ABSTRACT
Black popular music of the sixties was divided into two very different and distinct kinds of music: soul, a sweaty, raw, and relevant Memphis sound, and Motown, an elegant, danceable, more mainstream Detroit sound. This chapter presents the path taken by soul music—one that began in the era of rhythm and blues and eventually grew to include the sixties musical style as well as the feeling of African American ethnic pride. Few songs from the soul repertoire actually addressed the ongoing civil rights movement; nevertheless, the music was adopted by the black community as a representation of its struggle for black pride and racial consciousness. The person who scaled the artistic heights as the king of soul music was Otis Redding. Numerous soul artists worthy of mention barely brushed the pop charts or remained exclusively on the soul side. Soul music helped to create the atmosphere in which black pride grew.
