Spirit Heart Essence

Soul is a style of music that originated from the African American community, and it was developed out of Gospel as well as rhythm and blues, so if it’s R&B music that features elements of gospel music, that makes it soul music.  Soul music became popular throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  After slavery ended in 1865, African Americans sang joyful, up-tempo gospel songs and this led to the three main styles of soul music.  Early Soul is associated with Ray Charles, James Brown and Sam Cooke and these are mostly romantic love songs.  Northern Soul is split between two cities with Detroit having Motown’s pop soul and Chicago had the sound of Curtis Mayfield.  Southern Soul is associated with Memphis and it incorporated Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, Al Green, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Sisters, Aretha Franklin, and Percy Sledge.  Soul music played an important role during the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.  Other famous soul musicians include Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige.  Neo soul which is sometimes called progressive soul has a smoother sound and this emerged during the late 1990s and it is associated with Prince, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Terence Trent D’Arby, Joi, and Mint Condition.  Retro soul is a post-modern and contemporary popular music genre that emerged years after the golden era of soul music and that is associated with Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Leon Bridges and Michael Kiwanuka.

Last week we had Different From Mainstream where the theme was to find Alternative music.  This week the theme is to find Soul music.  Take some time to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this music challenge, and even better, read as many of them as you can as you will probably find many enjoyable songs and it is quite possibly that you will learn a thing or two.  Share your music with others and post a video, try do some research and let everyone know something about the song that you post.  Tell everyone why you like the song, whether it was a hit, or what you think the song is about.  Show the lyrics, let’s all listen to our favorite songs and explore some new music.  Try to find a song that fits the theme, then write your post and create a pingback, or you can just place your link in the comments section.

Suggestions
• Try to use the prompt words or at least conform to a general theme, as you see it.  If the song you select does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• It would be good if you could post the lyrics to the song of your choice, as this is helpful for the people that want to follow along with the music.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due. It would also be a good idea to give credit to the singer and the band associated with your song.
• Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be, but please try not to include too many videos as that just makes it take longer to look at all of the other posts.
• Link to the YouTube video, or you can pull it into your post, so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

This week I will be writing about the Al Green song ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’, and next week, I will be writing about the song ‘Get Down on It’ by Kool & the Gang.  The upcoming prompts will be:
April 16, 2023 – Funk
April 23, 2023 – Reggae music
April 30, 2023 – Gospel music
May 7, 2023 – Boy Bands