The Birth of Soul

THE BIRTH OF SOUL

Soul comes from a blend of two different types of music, Gospel and Blues. Soul music was a way of speaking out against the predudices of the world. One of the main people to strat this style of music was a Blind man named Ray Charles. At a concert in Augusta, Georgia.The promoter told Ray Charles that he wanted the Black people upstairs and the White people downstairs. Ray Charles refused to play like this and he was sued in which he lost. This pushed Ray Charles into a quest for racial justification. This caused Ray Charles to become friends with Martin Luther King, who backed him up in his quest for civil rights.

In the 1940's Jazz music had split up into many other styles, the main idea was to look for a more dynamic music. At the same time records intended for blacks also called "racial records" moved to the label Rhythem and Blues. This made a new generation of blues musicians, which most of them sung gospel songs, which was the creation of soul. The difference between Soul and Rhythem and Blues, was that Soul was performed by black people for everyone and Rhythem and Blues was performed by black people for white people.

Martin Luther King in demonstration organised a march in 1965 which was heavily followed by the media. The demonstration touched many Americans. The Staple Singers created an album entitled Freedom Highway to comemorate such an event. They later went onto record a song called "I'll tak you there" which brought a message of hope to the african-american race. They later went on to record a song called "Respect Yourself" which gave the message that if you dont respect yourself you wont gain the respect of others. The Staple Singers had originally

been a Gospel group but since the de,and for blck power the found themselves heading in more of a soul direction. Aretha Franklin to headed in the soul direction after covering the Otis Redding Hit "Respect". She turned the song into her own version which became a hit and a symbol of ethnic and feminist pride in the black community.