MUSI 2007 W12

1. MUSI 2007 W12 1960s Soul and Funk

2. Soul music came into existence in the mid-1950s, alongside Rock and Roll, and it was equally influential both at the time and right up to the present day. • There were several different centers for soul music in the 1960s. The most important were... • Stax records, in Memphis, and the Memphis sound in general. • Motown records in Detroit, which specialized in pop crossover. • The Chicago sound, most influenced by the work of Curtis Mayfield. • Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which had a house band that played on many soul hits. • Atlantic Records based in New York, which was a very large independent label that played a crucial role in the business of distributing and promoting soul music.

3. Soul music emerged as a fusion of three styles: gospel, R+B, and pop. The thing which caught people’s attention most at first was the merger of gospel elements with R+B. So it’s important to talk a little about some key elements of gospel that influenced soul... • In sonic terms: organ/piano combination, hand-clapping, a very improvisatory approach to singing, long ecstatic passages where it almost sounds as if the singer is in some kind of trance. • The other crucial sonic feature of gospel culture was the figure of the singing preacher. This style of preaching moved seamlessly from speaking to singing, and often occupied a territory right in between the two. • Audio: Sermon by Rev. C. L. Franklin.

4. All of these sonic elements relate to the spiritual aspect of gospel. This was not music for entertainment, but rather a form of worship. At its most intense, the music was a vehicle for trance and transcendence, and the singer is completely carried away by the spirit. • Soul music took this idea of complete abandon, but applied it to the idea of being completely carried away by secular/sexual love. Besides using many of the same sonic features as gospel to convey this idea, soul used many of the same performative features as well (soul performers often looked like they were working very hard, sometimes seeming completely exhausted by the end of a performance). • DVD: James Brown on the T.A.M.I. show (1964).

5. The record which is usually seen as first publicizing the soul sound was by Ray Charles. Not only did the song use elements of gospel style, but it was closely based on a gospel hymn, “Jesus Is All The World To Me.” • Audio: Ray Charles “I Got A Woman” (1955). • What elements of gospel can we hear in this performance? • Ray Charles was signed to Atlantic Records during this time. Although Atlantic did not have a distinctive sound of its own (like Stax and Motown did), it was important to soul music for several reasons: (i) simply by signing and nurturing important artists like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin; (ii) by providing distribution for smaller labels, most notably Stax; (iii) through the work of house producer/engineer Tom Dowd, who made many extremely high quality recordings of key soul artists. • Audio: Aretha Franklin “Respect” (1967).

6. One way to show the stylistic range of soul in the 60s is to contrast the music coming out of Stax Records and Motown Records. • Stax was formed in the late 1950s in Memphis. Like Sun and other independent labels, its orientation was extremely grassroots. One example – the company was based in an old movie theatre, and the box office/refreshment stand area was converted into a record shop. This allowed for literally sidewalk-level interaction with people in the neighbourhood. Also, job descriptions were very loose, allowing people to move between roles of writer, performer, producer, etc., depending on whatever seemed to be working best at the time.

7. Apart from the usual features of independent record labels, there were at least two specific factors which gave Stax a unique sound: (i) their recording studio was set up in the auditorium part of the old theatre, creating a very unique acoustic situation; (ii) they had a house band, Booker T and the MGs (and a house horn section as well). Having the same musicians play together for many years, on almost every Stax record, helped to give the label a cohesive style. • In general, the Memphis sound as exemplified by Stax was seen as ‘rootsy’ and relatively unpolished. There was an emphasis on groove and emotion more than perfect production. Stax artists were thought to be more likely to go into extended passionate improvisation, or to release minimalist dance records, than artists at other labels.

8. Audio: Rufus Thomas “Can Your Monkey Do The Dog?” (1964). • Audio: Otis Redding “Try A Little Tenderness” (1966).

9. The other soul label to have a distinctive sound and business model in the 1960s was Motown, founded 1959/60. • They also had a house band (The Funk Brothers), although this band was slightly older than the Booker T and the MGs members, and also had more of a jazz background. • The founder of Motown, Berry Gordy Jr., came from a prominent black middle class family. So he tended to approach music in a businesslike and competitive manner. His goal was to create a highly organized and efficient company, and so even though Motown was an independent label, in many ways it was run more like a major. • Unlike Stax, Motown records were explicitly designed for pop crossover. The production values were high, and extended improvisations were not common. The records had a clear, danceable beat (the big beat) that was often simpler than the grooves played by less mainstream soul artists.

10. One of Gordy’s major goals was to not only get his artists on pop radio, but to get black soul artists playing in previously white-only clubs, since these tended to be the most prestigious and lucrative gigs in the U.S. To a large extent he succeeded on both fronts. • Towards this end, Motown had its own ‘finishing school’ – a team of dance coaches and etiquette coaches who would groom all Motown artists to meet prevailing codes of elegance and sophistication. • Also, the Motown workplace was much more competitive and hierarchical than Stax. For example, there was a system where a producer who had made a hit with a certain artist would have the right to make that artist’s next record. But as soon as they produced a non-hit with the artist, another producer would be allowed to take the artist over. So producers always felt pressured to keep succeeding, with prime artists as the reward/punishment.

11. Audio: “My Girl” The Temptations (1965). • In the late 1960s, both Motown and Stax artists began exploring a denser, less pop-oriented style (partly in response to what Curtis Mayfield was doing in Chicago). Although Gordy was not generally happy with these developments, some of his artists were crucial players in the transformation, most notably Marvin Gaye • Audio: “What’s Going On” Marvin Gaye (1971). • In what ways does this track differ from both earlier Stax and Motown styles? Why might Gordy have not liked this kind of thing? And today, in the 2000s, what genre name(s) is/are most usually applied to music that sounds like this?

12. Besides being a commercial success, soul music in the early-to-mid 1960s fit well with optimistic views regarding racial integration. Due to its blend of pop and R+B/gospel elements, soul was popular with both white and black audience. In addition, several key soul bands and record companies were integrated, and the overall mood of the times was shaped by early successes of the Civil Rights movement. • However, in the later 1960s several things changed. For one, the persistence of racism and ghettoization, along with events like the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., caused more militant and separatist forms of black politics to become increasingly influential. The optimistic and integrationist vision represented by early soul music seemed less realistic. • Also, the British Invasion put a great deal of commercial pressure on soul music, pushing it from the dominant position it had held in the earlier 1960s.

13. One result was that by the late 1960s soul music ceased to be widely seen as the dominant or most cutting-edge black American musical form. • That position came to be held by the new style of funk. • Although James Brown began his career as a soul musician, he is best known as the artist who did most to develop and popularize the new funk sound in the mid-1960s. • Audio: “Cold Sweat” James Brown (1967). • What are the many ways this kind of song differs from what we’ve heard in soul music? And how is it still similar?

14. Funk music generally reduced chord changes to a minimum, and also tended to avoid melody. Voices were often used almost like rhythmic instruments. • The performances tended to be long and rhythm-driven. The rhythms were often polyrhythmic in structure, which means that each instrument would play a short, simple idea over and over (a riff or loop). The interest of the music comes from the way in which these simple parts fit together to make a complex overall effect, and also the way this can be manipulated to explore nuances of groove. • Side note: we’ve talked several times about popular songs/pieces become longer during the 1960s. But the reasons for a Phil Spector or Beatles song to be long are different from the reasons for a funk song to be long. What role does extended length play in each case?

15. Given the politics of the late 1960s, it is natural that people would widely perceive funk as being blacker than other kinds of music. There are several reasons for this: • (i) By taking out most of the pop elements that had been in soul music, funk seemed to be distancing itself from TPA (and by implication, from white pop crossover ambitions). • (ii) Unlike soul, funk did not have crossover appeal at first. James Brown, who had many white fans as a soul artist, mostly lost that part of his audience when he changed over to funk. • (iii) Some of the specific musical features of funk strongly parallel aspects of traditional African music (polyrhythmic structures, relatively static in terms of harmony, etc.). In general, more committed 1960s black nationalists often chose to dress in African-inspired clothes, adopt African names, etc., and funk could serve as an aural equivalent of those gestures.

16. Most commercial funk artists seemed sympathetic to these political developments in a general way, but also generally avoided strong political commitments. James Brown, especially, became an important community figurehead and frequently expressed a pro-black perspective, without ever being as publicly radical as, for example, the Black Panthers or the Nation of Islam. • Audio: “Say It Loud (I’m Black And I’m Proud)” James Brown (1968).