Soul Music History and MP3 Downloads.

By the late 1940s, Rhythm & Blues artists like Louis Jordan emerged. In the 1950s, this musical art form had become soul music. Soul was hugely influenced by gospel Christian music, but these passionate new artists were often singing about secular ideas and concepts.

Ray Charles led the way to create soul music. His first hit, "I Got a Woman" took a gospel melody and sang lyrics about his girlfriend across town to create a soul sound. Charles also added sounds from blues and country to his music. Other singers from gospel backgrounds followed suit.

Sam Cooke had sang with the Soul Stirrers, one of the most popular gospel groups of the 1950s. When he embraced secular music, he had a string of hits until he died in 1964. "A Change is Gonna Come" remains one of the all-time classics of the genre.

Vintage Microphone for Recording Soul Music

Cooke's music influenced soul singers of the 1960s like Otis Redding. Redding's gritty voice displayed emotion with every note. The music featured riffing horns and a rhythm section playing driving soulful grooves. This defined the Stax Records sound on his hits like "Try a Little Tenderness" and the posthumously-released "(Sittin' On the) Dock of the Bay".

Stax Records was a Memphis-based record label that came to define Southern soul. Many of their records featured a house band including members of Booker T. and the MG's. Their only competition for the top of Southern soul recording was from Atlantic records. Atlantic recordings made at Muscle Shoals studios included Aretha Franklin. Wilson Pickett recorded for both labels.

Meanwhile, up north in Detroit, Berry Gordy founded Motown records. By the mid-1960s, Motown was consistently releasing huge hits. A stellar group of songwriters including Smokey Robinson and the trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland ensured there was no shortage of material. The girl group sound of the Supremes and their male counterparts The Temptations define this period of Motown's sound.

By the late 1960s, Marvin Daye, an incredible singer from Washington, D.C. had shown up at Motown. Hits like "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" fit in perfectly there. But by 1971, Gaye released an album that would change the sound: "What's Going On." It was politically oriented and worked as an album, not just a pop single.

About the same time Gaye started creating hits, a former child prodigy named Stevie Wonder was coming into his own as an adult. By 1972, he was also changing music with albums like "Talking Book" that added an elements of funk and jazz refining soul again.