Superficially, soul music is “music which has soul”, named so because of the clear and convincing emotions of the singer. But much singing which is emotional would not be described as soul music, which has an inextricable link to African-American communities and churches around the time of the civil rights movement, roughly 1960-80.

Up until that period, popular music was commonly demarcated into racial and religious categories: there was a specific Billboard chart for ‘black music’, which wasn’t popular among whites, and many religious families objected to secular songs. Black religious music was known as gospel, while black secular music was dominated by jazz and the blues, which developed into a more danceable, rhythmic style in the 50s known as r’n’b (rhythm and blues). Soul was the coming together of gospel and r’n’b.

Initially, performers like Sam Cooke, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Etta James, Solomon Burke and Ray Charles became popular with their own various takes on r’n’b. Brown’s style was very rhythmic, which later developed into funk, whereas Cooke and James were balladeers with closer roots to gospel. Soul emerged stronger in the 1960s, with Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin becoming nationally popular black singers, and the emergence of the Detroit record label, Motown. Although much of Motown’s releases are better described simply as pop than as soul, the crossover popularization of a roster of black performers was a breakthrough for all black musicians. Many Motown stars, including Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson, continued the evolution of soul music into the 1970s with their own hugely successful solo careers.

In the 70s, soul birthed a catalog of sub-genres and similar styles. James Brown had quickly distilled funk from soul, and funk splintered into styles like the P-Funk of Parliament and Funkadelic, the funk-rock hybrid of Sly & The Family Stone, and the deep south funk of The Meters. The hippie movement of late 60s rock had a big effect on producer Norman Whitfield, who morphed it into psychedelic soul for The Temptations and The Undisputed Truth. Isaac Hayes carved out his own niche of elongated orchestral seductions, while Al Green’s gorgeous voice lended itself especially well to romantic ballads. Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway mixed soul and funk with biting social commentary, and Smokey Robinson developed the late-night ambience of quiet storm.

Two musical movements captivated the world in the mid-70s: punk revolutionized rock music, and disco changed everything else. Soul and funk musicians hardened their beats and refined their grooves to suit the new disco phenomenon, and eventually the classic sounds of soul died out. Many contemporary artists can be called soul singers – John Legend, Alicia Keys and Amy Winehouse for examples – and most attempt a mix of 60s and 70s soul sounds with modern production methods. Winehouse’s recent success has seen a resurgence in interest in soul, but it’s doubtful it will ever become as popular again as it was in its heyday.