An overview of the genre

In commercial terms, the genre that by the early 1960s became known as soul was the most successful of all the ‘crossover’ styles until its partial eclipse by disco in the mid-1970s. Developing from styles largely aimed at (but not necessarily consumed by) the African-American community, such as gospel, jazz and blues, soul succeeded in breaking through into the mainstream pop market in both the US and Europe. In the main but not exclusively an African-American phenomenon, soul's success was as much due to a number of labels, so-called ‘house sounds’, and little- known studio bands, as it was to specific performers or songwriters.

The most successful and high profile of all the soul labels was a collection of titles that we can gather under the name Tamla Motown and were most closely associated with its founder Berry Gordy Jnr (see Abbott 2001). Although Motown achieved its international breakthrough once it signed a distribution deal with EMI in the UK in 1963, its degree of creative autonomy throughout the 1960s does bolster its claim to be thought of as an independent label. Indeed, Motown was the most successful independent label of any era, if we look at its international profile, its sales and the ratio of hits to misses (Ward 2001: 47).

Before the great soul labels of the 1960s became established, important groundwork had been laid by performers such as Ray Charles (Ray Charles Robinson) and Sam Cooke. Charles had his greatest period of success between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, working in areas as diverse as jazz, blues, gospel, soul and country. In common with so many in the soul field, Cooke came from a gospel background. After leaving his group, The Soul Stirrers, in 1956, Cooke crossed over into the secular market, achieving a string of pop hits between 1957 and 1964, the year of his early death. More importantly, he set the tone for both the autonomous creative artist and the smooth ‘lover man’ persona and performance style later adopted by the likes of Marvin Gaye (Marvin Pentz Gay), Al Green, Teddy Pendergrass and Alexander O’Neill.