Friday 1 April 2011

Northern Soul - Rare Motown - One Step At A time

Bunny Sigler - Girl Don't Make Me Wait

The R & B's Northern Soul

The term Northern Soul was termed by Dave Godin, a journalist for the "Blues and Soul" magazine back in 1968. Godin came up with the term when helping employee's stock music on the shelves of his record shop in London England. As newer music Rhythm and Blues (R&B) music was arriving, he wanted to be able to differentiate the smoother sounds of early R&B from the newer funkier sounds that was hitting the airwaves. The term northern soul now refers to the golden oldies of Rhythm and Blues that are played at many of the most popular nightclubs in Northern The United States was flooded with R&B musicians, however, in England opened another new venue for R&B artist to make it big, and biog they did England today.

Back in the 60's when most clubs where changing up their beats to the more modern genres of music, many Northern England nightclubs chose to keep the rare soul music beats. This has not slowed business down for these well-established clubs today, if anything it brought in more patrons then ever before. Patrons knew what they liked and did not feel the need to follow the fads of the time.

Northern Soul music played a huge role in the beginning of the DJ culture in England. The United States was filling up with R&B artist and England opened up a whole new venue for artist to not only collect on but for some make it big in the music industry who wouldn't of had a chance otherwise in the States due to the huge amount of R&B artists already circulating. Artist like Tammi Lynn, The Fascinations, The Velvelettes, The Tams, and many others made top hits in the UK due to the love of the Northern Soul.

So just who makes up the Northern Soul genre one may ask, the answer is simple yet vast, as thousands make up the Northern Soul genre. This genre includes top R&B artist to one hit wonders. Northern Soul music isn't a style, voice, musical instrument choice, or even topic of song, northern soul music is a feel, a beat, and the ability to dance to it. Some of the Northern Soul choices are very rare and even hard to come by today, others more popular, some had a slow groove beat while others have a upbeat tempo.

Remember Kool and the Gang, Bill Withers, or Gwen Guthrie; they all added to the Northern Soul movement in northern parts of England as well as several hundreds to thousands of more R&B artist. Names such as Randy Crawford, Bobby Womack, Gerald Levert, and even the O'Jays still play a part of the dance floors in nightclubs around the world. More current artists such as Kenny G, Whitney Houston, and Chaka Khan also play a large role of the northern soul genre. If the feet can be put to the beat of the Rhythm and Blues, more then likely it has become a part of the Northern Soul genre.

Killer Northern Soul Dancer - Superiors - What Would I Do

Northern Soul - Quality Rare Soul - Vondells

Jesse James - Do You Want A Love Affair. Live at Prestatyn two weeks ago!

Rare Northern Soul Experience the Legend

There are only a few occasions in the course of human history when it can be said that the people were completely in charge of their own cultural revolution. No matter what the political or civil agenda was during the late 1960s and early 1970s, looking back on the social norms that were broken, and the unique experiences that were made by people all over the world, you know that kind of time will probably never come again. Because music is so wrapped up in everything that humans do and experience, it's fitting that the rare northern soul records that became popular during this time would be just as special.

In case you're unfamiliar with the rare northern soul music or movement, you should know that it was centred on some of the most talented, albeit unknown Motown artists of the 1960s. When many people hear the word "Motown" the automatically assume that this movement took place in Detroit, or some other famous American city, but this assumption is incorrect. In fact, the northern soul genre was named and developed in England around the time that the mod scene was coming to an end.

Those that were in love with the early Motown sound, an upbeat rhythm and light-hearted feel, resisted the transition to funk and rock that came later on in the Sixties. They began pestering record store owners with requests for more of the original stuff, the rarer the better. As a result, record store owners in the U.K. started referring to this type of music as "rare northern soul," in honour of the customers from the north of England who were most often requesting it. What began as a flippant way to categorize the type of music these customers were likely to buy became the label for a musical movement that spanned multiple decades, and still continues today.

When it came to finding the best rare northern soul, record store owners and disc jockeys really had a difficult job ahead. Instead of merely being able to browse the American charts for the most popular songs and records, they had to look back into the archives for artists and records that had been forgotten or never played. Northern soul enthusiasts to this day still love to find a record that no one else has, or that hasn't been played in many years. There are plenty of collections that regularly sell for high amounts on auction web sites.