For me it all depends on if you are a "Soul fan" or a "Northern soul fan".
A soul fan will like soulful records from all eras, late 50s to present day and appreciate the soulful content, some of which can be danced to. The soul fan looks at the soul scene as something that is current and elvolving continiously.
The Northern soul fan is a fan of the scene, is reliving what went on in the hey day of Northern soul in the 70s (even though most of them weren`t even there), wears the clothes, likes only those sounds that were played back then etc etc...Basically for these people the Northern scene is a retro scene.
Chris