[3] Soul music became popular for dancing and listening, and U.S. record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential in its proliferation during the civil rights movement.

[4] It had a resurgence in the mid-to late 1990s with the subgenre neo soul,[5] which incorporated modern production elements and hip hop influences.

Many prominent soul artists, including Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and various acts under the Motown label, such as The Supremes and The Temptations, were highly influential in the genre's development and all gained widespread popularity during this time.

Some soul artists moved to funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, and in some cases more socially conscious varieties.

Prominent soul artists of this era include Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Al Green, and Bill Withers.

The genre was popularized by artists like Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Otis Redding, who infused their music with themes of personal and social significance.

[13] According to musicologist Barry Hansen,[14]Though this hybrid produced a clutch of hits in the R&B market in the early 1950s, only the most adventurous white fans felt its impact at the time; the rest had to wait for the coming of soul music in the 1960s to feel the rush of rock and roll sung gospel-style.According to AllMusic, "Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the '60s.

[20] Important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James.

[11] By the mid-1960s, the initial successes of Burke, King, and others had been surpassed by new soul singers, including Stax artists such as Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, who mainly recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

According to Jon Landau:Between 1962 and 1964 Redding recorded a series of soul ballads characterized by unabashedly sentimental lyrics usually begging forgiveness or asking a girlfriend to come home...

Artists such as James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone evolved into funk music, while other singers such as Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and Al Green developed slicker, more sophisticated and in some cases more politically conscious varieties of the genre.

[16] Mitchell's Hi Records continued in the Stax tradition of the previous decade, releasing a string of hits by Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay, O.V.

[50] During the 1970s, some slick and commercial blue-eyed soul acts like Philadelphia's Hall & Oates and Oakland's Tower of Power achieved mainstream success, as did a new generation of street-corner harmony or "city-soul" groups such as the Delfonics and the historically black Howard University's Unifics.

[54] The TV series continued to air until 2006, although other predominantly African-American music genres such as hip-hop began overshadowing soul on the show beginning in the 1980s.

Among the most successful acts in this era include Smokey Robinson, Jeffry Osbourne, Peabo Bryson, Chaka Khan, and Larry Graham.

Notable artists under this label were Gladys Knight & the Pips, the Supremes, the Temptations, the Miracles, the Four Tops, the Marvelettes, Mary Wells, Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Martha and the Vandellas,[56] and the Jackson 5.

Smokey Robinson was another writer and record producer who added lyrics to "The Tracks of My Tears" by his group the Miracles, which was one of the most important songs of the decade.

[60] Dominated by Berry Gordy's Motown Records empire, Detroit's soul is strongly rhythmic and influenced by gospel music.

AllMusic cites Motown as the pioneering label of pop-soul, a style of soul music with raw vocals, but polished production and toned-down subject matter intended for pop radio and crossover success.

It featured melancholic and melodic horns, Hammond organ, bass, and drums, as heard in recordings by Hi's Al Green and Stax's Booker T. & the M.G.'s.

Chess Records, mainly a blues and rock and roll label, produced several major soul artists, including the Dells and Billy Stewart.

Thom Bell, and Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff are considered the founders of Philadelphia soul, which produced hits for Patti LaBelle, the O'Jays, the Intruders, the Three Degrees, the Delfonics, the Stylistics, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, and the Spinners.

[67] Later prog-soul music includes recordings by Prince,[68] Peter Gabriel,[69] Meshell Ndegeocello, Joi,[70] Bilal, Dwele, Anthony David,[71] Janelle Monáe,[72] and the Soulquarians, an experimental black-music collective active during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

[74] Early pioneers of this subgenre of soul music include Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Norman Whitfield, and Isaac Hayes.

Liverpool in particular had an established black community from which artists such as Chants and Steve Aldo emerged and go on to record within the British music industry.

A key element in neo-soul is a heavy dose of Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer electric piano "pads" over a mellow, grooving interplay between the drums (usually with a rim shot snare sound) and a muted, deep funky bass.

Many artists in various genres of electronic music (such as house, drum n bass, UK garage, and downtempo) are heavily influenced by soul, and have produced many soul-inspired compositions.

[34] The Righteous Brothers, the Rascals, Spencer Davis Group, Steve Winwood, Van Morrison & Them, and the Grass Roots were famous blue-eyed soul musicians in the 1960s.

Artists like Hall & Oates, David Bowie, Teena Marie, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds, Frankie Valli, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse and Adele are known as blue-eyed soul singers.

Inspired by Valens, 1960s and 1970s bands such as Cannibal & the Headhunters ("Land of a Thousand Dances") and Thee Midniters played brown-eyed R&B music with a rebellious rock and roll edge.