Soul: A Historical Reconstruction of Continuity and Change in Black Popular Music

rT r aHE SOUL TRADITION is a prime cultural force in American popular music; of that, there can be little doubt, although this musical phenomenon is sometimes vaguely defined. Born of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s, soul has provided a musical and cultural foundation for virtually every facet of contemporary popular music. More important than its commercial successes, however, are the messages and philosophies it has communicated and the musical influences which underlie its development. In a broad sense, the philosophies and concepts of soul reflect the collective sensibilities of the black community. Civil Rights and Black Power exponents addressed the same concern: their unwillingness to endure adverse social, political, and economic conditions. Performers, musicians, and composers took up these topical problems in their music; they also offered solutions for improvement and change. Thus, through soul, black performers presented the qualities of a revitalized black consciousness, reaffirming destiny, and "a sense of unity and power." An active ideology, in short, soul speaks to a black aesthetic. The soul concept is not new to American blacks of the diaspora, nor has scholarly research failed to document this fact.1 Research has consistently reported similar, if not the same, findings: the concept is an integral part of a much larger infrastructure, which is grounded in complex African roots and disseminated through the spiritual consciousness of its practitioners.2 This consciousness sustained its people through the cruel and inhuman conditions of "the middle passage," of slavery, and of present times. The present essay examines the evolution and essence of this important tradition. More directly, it considers the musical phenomenon from three perspectives: (1) its evolution from secular and sacred traditions rooted in an African past; (2) the relationship of its cultural context to historical and socio-political events; and (3) its musical character and dissemination through emergent contemporary styles. Generically, the term soul denotes a musical style derived from blues-based dance music and the black gospel tradition. Though