The Meaning of Soul
Black Music and Resilience since the 1960s
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
In The Meaning of Soul, Emily J. Lordi proposes a new understanding of this famously elusive concept. In the 1960s, Lordi argues, soul came to signify a cultural belief in black resilience, which was enacted through musical practices—inventive cover versions, falsetto vocals, ad-libs, and false endings. Through these soul techniques, artists such as Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, and Minnie Riperton performed virtuosic survivorship and thus helped to galvanize black communities in an era of peril and promise. Their soul legacies were later reanimated by such stars as Prince, Solange Knowles, and Flying Lotus. Breaking with prior understandings of soul as a vague masculinist political formation tethered to the Black Power movement, Lordi offers a vision of soul that foregrounds the intricacies of musical craft, the complex personal and social meanings of the music, the dynamic movement of soul across time, and the leading role played by black women in this musical-intellectual tradition.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lordi (Black Resonance), an English professor at Vanderbilt University, examines the sound and artists of soul music in this brilliant history. Drawing on close listening to artists including Beyonc , Aretha Franklin, and Gladys Knight, among many others, Lordi argues that to have soul one had to possess "virtuosic black resilience," exemplified through recordings and live performances that promoted the black community. Lordi looks at various elements and techniques that define soul, such as singing cover versions of popular songs, vocal ad-libs and falsettos, and false endings that trick listeners into thinking a performance has ended. As examples, she cites Nina Simone's ad-libbing in "Be My Husband"; Aretha Franklin's riffing in her live performance of "Dr. Feelgood" and "Amazing Grace"; and Donny Hathaway's free-form lyrics in his version of "You've Got a Friend" ("Would y'all sing you've got a friend' for me?" Hathaway calls out during a live recording from the Troubadour in L.A.). Lordi vividly illustrates that soul artists offer models of black resistance, joy, and community through their songs. This is a must-read for musicologists, critics, and fans of soul.
