R-E-S-P-E-C-T

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: The Sound of Soul

Soul music was the predominant black music style of the Sixties. Smooth and sensual, passionate and heartfelt, soul included elements of the blues, rhythm & blues, doo-wop and, most notably, gospel. It can be traced back to the Fifties and such artists as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and James Brown, each of whom incorporated various aspects of gospel into rhythm & blues. But it took a confluence of factors – the civil rights movement, black pride and the work of some enlightened record executives like Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler – for soul music to come into its own.

By the end of the Sixties, soul music was on the wane. Otis Redding died in a plane crash in December 1967; Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett and Joe Tex would leave Atlantic – at one time the undisputed house of soul – by the early Seventies; and, perhaps most significantly, the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. brought a more militant sensibility to the African-American community – a sensibility that would be better reflected by the funk music of the Seventies.

RESPECT: The Sound of Soul presents dozens of artifacts chronicling the lives and careers of soul music’s most influential performers, including Brown, Redding, Sam & Dave, Al Green, the Isley Brothers, the O’Jays, Curtis Mayfield, Booker T. and the MGs and, of course, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.