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The aim of this essay will look at how Blue-eyed soul relates back to it's parent genre, Soul; through analysis of musical features. Blue eyed soul is typically described as White musicians who have recreated soul music of the 1960's (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). The somewhat ambiguous term refers to White musicians who “emulated black vocal styling and phrasing, and often covered black songs but also established themselves as recording artists with audience crossover skills” (Cooper, 2010, p.1). How musically different is the sub-genre, Blue-eyed soul to Soul or is it only a category which conformed to society norms of the 1960's?
Soul roots relate back to stylist elements of Gospel, Blues, Jazz and Rhythm&Blues (Brown 1982 cited in Borthwick and Moy, 2004; Pruter, 1993). It was once under the category of Race music which defined all African American music. Soul is seen as a rise of African-American civil rights movement and is classify as the “essence of black culture” (Bowman, 2012, p.439). Soul is known for the group of labels, such as Stax and Motown, that had built and produced many of the well known soul artist we know of today.
Many of the artists that began the rise of soul came from other musical genre background including Jazz, blues and gospel, for example Ray Charles and Sam cooke. Sam Cooke had a professional Gospel career before becoming known for his smooth soulful style with his secular lyrics and a more Pop sound, a good example of this is Twistin' the night away. The song has prominent vocals and the instruments stayed more in the background. For Soul, the focus on vocals is typical and before singer songwriters were popular, it was the delivery and presentation from the vocalist, to interpret the lyrics i...
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Neal, M. A. (2005). White chocolate soul: Teena Marie and Lewis Taylor. Popular music, 24(3), 369-380. doi:10.1017/S0261143005000577
Myers, M. (2012,12 July). The song that conquered radio. The wall street journal. Retrieved from http://uk.wsj.com/
Phil Spector's wall of sound. (2009, 14 April). BBC news. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Pruter, R, (1993). The Blackwell guide to Soul recording: edited by Robert Pruter. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Shaw, A., (1986). Black popular music in America: from the spirituals, minstrel and ragtime to soul, disco and hip-hop. New York: Schirmer Books.
soul music.(2014). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 06 January, 2014, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/555198/soul-music
Tymieniecka, B. (Director) (2009). Da doo ron ron: The story of Phil Spector. [DVD]. US: Charley Films.
Werner, Craig Hansen. 2006. A change is gonna come: music, race & the soul of America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Blues has played an extreme role in todays’ music. The music genre of blues, helps us express ourselves in which you can feel it from the ubiquitous in the jazz to the blues scale and the specific chord progressions. To start off, the blues is musically originated by African Americans in the deep South of the United States. Growing up in a southern household, I was used to listening to a variety music, but blues was always most listened to. Every time I listen to blues, the lyrics often deal with personal adversity, and it goes far beyond pity.
Soul music was developed in the late 1950s from African American church music called Gospel music. After slavery ended in1865, African American were not welcomed in the church of White Americans, so they built their own churches and sang Christian songs with African American vocal styles and rhythm. As the civil rights movement, staged bigger and bigger demonstrations and increase in African American pride “Soul music” became more than party music for young blacks: it became a rallying flag for the Black nationalist movement. Soul music was born thanks to the innovations of continuous post-war musicians who essentially turned Gospel music into a secular form of
Charlie Pride did it in 1971. Darius Rucker did it in 2009. That’s it. Two black men, spanning thirty-eight years, are the only black artists to win a Country Music Association Award. With country music rooted in bluegrass and rhythm and blues, why aren’t there more black country music stars? When considering the roots of country music, and how closely related country is to blues, bluegrass and honky tonk music, an examination of what happened to all the black musicians seems warranted, no? This paper examines the dearth of black artists in country music and the careers of one of the few black artists who has had commercial success in this genre of music.
Blues is one of the most captivating genres of music. The genre was originated in the late 1800’s as a method used by African American slaves to express the circumstances as well as to put emphasis on their feelings and emotions. In order to create these feelings in this music, blues artists incorporate many of the same techniques used to write poetry. One of the most easily identifiable songs in which it is easy to see the relation between poetic elements and blues music is the song “Empty Bed Blues” by Bessie Smith.
Musicologists have dated the ‘birth’ of blues to be around 1890 as a West African tradition involving blue indigo in which mourners at ceremonies would wear blue dyed attires to resemble their suffering . Although, blues derived from times of slavery, the Prohibition Era (1920’s), World War Two (1939-1945), and during the Vietnam War (predominantly 1960’s to 1970’s), it has been a continuously evolved form of music in America, in which the similarities have always remained; melancholy and protest.
Music nurtured the African American tradition and their struggle towards equality in the same century.... ... middle of paper ... ... Greensboro, N.C.: Morgan Reynolds Pub. Carter, D. (2009).
Before beginning to analyze both Motown and Stax Record’s influence on black consciousness it must first be understood why black consciousness itself can be seen as a step in the right direction in the fight against black struggle. Brian Ward does a great job of capturing the true success of soul music’s influence on black consciousness. Ward says, “[Black radio’s] real strength… was its ability to dramatize and celebrate shared aspects of the black experience… to promote a revived sense of black identity, pride, solidarity and common consciousness” (Ward 449). In his book, Ward also points out that despite this successful development of black consciousness, there was limited success both economically and structurally on behalf of the black music industry. This shows that even though ther...
Roy, William G. “Aesthetic Identity, Race, and American Folk Music.” Qualitative sociology 25, no. 3 (Fall 2002): 459-469.
Ryan, John. “The Seventh Stream: The emergency of rock n roll in American popular music,” (Book reviews) Social Forces (1994): March, p. 927. Star, Alexander. “Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music” (book reviews)
Music can be traced back into human history to prehistoric eras. To this day archeologists uncover fragments of ancient instruments as well as tablets with carved lyrics buried alongside prominent leaders and highly influential people. This serves as a testament to the importance and power of music, as well as its influence in society. Over its many years of existence, music’s powerful invocation of feelings has allowed it to evolve and serve many purposes, one being inspiring change. American journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson once said, “Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of fuel. Sentimental people call it inspiration, but what they really mean is fuel.” This fuel is the very things that powers the influence of Rock ‘n’ Roll on American society, that author Glenn C. Altschuler writes about in his book, “All Shook Up – How Rock ‘n’ Roll Changed America.” Between 1945 and 1965 Rock ‘n’ Roll transformed American society and culture by helping to ease racial integration and launch a sexual revolution while most importantly developing an intergenerational identity.
McPherson, Ian. “The Salt of the Earth: 1955-1960 R&B-Derived Rock & Roll.” Time Is On Our
Breckenridge, Stan L. (2003). "The 'Path African American music for everyone. Second Edition. Iowa: Kendall-Hunt Publications, Inc. Enotes.
Powell, A. (2007). The Music of African Americans and its Impact on the American Culture in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Miller African Centered Academy, 1. Retrieved from http://www.chatham.edu/pti/curriculum/units/2007/Powell.pdf