James Brown and the Soul Train
Once in every generation, an artist transcends their craft to the peak of greatness. Between the 1950s and 1980s, James brown was this artist. It is hard to review a single work of his given the tremendous success and influence he had during his time and after he passed on. His music is the most sampled in the world to date. Additionally, he chartered the highest number of hits after Elvis on the Billboard hot 100 (Fandel, 2004). Thus, James Brown was a significant musical figure, not only to the world, but also African American people.
The singer found his musical inspiration after a brush with the law. From then onwards, he went on to enjoy tremendous success that some consider him the primary architect of funk music (Doran, 2015). Perhaps, this title was cemented by the 1965’s smash hit “Papa’s got a brand new bag”, which was the first song to incorporate funk backbeats (Fandel, 2004). Additionally, he was a driving force that transformed R&B music to Soul. Among his other contributions to music are that he was essentially responsible for spreading the soul trains to the masses through his LP live at Apollo and that his samples were instrumental for the hip hop explosion in the 1980s. His music and performances were primarily characterized by his social activism (Fandel, 2004). He stood out as a prominent African American icon during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. He was so determined in his cause that it landed him in jail a few time (Loewen, 1989). Accordingly, the artist used his music to promote a cause in which he believed.
Indeed, James Brown enjoyed great musical success in his time. Apart from bringing soul to the people, he later played a prominent role in the hip hop movement. Social activism was a significant part of his music. He used the music to fight to for African America civil rights, which were part of his identity. Thus, he made significant contributions not only to the music scene but also the black community.
References
Doran, J. (2015). James Brown – 10 of the best. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/oct/28/james-brown-10-of-the-best
Fandel, J. (2004). James Brown. Chicago, Ill: Raintree.
Loewen, N. (1989). James Brown. Vero Beach, FL, U.S.A: Rourke Enterprises.
