Soul Music: Tracking the Spiritual Roots of Pop from Plato to Motown

Abstract

The idea that music can ‘heal the soul’ is a commonplace in many spiritual and cultural traditions, but what does it amount to? In Soul Music, Joel Rudinow examines a particular musical genre as a means of addressing some broad and difficult questions about the relationship between music and spiritual well-being. Rudinow's focus is ‘soul music’—American popular music of the mid-twentieth century that grew out of a merger between gospel music and various strains of popular secular music. The term ‘soul music’ replaced the label ‘rhythm and blues’, which in turn had replaced ‘race’ music. Deeply rooted in African-American traditions and performed mainly by African Americans, soul music became extremely popular among both blacks and whites. Rudinow argues that soul music holds a special place in the history of American popular music. It is widely understood to have been the ‘soundtrack’ to the American civil rights movement and its prominence during President Barack Obama's presidential inauguration in 2009 was not likely to have been a mere fluke or reflection of the new president's musical taste.