Gospel Soul
tagStarted 1958Peak 1965-1975Last big hit 1976
Located in 3 routes
The original church-into-soul fusion: gospel phrasing, tambourine and handclaps, Hammond organ and gritty rhythm sections, with full-throated melisma and call-and-response. Lyrics swing between deliverance and earthly love, the line between sacred and secular deliberately blurred, every chorus building toward a testifying climax.
History
Born when gospel-circuit singers carried church technique into secular soul. Sam Cooke left the Soul Stirrers; Aretha Franklin, raised in her father's revival show, brought Clara Ward's phrasing to Atlantic; the Staple Singers moved from straight gospel into Stax. The mode peaked across the late-1960s civil-rights era before splintering into funk and contemporary gospel.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aretha_Franklin
- https://teachrock.org/lesson/aretha-franklin-soul-music-and-the-new-femininity-of-the-1960s/
- https://memphismusichalloffame.com/inductee/aretha-franklin/