Soul Music

 

Musical Elements of Soul

The elements are as follows: the vocals will display a strong gospel influence with embellishments and ornamental vocal techniques rather than just singing out the notes straight; there is further development of a call and response as preacher to congregation; there is a very strong, prominent and noticeable support of strings that is usually very tempered in mainstream fifties R&B; the brass section changes into a more active role alternating between small and bigger bands and its advancing harmonic brass pans and rhythmic brass stabs to a more supportive base that sometimes carries the melody or counter melody.

 

 

Diaspora

One thing about soul music is the way it was born out of the spores of gospel music, so to speak. Quite literally, the seeds of soul music were blown across the airwaves of America and took up root in several specific places, but not all at once. This spread was due in large part to the progression of radio technology, the coverage across America and the new recording techniques.

 

The many Origins of Soul

Soul music is vast and has a wide variety of sounds due to the differring regions and cities, artists and bands, music influences and styles (blues, country, gospel, R&B etc) and different studios and labels giving off unique and totally identifiable recorded sounds and techniques.

 

 

Regions

Soul music developed somewhat as a Diaspora in America in the late 1950s/early 1960s mainly in the south (New Orleans, Atlanta, the Delta, Muscle Shoals, etc.), the mid-west (Memphis, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis), and the east coast (Philly, NY, etc). There were many different sounds and styles all brewing their distinctive blends of soul music in their specific locations. Whether it was from blues influenced Chicago, Detroit’s Motown, Memphis’s Stax, Muscle Shoals or Fame Studios Atlanta or Macon styles, Philly soul, New Orleans soul, or otherwise deep southern soul, they all had a gospel element tempered by different styles of R&B.

 

Labels & Studios

Soul had many labels and distribution deals starting with the major labels like Chicago’s ABC-Paramount (Ray Charles’s label), New York’s RCA/Victor and Atlantic records, minor labels like King, Duke, Brunswick, Atco and also newer start-up labels like Keen, Motown or Stax. These labels and networks helped shape the sounds of classic 60s soul, they all added gospel elements to several regional styles of R&B to produce the great variety of soul music.

 

There were several notable record labels in soul music that struggled for “the top spot” on the radio at any given point in the sixties. The soul labels came from different situations, some were major labels and others were family owned startups.

 

Motown records in Detroit had a lighter more up-tempo rhythm sound where, Stax records in Memphis was more laid back, more bluesy. You also had the distinctive sounds coming from specific studios like FAME studios and down in Muscle Shoals in northern Alabama across the Tennessee River.