Soul Music

Soul music originated in the United States sometime between the late 1950's and the early 1960's. The term "soul" was first used in the 1950's by African Americans to represent black pride and identity i.e. black nationalism. The 1960's witnessed widespread black's protest and civil rights movements fighting the marginalization of blacks in America led by the eloquent Martin Luther  King directly influenced the birth of soul music.

The word "soul" was used consistently by black businessmen, who during the ghetto uprisings of 1964 (Harlem), 1965 (Watts) and 1967 (Detroit and Newark), identified their stores by displaying signs that read "soul brother." Although soul music came to the fore around the early 1960's, historically, the existence of soul music dates back to the 1920's when some African migrants began to sing a fusion of African religious music with blues and jazz.

James Brown, a dynamic dancer and entertainer who was also hugely regarded as the godfather of soul, had several songs which became so popular among the civil rights movement in those days that it was almost like an anthem. He was perhaps one of the greatest forces in advocating black pride and social change. He stood true to his beliefs and refused to remix or dilute his black oriented style approach to music in order to broaden his fan base or attain more commercial success. His song "I'm Black and I'm Proud" which was released in 1968 was a hugely successful song which followed in line with his agenda of creating political awareness and black pride and identity in his songs. Among other things the song addressed the need for black empowerment as it contained lyrics such as "“We demands a chance to do thangs for ourself", "We’re tired of beating our head against the wall" and " workin’ for someone else”. James Brown who was also popularly known as Mr. Dynamite was a renowned philanthropist who reinvested most of his earnings into youth programs and charities aimed at developing the black youth.

Martin Luther King jr, leader of the civil rights movement, who also happened to be a prominent member of the black community was assassinated in 1968. His assassination triggered a violent response from the black community and a breakdown of law and order. The relevance and influence of Soul musicians came to the fore during this time as some of them were engaged by the government to help douse the riots

Apart from Brown, other people have contributed to the success of soul music over the years, including Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Solomon Burke, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Diana Ross etc. Around the 1980's Soul music, under the influence of electro music became less raw and diversified into a style now known as contemporary R&B. Soul music nowadays has outgrown color and discrimination and is no more regarded as a music made by blacks and for blacks but it has now received acceptance by people of other cultures and communities other than blacks.