We could argue all day about the roots of soul and what the first soul records were, but does anyone know when the term "soul music" was coined and by whom? Has this ever been established?

 

2 minutes ago, Dayo said:

We could argue all day about the roots of soul and what the first soul records were, but does anyone know when the term "soul music" was coined and by whom? Has this ever been established?

 

https://www.soulmusicsanctuary.net/soul-musics-history.html

 

Jazz from mid / late 50s. To describe a certain style of playing. (And as used in Ray Charles & Milt Jackson LPs, 'Soul Brothers' and 'Soul Meeting'.)

Edited January 8, 20169 yr by son of stan

Billboard mag was still calling it's black music charts 'Rhythm & Blues Singles & LP's' way past September 1965 when Stax released the Otis Redding LP 'Otis Blue  -- Otis Redding Sings Soul'. Back in April 62, No.1 on the mags 'Hot R & B Sides' chart was "Soul Twist" by King Curtis (this Enjoy 45 having first made US radio playlists at the start of Feb 62). King Curtis was also the artist involved when SOUL next appeared in the title of a charting 45. This time it was May 64 and the tune was "Soul Serenade".

So I'd say the term crossed over from the jazz world & started replacing R & B as a common name for popular black music in the early 60's. The 'Soul Twist' was a popular dance in black night clubs across the US in 1962, so the term was being used on a regular basis in that context by April 62. By the mid 60's, although mainstream mags such as Billboard was still mainly using the term R & B, soul was the term used by many music lovers.

Soon after she signed with Atlantic (67), Aretha Franklin became known as 'Lady Soul' (her LP by this title being released in Jan 68). And of course she had cut the track "Soulville" for Columbia as early as 1964. So by 67 the term had become the most dominant of those used to describe black music.

"Soul Man" & "Sweet Soul Music" both came out in 67.

Edited January 8, 20169 yr by Roburt

"SOUL MEETING " RAY CHARLES MILT JACKSON recorded in 1957 not released until 1961 inc the track Hallelujah I love her so

 

Even at the end of June 67, Billboard (& record labels such as Nashboro / Excello / A-Bet) were still calling it R & B music.

.... AND YET ......... "Sweet Soul Music", "Soul Finger", "Soul Dance No.3", "Raw Soul" and "Lou Rawl's Soulin" were all on the mag's charts !!

 

I was under the impression from reading the Detroit 67 book that the term came from Berry Gordy's Soul label.

I've done a bit more research on the topic, using Billboard mag as my source and it seems there was a Brit angle to all this.

See two jpeg's posted below of bits lifted from Billboard. By June 68 they were asking (themselves, rather than their reporters being told) what SOUL was. They asked readers to comment on the question 'what is soul' and published some replies. It also seems that they were also taking into account what Dave McAleer (of Soul Survey, London) was telling them. They had started up a column in their black music section titled 'Soul Sauce' and were picking a 'Soul Sauce Best New Record of the Week" (a bit like Richard's Radio Hallam 80's radio show) ...........

............ HOWEVER ..................

the first real use of the word in a black music sense that I can find in Billboard is a piece in which they interviewed WWRL's Magnificent Montague back in May 64. The piece was about his views that lots of US radio stn's still weren't employing black DJ's even though the cuts that black jocks were playing on R&B stn's were eventually ending up top of the charts on 'white' pop stns. Montague defined soul as .......... "the last to be hired, first to be fired, brown all-year round, sits in the back of the bus feeling. You've got to live with us or you just don't have it".  Guess he had strong feelings !!!!

So it seems that it was the use of the term by black US radio DJ's that brought it into fashion. 

Edited January 8, 20169 yr by Roburt

The piece on soul music on Wikipedia gives more credit to Atlantic Records than Motown ................

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_music

Whoever it was that first coined the term (in the sense that we mean), I bet they were a lot more 'street level' than the likes of anyone at Billboard mag (or even than Berry Gordy). 

Edited January 8, 20169 yr by Roburt

Billboard may not have used the most accurate or up to date terms to describe their charts but, they were well aware of what was going on in Music.

Here's the cover of a 90 page supplemental issue from June 24, 1967 - 

Billboard repeated this supplement in 1968 & 1969, so they obviously saw it as a good marketing tool (bringing in lots of ads).

Below see an ad in the mag for their 1968 supplement + a piece on the UK market from their 69 supplement ....... 

On 1/8/2016 at 04:38, daved said:

On 1/8/2016 at 04:38, daved said:

I was under the impression from reading the Detroit 67 book that the term came from Berry Gordy's Soul label.

I was under the impression from reading the Detroit 67 book that the term came from Berry Gordy's Soul label.

But Carmen Murphy had a Soul Records label starting near the end of 1961 or start of 1962, and running through 1963.  But, I remember "Soul music" being used as a term for the genre of Blues/Gospel-based music, as early as the mid 1950s.  Much of what you now term "Northern Soul" would NOT have been represented by that earlier, more narrow term, just the more heavily Blues and Gospel-derived tunes.

Ive read, that The Impressions & Jerry Butler - For Your Precious Love, is believed to be one of the first records termed as 'Soul', I think thats Dave Godin who wrote that... see its released in 58, so a little after some of the dates mentioned above, maybe the term was used in conversation allot earlier, but as a marketable release, perhaps the Impressions was just that?

 there are far more knowledgeable folk on here of course, so I'm happy to be educated...

Mal

 

Edited January 9, 20169 yr by Mal C

It seems that SOUL started being used by US blacks in the 60's as a term to help them try to retain ownership of things that had been theirs for some time that were now being taken on by the American population at large.

Soul food (the cuisine of southern black slaves & their descendents) was also a term that sprung into general use use in the mid to late 60's.

Black poets / writers had started to use the term. It seems that LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), who wrote the book 'Blues People  -- Negro Music in White America' (1963) may have been the first to use the word in a musical sense (he was a fan of jazz / gospel / blues & the styles that developed from them).

Like much 'street level' slang, I guess we'll never really know where it actually originated but it wasn't from mainstream music journalists that's for sure. 

The term  "Soul" was  in common usage before 1963. Here's some of the liner notes from the 1961(?) album "The Soul Of Ike 

and Tina Turner". 

    "Soul in the past few years has become a very successful commercial term, more often than not, it is just a commercial term".

  I  think it would be almost impossible to find the 1st usage of "Soul" to describe the musical form.

Edited January 11, 20169 yr by the yank

19 hours ago, the yank said:

The term  "Soul" was  in common usage before 1963. Here's some of the liner notes from the 1961(?) album "The Soul Of Ike 

and Tina Turner".  

Yes, 'The Soul of Ike & Tina Turner' LP was issued in the summer of 61 and does seem to be about the first use of the term on a record release .....

 

Edited January 12, 20169 yr by Roburt

On 9 January 2016 at 17:45, RobbK said:

But Carmen Murphy had a Soul Records label starting near the end of 1961 or start of 1962, and running through 1963.  But, I remember "Soul music" being used as a term for the genre of Blues/Gospel-based music, as early as the mid 1950s.  Much of what you now term "Northern Soul" would NOT have been represented by that earlier, more narrow term, just the more heavily Blues and Gospel-derived tunes.

I was just going to say the same, and indeed Carmen Murphy sold the name of her label to Berry Gordy in 64. And the rest as they say is history.

 

Edited January 13, 20169 yr by Steve G