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Love it. Not being British nor 70 years old, I have a hard time zeroing in on the true musical DNA of northern soul. That is, if you heard a previously unknown

Love it. Not being British nor 70 years old, I have a hard time zeroing in on the true musical DNA of northern soul. That is, if you heard a previously unknown track, could you clock it like you could with house vs techno? Maybe it's slightly less "soulful?" That's all I've got, but it's great all the same. My explicit interest in the genre was spurred by Soft Cell, but as I dug into compilations, I heard a good deal of stuff that was on American oldies format radio growing up. It's unsurprisingly not entirely a UK thing. I'll part with another song that Soft Cell covered, on a B side somewhere: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y2NySUcbv3w https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y2NySUcbv3w

mellosouls 3y ago
(OP) Yeah, that was and is a huge Northern track; I agree that it is hard to say exactly how it is delineated musically, and I think the original definition by Dave Godin given in the article is still probably the best guide - its the stuff the fans from the north like, although the article itself ironically identifies a modern youthful impetus as coming from the South. Your point about the music being internationally enjoyed (and obviously so in its home nation in the US) is true and representative of the brilliance of the original artists. I think the still-startling revelation to me personally in coming to appreciate it was how much of it exists that was terrific and I'd never heard of before; it's very humbling as a music fan coming to terms with your ignorance.