8:25 PM

    Soul music is pretty chill to me and I like how smooth it is. I like how you can connect it and make it into something you like. I honestly had no clue that its origin was gospel music, so to find that out was pretty cool.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nia JacksonNovember 14, 2021 at 1:23 PM

    Soul music has always been one of my favorite genres, I love the passion I feel through the performers when listening to it, and I really feel myself connect to it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 15, 2021 at 4:50 PM

    Soul is one of my favorite genres. I like that you talked about the gospel origins of soul. And how some more upbeat songs had a quicker tempo and how the slower tempo songs are more love songs with romantic meanings.

    ReplyDelete
  5. jackson beckNovember 23, 2021 at 10:56 AM

    I also did soul music and when listening to it you can always hear some of the other genres mixed in to make it work such as hearing the african american gospel music genre come through it. My favorite part about soul music is when they start playing the piano really really good and has you wanting to jump out your seat.

    ReplyDelete

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