SOUL MUSIC ( R&B GENRE) (PART 2)

Soul is the result of merging previous styles and substyles in the 1950s and early 1960s. The original artists of soul included musician Sam Cooke, the famous blind American musician Ray Charles as well as James Brown. They are considered the pioneers of soul music. At the beginning of the soul era, there were three sub genres of Soul Music, that is psychedelic soul, Southern soul and Neo Soul.

In general, Soul got its roots from the combination from the gospel ( the sacred) and blues(the profane). Blues was a musical style that was heavily influenced with the praising of fleshly desire whereas Gospel favoured spiritual inspiration.

Nowadays, there are many forms of Soul Music. They include:

Philly Soul
Art Soul
Detroit(Motown) Soul
Chicago Soul
Blue eyed Soul
British Soul
New Orleans Soul
Memphis Soul
Philadelphia Soul
Northern Soul and modern soul
Nu-jazz and soulful electronica

Famous soul songs
http://youtu.be/xhfhVSUCLY4

http://youtu.be/n4ZyCPhVvvM

http://youtu.be/ATsmMBptA08

http://youtu.be/bFAhwS-NeNo

http://youtu.be/glhdcJ7K3XM


References

Scaruffi, Piero (n.d.) A brief history of Soul Music [Web log Post] Retrieved from http://www.scaruffi.com/history/soul.html

www.wikipedia.org/Soul_Music

Nero, Mark Edward (n.d) The definition of soul : What is Soul Music, Retrieved from About.com website, http://randb.about.com/od/rb12/a/Soul_Music.htm

www.youtube.com

Exegesis

The theme that I chose for this blog is music. The topic(s) of discussion range from popular to underrated music, as well as the history and diversity of musical genres. One particular reason as to why I chose this theme is because music is an art form that almost everyone can relate to. Moreover, music is something that never eradicates in me, so music relates to my identity and spiritual longevity.

The medium that I used for my web presence creation is Blogger. It is a user friendly web 2.0 platform which makes it easier for bloggers to add and edit features. Blogger has prepared many "widgets" and "gadget box" utilities that help bloggers to change and set preferences to their blog appearance more easily. Moreover, Blogger hosting is free in comparison to other blog sites such as a self-hosted Wordpress blog. It is free as it is under alliance with Google. Being a user friendly utility, Blogger guides new users who may not be familliar with ready to use themes and templates for an early design for their blog. As they slowly progress and get used to Blogger, these bloggers will know the tips and tricks of changing HTML/Javascript, and furthermore, change the layout of their blog and personalize it to make their blog seem presentable.

Besides that, Blogger is hosted and owned by Google. Thus, posts by users are indexed quickly and there are only limited down times and avoids long drawn out server issues. Another advantage of using Blogger is that the domain name is free, unlike certain websites. Blogger will only check if someone else has used the domain name, otherwise, the domain name is available for the user. Technically, Blogger is one of the cost efficient and easiest way to promote oneself in the virtual world, with little to no minor setbacks.

I chose the template that has a background somewhat pertaining to music for the obvious reason that my blog relates to music.  The template has many toolbars so as to facilitate me in this blog creation.

For this web presence creation, I have chosen three contributing nodes. They are usually frequented web sites and which can be interlinked, to help spread the existence of my blog in a way where other internet users can participate by giving feed backs to my blog, and therefore, keeping my blog site active. They are Youtube, Facebook and Google mail.
These web 2.0 tools also happen to be one of the more popular and happening web sites that will attract the attention of various internet users.

My first contributing node is Facebook. It is the most thriving social networking website where users can easily keep updated with current trends and news information online. Therefore, I have the privilege to promote my blog on this particular website, where facebook users can easily access and get linked to my blog. They are encouraged to follow and give regular feed backs about what I post which will help me span my interest in making this blog more appealing. "The personal nature of the blog is what they find appealing" (Ethan G. Salwen, 2011).

My second contributing node is Youtube. This is where I have access to music videos that I can share with on my blog site with a single click of the "share this" button. Moreover, it is another happening web site that contains a lot of videos, which I will find beneficial since my blog mainly relates to musical elements and therefore any videos pertaining music can easily be intertwined with Blogger. It is also the fastest content sharing website that can transfer one video to another web site, which saves time when doing my assignment.

My third contributing node is Gmail, although I rarely use it. This is to get the attention of my family or certain relatives in support of my blog as most of them do not have my facebook account, and so Gmail can be another medium for me to promote my blog to those who cannot access my Facebook or Youtube account.

Frequent updates regarding my blog will come in handy when I post relevant links on my Facebook page or through the Web Communication 101 page. My "about me" post helps in my learning outcome  in this unit in terms of promoting who I am in the virtual world. It helps visitors of my blog to understand the nature of music as well to gain information about the variety of music genres and to instill a passion for them to give a listen to the wide array of musical choices.

In conclusion, Blogger is an excellent and ready to use Web 2.0 platform for new bloggers as well to existing blogger who prefer to switch to an easier and more appealing way of blogging. Blogger is a web 2.0 platform that allows for content sharing and it is also an essential tool in helping people to retrieve information from by just reading and frequenting the blog site.

References

Khatri, Kuldeep (2012, March 13) 5 Benefits of Using The Free Blogger Platform [Web log Post]. Retrieved from http://hotblogtips.com/5-benefits-of-using-the-free-blogger-platform
Rajasingam, Roslyn (2011, April 27) Blogger : Advantages and Disadvantages [Web log Post]. Retrieved from http://www.roslynrajasingam.com/blogger-advantages-and-disadvantages/
Census data Revisited (n.d.) Retrieved May 17 2012, from Trexter Library, Muhlenberg College Website, http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library/reshelp/apa_example.pdf

Census data Revisited (n.d.) Retrieved May 15, 2012, from Finest Quotes Website, http://www.finestquotes.com/author_quotes-author-Ethan%20G.%20Salwen-page-0.htm

Parkinson,David (2008, May 14) Advantages and Disadvantages of blogs [Web log Post] Retrieved from http://daparky.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-blogging/

Soul Music ( R&B Genre ) (Part 1)

 SOUL MUSIC

Soul music originated from the United States from the 1950s and perhaps, early 1960s. Soul music emerged during the commercial boom of "race" music. This gave the opportunity for African-American entrepreneurs to create channels and infrastructures specifically designed to promote black artists. Soul music was further enabled by the integration of White Americans with African Americans, as more White Americans deduced that black culture was not degrading or evil, just different. (Scaruffi, 2009). It is also believed that jazz and rock music help legitimize black pop music. (rock music was considered the White version of rhythm 'n' blues)

FROM A POLITICAL STANCE

Soul music combines elements of African-American gospel music with rhythm and blues. During the time of the civil rights music, soul music not only became a party music for young African-American folks, it also had a political stance to it as the music genre became a rallying flag for the black nationalist movement. Though not completely political in nature, the rise of soul music in the pop charts epitomize one of the first successes of the civil-rights movement.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOUL MUSIC

Soul music was an underlying consequence of rock 'n' roll music. Soul music embraced everything rock music was ; a form of personal expression, teenage rebellion, political upheaval as well as dance music. Rock 'n' roll had stolen the 'body' (the sound) of rhythm 'n' blues whereas soul music stole the 'soul' (the spirit) of rock 'n' roll.

The aesthetic features of soul music was rather different than that of 'blues' music. Though the singer was the center of attention, the arrangement (ambience and soundscape) of soul music is more fundamental than in R&B music. One may come to a conclusion that soul music was created under the impression of African-American musicians adapting the European stance about artistic matters : intellectual, melodic, creative.

Simultaneously, soul music formed a new style a dancing : elegant, sensual and primal.

 

Rhythm and Blues - Slow jam ( R& B genre Part 1 )

SLOW JAM

A slow jam is a music genre related to rhythm and blues ( R&B ). It is more commonly regarded as smooth R&B and the tune that is used in slow jam is mellow. It was a popular genre of music from 1983 to the early 90s.

The song is mainly used for soft-sounding songs with romantic features or heavily emotional lyrics. The origin of this genre dates back to 1983 when Solar Records group Midnight Star recorded the song "Slow jam" on their album No Parking on the Dance Floor.

Music categories associated with slow jams are:

Soul*
R&B*
Contemporary R&B*
Pop*
Soft rock*
Reggae
Hip hop*
Jazz
Funk*
Quiet storm

Examples of "slow jams"

Janet Jackson - Come Back to Me ( 1990 )

Babyface - Everytime I close my eyes ( 1996 )

Sade - Your Love is King ( 1984 )


References
Census data revisited (n.d.) Retrieved March 22 2012, from Wikipedia website article of "slow jams" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_jam

Census data revisited (n.d.) Retrieved April 03, 2012 from Urban dictionary article "slow jam" : http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Slow%20Jam

Blog Introduction

About the author

Born	Jaafar bin Mohamed February 12 1992 Kuala lumpur, Malaysia
Occupation	Media, Culture and Communication Mass Communications undergraduate
Years active	2012-present
Alma Mater	Curtin University of Technology, Sarawak campus

We have our own preferences when it comes to a type/genre of music that we favour, but one can't deny that music is an essential element in one's life. This blog has been created to display the changes that have evolved in music from their humble beginnings to the more recent music scene. Also, I have also invented this blog in hopes of refreshing/reviving music that people used to dig at one point but have been swept away by the sands of time. Hope you visitors enjoy the music that I'll post from time to time together with factual information of musical genres.