THE ESSENTIAL
Northern soul has always been known for its polished arrangements, with an endless procession of its earworm perfection delivered straight off the pop factory assembly line and directly into the charts. Indeed, Motown was known for its early-morning quality control meetings, where songwriters and producers would listen to each other’s songs and rigorously critique them.
Southern soul was not at all like that. Rougher, grittier, funkier, it took the zeal of gospel music and fused it with the dynamic energy of R&B to produce something altogether different. This music was about an earthy groove with greasy horns, chicken-scratch guitars and heartfelt vocals blasting out a righteous wall of sound. It was a gritty, raw alternative to Motown. Southern soul was at its peak during the 1960s, but its popularity declined slowly due to disco’s dominance in the mid 1970s.