The History Of Soul In Four Hours

[Tommy1]

I'm a teacher at a high school in Oslo where I teach P. E. and history. This is a high school where the students can choose different subjects and one of them is music. I've been asked by the music teacher who is now doing the history of popular music if I want to do the soul part.

This is the 2nd grade so the students are between 17 to 18 years old. I'm free to do what I want, and the music teacher who is a good friend me, wants me to bring "real" records to play for them and he also wants me to talk about rare soul/ northern soul. One of the biggest problems is that I only get four hours (2 double hours).

I'm not trying to let you do the lecture for me, but I would appreciate some good advice.

[Cunnie]

Have a read of this Tommy from Big Daddy's magazine.

Probably the best review of the Northern scene i've read from someone who is actually not on it.

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/rare-northern-soul-articles/big-daddies-guide-northern

[Mace]

Have a read of this Tommy from Big Daddy's magazine.

Probably the best review of the Northern scene i've read from someone who is actually not on it.

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/rare-northern-soul-articles/big-daddies-guide-northern

......I wouldn't quote the part about 'the legendary Torch club (Hanley)' if it need to be factual tho

Edited December 2, 2007 by Mace

[Tommy1]

Thanks a lot Cunnie that was really interesting!

I think it will be "easy" and fun to tell them the amazing story of northern soul, but I have to give them a short introduction of the soul history before talking of the rare soul. Remember that they don't have any background at all when it comes to soul. This is music students who want to know how the term soul develop, what it is musically and so on.

I'm thinking something like this:

1. What is soul/ how did it develop. Not sure what say here....?

2. Tell them about how it became popular music maybe by using and playing some "well known" artists on "well known" labels. (Atlantic, Motown, Stax+++?) Not sure what to say here...?

3. And then the story of the northern/rare soul by playing "unknown artists" on "indie" labels...?

[ImberBoy]

Hi Tommy, what a fantastic project and I wish you well. I assume you will kick off from the roots of black America and follow the natural pathways of this wonderful music?

My tip for you is to appreciate right from the start that you will not be able to cram the complete story into four hours, I would personally use the obvious start and the "evolutionary time line" as your skeleton then swerve off to go in depth into one of the many diverse directions, northernsoul for instance.

This way you could try and capture and tell the magical way this music has inspired and embedded into our culture. A picture paints a thousand words and Youtube can give you the bite sized clips for both the music and the dancing.

Have fun, I think you all will.

If you need any further assistance please feel free to contact me, I have 22 years of experience in lecturing, PowerPoint and all the other bells and whistles associated.

[Tommy1]

Thanks a lot for your tips and support!

It's a good idea with an "evolutionary time line", but I could really need some help here. By thinking of not making it to hard and the short time I have; What would you put on this time line, where or what would you start with?

How does the soul story time line look like?

I'm gonna use Youtube for sure, both to illustrated the time line and the many diverse directions of soul music. But I only have two weeks to prepare for this so any good tip here would also be appreciated.

[Billy Freemantle]

I've always though this was an intelligent and well-written page , Tommy:

https://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/S...gpages/the5.htm

Here's a taste:

"

My starting point must be the arrival of African Slaves to North America. The first batch were brought by English Privateers and landed in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. At first they were few in number so it was not necessary to define their legal status but with the development of the plantation system in the southern colonies the number of agricultural slave labourers increased greatly. The first statutory recognition of slavery occurred in Massachusetts in 1641, in Connecticut in 1650 and Virginia in 1661, but these were mainly rules for dealing with runaways. By the time the war of independence began (1775-1783) laws defining their legal, political and social status with regards to their owners had become very specific.

As they were toiling in the fields the slaves tried to alleviate their misery by singing their traditional African Folk songs. It was only when these black workers started to convert to Christianity that these folk songs metamorphosed to become "African Spirituals". The first references to spiritual-like songs sung by Black Slaves date from about 1825-1850. As one would expect, these 'Spirituals' showed significant melodic and rhythmic relationships with West African songs. Before the Civil War they were apparently sung without harmony, examples of which are "Deep River" and "Roll Jordan Roll". Black Spirituals were often used as work songs and sometimes contained coded information as a form of secret communication. By the late 1800's spirituals had largely been displaced by Gospel Songs.

Black Gospel Music, which had become distinctive from White Gospel Music by 1930, was especially associated with Pentecostal churches. It developed out of a combination of earlier hymns, black performance styles, and elements from the spirituals. The singing was often merged into ecstatic dance and was usually accompanied by a piano or an organ, often with handclapping, tambourines and electric guitars.

Just before, and during World War Two many blacks migrated from the agricultural south to the more industrial Mid-Western, North-Eastern and West-Coast Cities. This population shift was caused by relatively high paying wartime employment. It was this new urbanised demographic group which evolved a new style of secular music known as R&B. Its genesis was inspired by two technological developments, the invention of the electric guitar during the 1930's and the discovery of the German Tape Recorder. This new, cheap medium simplified the sound recording process and meant that Blacks could start their own independent record companies for the first time. These companies Atlantic, Chess, Speciality and Modern were crucial in the production and distribution of R&B. Access to their music was given fresh impetus during the late 1940's when many radio station owners, fearing that the newly invented television would make their radio stations obsolete sold them at knockdown prices. For the first time black owned radio stations could promote the sounds of R&B.

Whilst the newly urbanised blacks of the North were developing R&B, their Southern counterparts were developing their own brand of secular music. Like R&B, Jazz was also rooted in the musical traditions of American blacks, but with White European Influences mixed in. Most early Jazz was played by small marching bands or by solo pianists and besides Ragtime and marches their repertoire included hymns, spirituals and blues. Although blues and ragtime rose independently of Jazz, these genres influenced the style and forms of Jazz and provided important vehicles for Jazz improvisation.

Soul did not evolve until the early sixties when artists like Sam Cooke, Bobby Bland and Ray Charles began merging traditional Gospel and R&B styles. Ray Charles went even further and began taking overtly religious songs such as 'I Got Religion' and secularising them to become songs like 'I Got a Woman'. In the process he alienated many religious blacks who thought his music was 'the music of the devil'.

Throughout the early sixties the most important centres for Soul were Chicago, Memphis and Detroit, each developing their own distinctive styles. It was the Stax label in Memphis which relied most heavily on..... etc"

[ImberBoy]

Yup I'd agree with this as a starting foundation, this should possibly take 15 mins? I'd then slice the hours into 15 min chunks giving this time to say the Atlantic stax sound first with the artists and you could play the songs or show Youtube clips summarising briefly after each one.

Next up would be Motown, do the same for this as with the Stax part. After this you can dive head first into the smaller labels and then go onto Northernsoul.

Do the same for disco or should I say the main stream, ..... yup the music changed, black Americana.

If you want an example of a time line look here https://classic.motown.com/timeline/

[Djmelismo]

Hi Tommy!

Interesting task you have before you. I have given this kind of lecture a number of times. Hard to sum it up in a Soul-Source post, but of course things like these ought to be touched upon: slave-trade, Africa-America, religion, Baptist movement, negro-spirituals, gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, Mahalia Jackson, 50´s, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, 60´s, Black Power Movement, Martin Luther King, Stax, Motown, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, Curtis Mayfield, Atlantic, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Funk, 70´s, Al Green, Philly Soul, Lavish orchestration, O´Jays, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Disco, Synthesizers, Drum machines, 80´s crooners, bedroom soul Luther Vandross, Soul II Soul, UK, house, garage, techno, hip-hop, new jack swing, Guy, R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige, urban r´n´b, blue-eyed soul, nu soul, D´Angelo.

As you may know the term soul was first used in jazz music, to describe a form of black jazz meant to contrast with the white cool jazz. The instrumentalist played his instrument in a way reminiscent of the typical melismatic wailing of a black gospel singer.

Northern Soul may be brought up in connection with Motown. Some (evil?!) people say that lots of Northern soul are Motown-sounding records done by artists not very well known to the general public, well... The bit about Northern soul/rare soul can also be taken as a separate part altogether, as its focus is more on what the UK audience did, labelling/categorizing soul music into Northern, Crossover, Modern, and UK punters paying large sums of money for records that noone in the US had ever paid any attention to before...

Please feel free to contact me if you need further advice.

Good luck!

All the best

Melismo

[Tommy1]

Thanks for all your support and replies, this shows how great this forum is!

I'm gonna try to make the lecture one of these days, and I'm almost sure I will get back with some more questions.

[Ian Dewhirst]

Thanks for all your support and replies, this shows how great this forum is!

I'm gonna try to make the lecture one of these days, and I'm almost sure I will get back with some more questions.

Hi Tommy,

I just pm'd you 4 lots of sleeve notes I did for the Northern Soul Story 4 CD set I did earlier this year. This may help as it looks at Northern Soul from a hands-on personal perspective whilst it was happening at the time....

Hope it may help!

Best,

Ian D

[Guest JJMMWGDuPree]

Try working backwards. 'So who influenced Northern soul?', 'So who influenced Curtis Mayfield?', 'So who influenced Sam Cook?' and so on. Doing this you can of course prove that anything derived from anything (I once 'proved' that we have 'One for my baby' to blame for heavy metal...) but done properly it can be quite revealing. It's astounding how many influences it takes to create a genre.

[Billy Freemantle]

Try working backwards. 'So who influenced Northern soul?',

That's the question.

What's the answer?

[Guest WPaulVanDyk]

but having a timeline would benifit or going onto each section at a time i wouldn't always play records if you try and talk and get it playing at the same time unless you can talk over the record but why not 30 second clips on a cd or something so that each section has 5 or so 30 second clips while you talk about the music.

One thing though who do you include when it comes to soul artists anyway because to a lot people there are so many you can cover. maybe you list the top 5 or close in any genre and maybe just a wee bit on the top 2. if it was me i would say 15 mins on the start of soul music and introduction to Ray Charles and Sam cooke. name The Driffters and some other stars of that period say 1950 - 1962. then your next 15 mins is moving onto the next part of soul music ie say 1962 - 1970 site stars like Jackie Wilson and people not on stax or atlantic then talk about stax, atlantic, drifters could be molded into atlantic part, use Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding etc

then recall the motor city for 15 mins of motown before you mention it was that music thar formed part of how people describe what Northern soul is talk about this and say that into the 70's it became more wide spread.

then my next 15 mins would be spent on such topics like

5 funk and so on

6. General 70's

7. Modern the way it emerged from Northern soul

8. Philly soul how big in the 70's it was

9. disco and rare grooves the new phase in soul music

10. early rap how it has parts of disco/general 80's soul

11. crossover how soul went into R & B not in style but some of the artists and dispite many soul acts still making records etc it was this new thing R & B/new jack swing etc

12. 90's talk about the general soul of it and acts still trying to keep it soul and not R & B and stars who had hits on the Modern scene

13. classic R & B well the mid to late 90's and Rap/Hip Hop of the late 80's and 90's

14. emerging of house and garage

15. 00's soul and R & B the new crop of stars and then you finish off with

16. Rap of today and odd bits like R & B

but i am sure trying to cram so much into 4 hours is hard just that's how i would do it and each part using some of the major stars of that time. you could always make little notes about stars etc and put them into a booklet for them to use aswell

[Guest JJMMWGDuPree]

That's the question.

What's the answer?

You don't know???

[Tommy1]

Thanks again for your support!

I really want to bring 45s to show these kids the real stuff, so no CDs. Some of them have never seen a record or a turntable...

I think I would try to show how soul became a genre by using an "easy" time line. For me, and the students, I think it's easier to "understand" an evolution of soul music by doing that.

So maybe something like this, feel free to fill inn :

1. The story of slaves and their folk music.

Story:

Artist(s) to play:

2. Gospel

Story:

Artist(s) to play

3. "Gospel meets R&B"

Story:

Artist(s):

4. Early soul

Story:

Artist(s):

5. Soul. The major labels.

A. Stax

Story:

Artist(s) to play

B. Atlantic

Story:

Artist(s) to play

C. Motown

Story:

Artist(s) to play

D.?

6. Northern, or maybe get back to this at the end as a fantastic story about the love for soul music?

Story: I think I know this.

Artists:

7. Funk

Story:

Artist(s):

8. 70s soul

Story:

Artist(s)

9. Disco

Story:

Artist(s)

10. Old school rap/ hip hop

Story:

Artist(s)

11, 12, 13......? Not sure of the way from here. Is there a "line" /connection all the way up today?

- Also thinking about ending it with playing some originals of "soul/funk samples in popular music today"

Chi Lites "Are you my woman"

C. Mayfield "Move on up"

D. Cortez "Soul with a hook"

Edited December 6, 2007 by Tommy1

[Guest SoulBoogieAlex]

You might want to check out Just My Soul Responding. An excellent book on the developement of the genre set off againts the history of the civil rights movement and the social economical position of African-Americans. The developement of the genre and that historic backdrop went hand in hand in more than just a few respects. Excellent book!

[heikki 1]

Make sure you define the terms crossover and "modern" soul. Then start talking about modern oldies etc etc.

On a more serious note, I can really recommend the book below. It a very good study about the transition from blues to soul, from an athropologist's view. It's quite an easy read though, it's not aimed just for the academics. There's a lot about the civil rights movement also, I know you're interested in it.

Title: Soul Music (The Birth Of A Sound In Black America)ISBN: 0-306-80246-5

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Author: Michael Haralambos

[Guest JJMMWGDuPree]

5D should be a look at the slew of small indie labels that churned out mini classics that no one outside of the immediate area got to hear until... 6.

I have to take issue at this point with all this talk about rap. I see no connection between rap and soul. My dad had a rap 78 recorded years before I was born ('Serutan yob' by the Unnatural 7 if anyone's interested). There were loads of rap records about in the 50s and 60s, only then they called it poetry. There were the Jive Poets, The Jazz Poets, The Beat Poets... I remember them going right through to into the 70s with The Dub Poets, and ironically, The Last Poets (If my memory serves me well it wasn't long after that that rap ceased being what people like Millie Jackson did and became what Gil Scott Heron did. Small wonder GSH claimed he wasn't saying he wasn't the father of rap, he was just didn't remember the occasion. His poetry was a direct descendent of The Beat Poets...).

Rant over.

Just a thought about what records to play. Might it be an idea to use records they'd have heard, at least partly? Records that have featured in ads or as samples on other records for example.

Edited December 10, 2007 by JJMMWGDuPree

[Helena]

- Also thinking about ending it with playing some originals of "soul/funk samples in popular music today"

C. Mayfield "Move on up"

Just a thought about what records to play. Might it be an idea to use records they'd have heard, at least partly? Records that have featured in ads or as samples on other records for example.

I'm pretty sure they've heard 'Move on up'. Good choice Tommy. Maybe a comparison to 'We're gonna make it' would be fun?

Now here's an idea; give all the students (or those over 18...) free tickets to one of your Oslo Soul Experience nights. That'll teach them.

[Tommy1]

Thanks again all of you! Heikki I'm gonna buy that book, thanks! And Helena, a lot of our Oslo "soulies" have been my students, I've been brainwashing them with CDs since they where 16

It went very, very well and it was really fun. I think it's the first time that I've got applause after a lecture.

Nobody wanted to leave after I finished, they where standing around looking at the records and wanted me to play some more. "Where can I buy records, where do I find a good turntable" and so on.

[Guest JJMMWGDuPree]

Nobody wanted to leave after I finished, they where standing around looking at the records and wanted me to play some more. "Where can I buy records, where do I find a good turntable" and so on.

Best news I've heard in years!!

There's hope for us all yet.

Incidentally, what format and records did you go for in the end?