Northern Soul

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Northern Soul [ ˌnɔːðən ˈsoʊl ] (also known as Rare Soul ) is a British music movement that emerged in the late 1960s . Northern Soul includes not only a barely distinguishable style of music, but also a subculture , which is mainly defined by rediscovering and passionately collecting well danceable, rare and largely unknown soul music of predominantly American origin as well as a club scene that identifies with it . With over 40 years of history, the Northern Soul movement is one of the oldest music scenes in popular culture that still exist .

The term Northern Soul was coined by the legendary record store owner and soul guru David Godin , who in June 1970 in a column in Blues & Soul Magazine described the rare soul music that is particularly popular in clubs in Northern England.

history

Origins and beginnings

Northern Soul has its origins in the mod culture of the 1960s. The main elements of this youth culture were fashion , music and dancing .

In addition to beat music , modern jazz, as well as ska and rocksteady from Jamaica , the mods also heard American rhythm and blues and soul such as those from the Detroit Motown label ( Supremes , The Temptations , Marvin Gaye etc.) or the Stax Records label from Memphis ( Otis Redding , Sam & Dave ). At the end of the 1960s, other youth cultures , including those of skinheads , began to replace mod culture. The love of soul music and an excessive cult of dancing should continue in Northern Soul. Northern Soul was also intended to be a reservoir for the mods who were more drawn to black music. The new subculture should take over some elements of the mods.

In the early 1970s , soul developed in the direction of slower modern soul and Philly sound . Guitar-based funk , progressive rock and psychedelica became popular. While the clubs in trend-conscious London immediately absorbed and played these new styles of music, the mostly working class audience in the clubs in the north of England (especially in the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire ) had a harder time with this music. The soul fans there could n't make friends with the newer black dance music and resisted the new, rather short-lived trends. A niche quickly formed in some clubs where the more rhythm and blues influenced soul music from the 1960s was played with its brass groups and background choirs.

Since the clubs still wanted to offer their audience “new” music, they increasingly began to play little-known soul pieces. Little by little, the commercial and well-known soultitles, which one was fed up with, so to speak, disappeared almost completely from the repertoire.

Rare soul from the 1960s

In the soul era of the 1960s, there was huge potential among excellently trained black artists. A large number of soultitles (an estimated 30,000) were produced on small local labels . The small labels tried mostly unsuccessfully to penetrate the narrow national market for soul music, which was dominated by the big labels Motown , Stax , Atlantic , ABC-Paramount , Mercury , RCA Victor and Capitol . They only published their singles in small numbers because the small independent labels had no choice but to concentrate on a regional or even local market due to a lack of financial means for advertising and their own national distribution. Many recordings were even pressed for advertising purposes and remained unpublished because they would not have recouped their costs.

Some of these labels made it with their titles in the lower regions of the national or regional charts, which were then dominated by white artists, and the black R&B charts. Most of the productions were lost in the mass of publications, were never played on the radio and thus did not reach the charts. At the time, they were commercially flops.

The small record companies came mostly from big cities like Chicago , Detroit , New York , Philadelphia and Los Angeles and were mostly based in the black ghettos . Because of this, the music was also known as ghetto soul. The sound of this urban soul stood out clearly from the productions of the large established labels, which were often adapted to the listening habits of a white middle-class audience and were therefore more suitable for charts.

The tracks were faster and easy to dance to. They were usually characterized by a continuous, distinctive beat in 4/4 time with a speed of around 125 BPM . The basic mood of the pieces was consistently optimistic. Due to their less elaborate production, they sounded much rougher than the music of the big labels and thus appeared more unadulterated and authentic.

The commercially failed recordings were quickly forgotten. Many records were left lying around in warehouses or ended up in second-hand or junk shops. Some of the heavy vinyl singles were even used as ship ballast.

Rediscovery

In order to be able to continue to meet the growing demand of the Northern soul club scene for rare soul records, DJs and collectors began to travel to the USA in the early 1970s in order to track down further unknown pearls of this music. The junk dealers in particular were relieved to have gotten rid of the hard-to-sell goods for a few cents without knowing that they might one day change hands in Great Britain for several hundred pounds each.

Northern Soul was supposed to help the unknown soul pieces, whose epoch seemed to be long over, to be noticed or often to an audience at all.

Over time, the rediscovered singles became more and more obscure. Shrine from Washington is considered to be the rarest Northern soul label . During the race riots in the mid-1960s, much of the inventory was destroyed by a fire in the company's building. The few remaining copies are now fetching record prices.

Club scene

Northern Soul quickly gained popularity and later spread across the UK. The music was exclusive and unheard of by the mainstream . The supporters wanted to stand out from the crowd and seemed elitist to outsiders . From the love of young people in the north of England for old soul music and the passion for collecting, especially of DJs, born out of necessity, a club scene of its own had developed that celebrated this soul music and danced to it. From now on, many clubs played exclusively this old and at the same time "new" fast soul music that had been found in the USA, at least one evening a week.

The most famous and influential Northern England soul clubs of the 1970s and 1980s were the Twisted Wheel in Manchester , the Golden Torch in Stoke-on-Trent , the Blackpool Mecca and the Wigan Casino . They were among the first clubs to focus the musical direction of club nights on the largely unknown soul of the 1960s. Northern Soul was characterized by large parties that took place in youth clubs , workers' clubs , dance halls or even on piers . At the events it was soon common for record stands to be set up to supply the scene-goers with soul singles.

Allnighter

The Northern Soul parties were called "Allnighter" or "Weekender", based on the model of mod culture. Allnighters are boisterous parties that last all night. Weekenders are the same as long as the party takes place over the whole weekend. The Northern Soul scene, with its nightly parties, which were still rather unusual back then, just like mod culture, is one of the forerunners of rave culture .

However, in addition to the nightly parties, there was a closely related parallel to the mods. Stimulants ("speed") were also consumed here as a dance music drug in order to be able to last the whole night. The mods also took plenty of pills.

At that time people danced in a relatively fixed sequence of steps. This sequence of steps was combined by experienced dancers with acrobatic elements that were similar to breakdancing . In contrast to other subcultures, there was no specific consistent dress code at the parties. However, the Northern Soul scene was also initially shaped by certain fashionable influences. Northern Soul fans also wore widespread Patches and badges (Engl. Badges ) issued at any club evening to membership in the Northern Soul scene to make known and certain clubs, again a parallel to the mod culture.

It is thanks to the DJs that Northern Soul developed into what it is today. They helped a long-forgotten music to get its deserved recognition in a completely new context and environment. In addition, they used the lack of records for themselves to increase their own market value with the help of simple tricks. For example, they pasted over the labels of the records and gave them other title and artist names (so-called cover-ups ). If the records became hits in the clubs, no DJ could play them until someone discovered another copy of the single, revealing its true identity. That could sometimes take years. With this tactic of the DJs, the claim to exclusivity of Northern Soul lovers increased and the collectors concentrated on increasingly rare records.

Many soul artists unknown, underestimated or long forgotten in the USA were invited to appear in the clubs and celebrated there euphorically. A real star cult developed around some . This is especially true of what are probably the most famous names today: Major Lance and Dobie Gray . While Lance was and is the superstar of the scene, Dobie Gray had one of the greatest Northern soul hits with “The In Crowd” .

Development until today

The Northern Soul scene in Great Britain has gone through highs and lows in its history. The northern soul scene was most popular in the 1970s and early 1980s . Back then, Northern Soul received so much attention that one can speak of more than one subculture.

During this time, British labels even tried to release new recordings tailored directly to this scene and thus commercialize the scene. These new recordings were able to mimic the sound and feel of the old recordings quite well, but were hardly accepted by the fans, so these attempts were soon discontinued.

Collecting: expensive singles and cheap reprints

The unbroken passion for collecting soul fans and especially DJs still opens up a flourishing market for rare soul singles today. However, the exclusivity of the original pressings makes this an expensive hobby.

The generally very high price level of the singles is primarily determined by their rarity and the demand from wealthy English collectors and top DJs. The artistic quality of the recording only plays a subordinate role. For Northern Soul purists, it is not only the originality of the recording that counts, but first and foremost the originality of the carrier medium, the rare vinyl copy. Many discs reach exorbitant prices of up to several thousand pounds. The most expensive Northern Soul single is a copy of Frank Wilson's "Do I love you (Indeed I Do)" (two still exist), which was auctioned by a Scottish collector in 1999 for 15,000 pounds.

Many original titles, however, have inexpensive reprints and a large number of compilations on LP or CD . Labels specializing in re-releases such as Kent published entire backing catalogs of Northern soul labels. The prices that collectors pay for originals appear even more impressive with an example: The CD compilation "For Millionaires Only" can be purchased for the normal CD price (around £ 12 in Great Britain). It contains 18 tracks, the total equivalent of the original singles being approximately £ 10,000. Another advantage of re-releases is the often considerably improved sound quality through re- mastering .

The acceptance of such reprints and new editions is very different. Purists are strictly against it because they do not have sufficient authenticity . In the UK, for example, CDs would never be played at a respected Northern soul event. Due to the re-releases, the Northern Soul scene had to fear for the exclusivity of their music, the essential element of this subculture . Due to their low price, they automatically lead to greater awareness and a lower rarity value for the pieces. Once the tracks are popular and heard by a larger audience, they have become uninteresting in the Northern Soul spirit.

Revivals and musical opening

Most of the early clubs have long since closed or the events had to give way to other musical styles. The longest-serving British Northern Soul Club in Great Britain is the 100 Club in London . Triggered by revivals in the 1980s, especially by cover versions of old Northern Soul titles, for example Soft Cells “Tainted Love” (original by Gloria Jones ) or Yazz 's “The Only Way is Up” (original by Otis Clay ), and Mitte In the 1990s , the scene was revitalized again and again after crises from the hard core, the collectors and DJs.

Musically, the Northern soul scene has long opened up to other trends. Most of the initially played fast pieces with their distinctive beat, known as Stomper (Engl. Stampfer ) are discovered for twenty years. Quieter pieces, beat, rhythm & blues and the more pleasant, elegant-looking modern soul of the early 1970s, which later continued in the more popular but trivial disco sound, are widely accepted today and it is hard to imagine the all-nighters without them. In addition to the fascination of soul music, which many music fans still succumb to today, the Northern soul scene owes its survival primarily to this musical opening.

Northern soul scenes outside the UK

Elsewhere in Europe , formed especially in Germany , France , the Netherlands , Belgium , Austria and Italy in the 1980s, younger sister scenes. In the beginning, however, due to the lack of rare and expensive singles, you had to put on more LPs with re-releases from back catalog labels such as Kent and Soul Supply , so that the fixation on the originality of the pressing is not quite as strong as in Great Britain. That is why re-pressed LPs are still popular today.

Northern Soul in Germany

In Germany in the mid-1980s a small Northern Soul scene with a relatively loose following developed in the course of a mod revival. In the beginning, Northern Soul was played especially at Mod and Scooterboy parties alongside Ska, Beat or Garage Rock . After the sound became established, pure Northern soul parties were also held. British DJs were popular from the start, as they naturally had a larger repertoire. During this time the first German-language Northern Soul fanzine ( Heart and Soul ) appeared for the first time. In 1990 the German scene was ready for the first weekender. It took place in Berlin.

With the reunification and the beginning techno wave , interest in Northern Soul decreased again in the early 1990s and there were only a few parties. This became clear, for example, in Berlin , which at that time offered greater musical adventures in East Berlin factories. The Northern Soul Weekender that took place in Berlin in June 1991 and was played by several British DJs was also a failure for the reasons mentioned above. Since the mid-1990s, the scene in Germany has seen increased popularity and numerous events due to the renewed English Northern Soul Revival. The Internet later earned some credit for this . Thus, at the end of the 1990s, it enabled a lively network of the previously rather regionally restricted scenes and a simple and more effective, Germany-wide communication of news and event dates.

However, Northern Soul is still an insider tip in Germany today. In larger cities (including Aachen, Cologne, Braunschweig , Bremen , Frankfurt am Main , Leipzig as well as in the Rhineland and the Ruhr area ), allnighters that take place at irregular intervals are organized. Especially in Berlin , Hamburg and Munich , Dresden and Nuremberg there are also regular series of events, such as B. from 1997 to the end of 2014 the Deeper Shade series in Munich's Atomic Café . Otherwise, there are also some weekenders in Germany where Northern Soul is played, such as in Aachen, Hamburg, Dresden, Nuremberg or Bamberg , where well-known Northern Soul DJ greats can be found every year.

Some often played representatives

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for David Godin at This Old Soul Of Mine ( Memento of October 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed November 19, 2007)
  2. ↑ Northern Soul on the Net: The Democratization of Charming Music - heise.de (February 12, 2007)
  3. ↑ howstuffworks - Top 10 Most Valuable Records (March 30, 2009)
  4. ↑ 'The Soulshakers Weekender'
  5. ↑ 'The Bamberg Experience - A story about Northern Soul (Documentary, Trailer International)'

literature

  • Oghuzan Celik, Evi Herzing, Tine Plesch : Can You Show Me The Way To - Northern Soul? . In: Testcard . Contributions to Pop History, No. 13 - Black Music, Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-931555-12-7
  • Stefan Hoffmann, Karsten Tomnitz: Rare Soul. The who's who of the soul era . Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-931555-98-4
  • David Nowell: Too Darn Soulful. The Story of Northern Soul . Robson Books 2001, ISBN 1-86105-431-9
  • Kev Roberts, David S. Carne: The Northern Soul Top 500 . Books for Waterstones only, 2000
  • Mike Ritson, Stuart Russel: In Crowd. The Story of the Northern and Rare Soul Scene . Bee Cool Publishing, 1999
  • Keith Rylatt, Phil Scott: Central 1179. The Story of Manchester's Twisted Wheel Club . Bee Cool Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-9536626-3-2
  • David Nowell, Russ Winstanley: Soul Survivors. The Wigan Casino Story . Robson Books, 2003, ISBN 1-86105-693-1
  • Peter McKenna: Nightshift . ST Publishing, 1996, ISBN 1-898927-40-5

Web links

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 18, 2005 .