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Soul is in the air
Other | Friday 13th March 2015 | Nicole Breeden
“My daughter hates when I play my old music. She rolls her eyes and disappears upstairs” said Andy Cosma, the father of a 21-year-old student. Sound familiar? A study commissioned by Comedy Central in 2013 revealed that indeed, at least a third of 2000 youngsters are embarrassed of their parents’ music tastes. But times, they are a-changin’.
According to the current UK singles chart, a number of 70s-90s soul-inspired songs are in the top 40. High up the chart at number three is 'Uptown Funk' by Mark Ronson, which portrays the “feel-good funk of the 80s”. The track has been in the chart for 10 weeks and was at number one for seven of those. At number 13 is 'Lips Are Movin' by Meghan Trainor, whilst her other hit 'All About That Bass' sits at number 30. Both of these songs resemble the 60s doo-wop sub genre of soul, and the latter also managed to hold the top spot for multiple weeks.
In addition to the recent release of old soul inspired music, there has been a rise in the sampling of this genre, as seen with various house DJs like 99 Souls, as well as the actual remaking of it. Doo-wop cover band The Overtones released their new album Sweet Soul Music on March 2nd and it reached number 8 in the albums chart within a week. It covers some of “the greatest soul songs of all time” revealed band member Mike Crawshaw. It features hits like 'Let’s Stay Together' by Al Green and 'Heard it Through the Grapevine' by Marvin Gaye, as well as three songs written themselves that “happily sit wonderfully with these classic timeless tracks”.
So how is this ranking of songs in the chart actually made up? As said by Olivia Morris, a spokesperson for the Official Charts UK, it is determined by the number of digital and physical single/album sales, combined with how many times it is streamed on services like Spotify. According to the BBC, the majority of iTunes users are aged below 20 whilst Spotify revealed that most of their users are aged between 20 and 29. Considering a third of the younger generation are supposedly “embarrassed” by their parents' old music, it appears that they are actually the ones in control of the charts and influencing the re-birth of this genre.
I conducted a poll to put this view to the test. It was found that out of 40 young adults aged between 18 and 26, over 70% of them said that they “loved” the current trend of remaking and creating soul inspired songs. Although it has been shown that a large number of young adults support this rise of old music, 8% said that they “hated” the idea.
Jonny Silver a spokesperson for Kiss FM said that after the success of their radio programme Kisstory, which is dedicated to only playing “old skool & anthems”, they have recently made it into its own radio station where the main demographic of listeners are aged between 15 and 34.
So what is it about this old music that's influencing the younger generation? Darren Everest from The Overtones gave his opinion on this, “Before artists like Bruno Mars and Meghan Trainor there was Amy Winehouse who made a huge dent on soul music, so I think it has started to grow ever since. Nevertheless Bruno Mars & Trainor’s successes have definitely helped. It’s such a cool sound and will live on forever. It is always amazing to look out at our concerts and see fans 16 and even 80 years old!”.
Due to the positive reaction this genre has seen, it seems that other artists who don't even specialize in it are creating music with these sounds. Pharella, a 19-year-old pop singer/songwriter said “I would definitely make a song with the inspiration of old soul music. I have actually written a few. I feel they do so well as they are just feel-good tracks, and the music is bass driven which makes people want to dance along regardless if you like that style or not.”
Whilst it is clear that old soul is inspiring the young artists of today, is its recent success encouraging the original singers of this genre to reform? The blue-eyed soul band Spandau Ballet performed a reunion tour in 2009, almost two decades after their split in 1990. However not proving as successful as their recent film Soulboys of the Western World, it was announced by TicketMaster that the 80s band are to tour again this year. Could the backing of the younger generation help their comeback this time around?
Times may be a-changin’ but some things are very much the same.
