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Saturday 13 December 2014

Soul Music in 2015

Soul Music as much as we love it, but why has it been removed from today's  musical categories? Sam Cooke was one of the first to release a #1 Soul single, as far back as 1957 with, ''You Send Me''.

The single went on to inspire many Soulful artists including, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Jackie Wilson, were also on the same path. Motown Records, Berry Gordy enjoyed his first taste of early success making, Wilson into a R&B / Soul superstar. Gordy used the money from, ''Lonely Teardrops'' single success to form Motown Records within a year in the January of 1959. Motown records had hit after hit, with such greats as, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Four Tops and many other great artists, songwriters and producers. 
Other record labels followed including, Stax Records, Atlantic Records, &  Philadelphia International Records, who later enjoyed much success in the 70's & 80's .
Soul Music was selling by the bucket, even back then labeled as Rhythm & Blues (R&B), in some cases, later in Billboard Magazine listing a chart as, ''Best selling Hot Soul Chart.''

 As we went on through to the 70's, many Soul artists started recording Disco Songs, as the  Disco scene exploded we then had, The Disco Charts and The Disco category remained popular with the mainstream until about 1979, although it's never really disappeared, as even today artists such as, Robin Thicke, Daft Punk, Bruno Mars, and the likes, we will keep having hits with the Disco Style sound as it's a Genre we once accepted and still love & will always accept again.


Boogie followed in the 80's, with many Disco artist recording under this tag, oh how we must love putting Music into Categories, Funk, Jazz-Funk,Psychedelic Funk, Blue Eyed Soul etc... 

What has happened in 2014 is the big question? 
These days the Award ceremonies have forgotten Soul Music, they have many categories even, Gospel, Country, Jazz, Rap, Latin, Dance/ Electronic (which includes House Music), R&B , but No Soul or Soulful

True the likes of, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Mary J Blidge, can fit into the R&B category, but where do we place such artists such as, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, who have had strong sellers this year? 
Ron Islet, Kem, Will Downing, Chris Jasper, Earth Wind & Fire, Betty Wright, have no music category to fit into as such! 

Maybe it would be a good idea to do a Soulful category? If  Anita Baker's new album ever gets a release i'm sure this would fit this section as would many Grammy award winning Soul artists that are still recording today. 



It's a great pity, not only have the record shops (that we have left), but the download stores also, are just not sure where to put Soul music!
Lisa Stansfield has just had a top 20 UK album, with so many people still saying, we did not know ,Lisa Stansfield has a new album or where do we find music like this?
Please help spread the word! SOUL MUSIC is here to stay, as we all need it! The music we love & grew up with so, Lets keep it Soulful. 





After watching an awards program back in 2005, Ola Onabule wrote the song, ''Soul Town'' asking why ? has the music we love so much, been removed from all the award ceremony categories...
Soul Town by Ola Onabule the remixes will be released on 13th April on DSG Music to see if we can't bring Soul back to the place we love ... 





If you have a Soulful track new or old that you would like released? We can't promise you millions of sales, but can promise you the best in promotion! You even get to keep your own music publishing! Please send your tracks to: discosoulgold@live.com
Thanks for reading,
Gary Van den Bussche



Colin Watson CW Remix, Mike Maurro House Of Soul Remix, Nigel Lowis Remix 
to be released 13th April on DSG Music.






1 comment:

  1. I can't remember of artists recently awarded be their work rated as House Music, Techno, Broken Beat, Nu Jazz, Modern Soul, etc, as opposed to Rock, R&B or Country such as inherited from the US radio formatting ;)

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