In 2017, EDM legends Above & Beyond released the single “Northern Soul”, a collaboration with vocalist Richard Bedford. Although the track is a slice of electro-tinged trance pop that is fairly typical of the group, the title nods to a style of music that seems – at least on the surface – very different. But what is “northern soul”, and what connection does it have to the modern EDM scene?
The Origins of Northern Soul
Northern soul is not exactly a “genre” of music as much as it is a scene. In the 1960s, young working-class people in the north of England developed an affinity for black American soul music. However, this music wasn’t the commercially successful brand of soul from the world-famous Motown and Tamla record labels. The type of soul music that these northern English teens were listening to was more obscure and more importantly, faster.
These tracks were usually at least 100 BPM and most featured a heavy beat. This made these records ideal to dance to in nightclubs. While teenagers and young people had been dancing to rock ‘n’ roll and ska music for over a decade at this point, this music was even more linked to dancing. The high energy dancing style of northern soul preceded disco by a decade and house music by even longer.
Over time, northern English venues like the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, The Mecca in Blackpool, the Golden Torch in Stoke-on-Trent, and the Wigan Casino in (you guessed it) Wigan became well-known for playing this distinct brand of soul music that came to be branded “northern soul”.
The Style of Northern Soul
Northern soul became highly associated with the working-class mod and skinhead subcultures, and iconography like the raised fist of the black power movement. Mod fashion was associated with the style, including bowling shirts, Levi’s jeans, and small Italian motorcycles like the Lambretta and Vespa. The mod fashion is still popular around the world today (you can buy Fred Perry shirts from many stores and Vespa scooters from sites like bmgscooters.com) and you can see people wearing it at various northern soul club nights, usually in the north and Midlands of England. There are also fans of the scene outside of the UK, with a northern soul scene even springing up in Japan!
The Impact of Northern Soul
Although modern dance music may sound nothing like the old northern soul tracks, the nightclub and DJ-focused aspect of the northern soul scene gave birth to modern DJ and club culture. In 1981, British synth pop duo Soft Cell covered the northern soul classic “Tainted Love”, originally by Gloria Jones, and took it to the number one spot in the charts. In 1998, Fat Boy Slim’s hit “The Rockafeller Skank” sampled northern soul track “Sliced Tomatoes” by Just Brothers, turning it into a dance smash once again.
While modern EDM styles like techno, house, trance, and dubstep may sound a million miles away from obscure old soul tracks, the urge to dance for hours to fast-paced records in a club can be traced directly back to the northern soul scene!
