A Stylistic Analysis of Blue Eyed Soul

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The aim of this essay will look at how Blue-eyed soul relates back to it's parent genre, Soul; through analysis of musical features. Blue eyed soul is typically described as White musicians who have recreated soul music of the 1960's (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2013). The somewhat ambiguous term refers to White musicians who “emulated black vocal styling and phrasing, and often covered black songs but also established themselves as recording artists with audience crossover skills” (Cooper, 2010, p.1). How musically different is the sub-genre, Blue-eyed soul to Soul or is it only a category which conformed to society norms of the 1960's?
Soul roots relate back to stylist elements of Gospel, Blues, Jazz and Rhythm&Blues (Brown 1982 cited in Borthwick and Moy, 2004; Pruter, 1993). It was once under the category of Race music which defined all African American music. Soul is seen as a rise of African-American civil rights movement and is classify as the “essence of black culture” (Bowman, 2012, p.439). Soul is known for the group of labels, such as Stax and Motown, that had built and produced many of the well known soul artist we know of today.
Many of the artists that began the rise of soul came from other musical genre background including Jazz, blues and gospel, for example Ray Charles and Sam cooke. Sam Cooke had a professional Gospel career before becoming known for his smooth soulful style with his secular lyrics and a more Pop sound, a good example of this is Twistin' the night away. The song has prominent vocals and the instruments stayed more in the background. For Soul, the focus on vocals is typical and before singer songwriters were popular, it was the delivery and presentation from the vocalist, to interpret the lyrics i...

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Myers, M. (2012,12 July). The song that conquered radio. The wall street journal. Retrieved from http://uk.wsj.com/

Phil Spector's wall of sound. (2009, 14 April). BBC news. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

Pruter, R, (1993). The Blackwell guide to Soul recording: edited by Robert Pruter. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Shaw, A., (1986). Black popular music in America: from the spirituals, minstrel and ragtime to soul, disco and hip-hop. New York: Schirmer Books.

soul music.(2014). Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 06 January, 2014, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/555198/soul-music

Tymieniecka, B. (Director) (2009). Da doo ron ron: The story of Phil Spector. [DVD]. US: Charley Films.

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