Soul
· Musical and theological. Soul music — the form that emerged from the convergence of gospel and rhythm
and blues in the late 1950s and 1960s, retaining the emotional directness and communal intensity of the church
while addressing secular experience. Soul carries its theological origin as an aesthetic quality: the sense that
the music is addressing something essential rather than incidental.
Circuit
· Electronic and geographic. A closed loop through which current flows — and in musical terms, the
network of venues, radio stations, record labels, and cities through which soul music traveled and developed: the
chitlin circuit, the Stax-Volt axis, the Motown system, the Atlantic distribution network.
The Soul Circuit
adj. Of or pertaining to the infrastructure of soul music production and distribution — the
specific network of relationships between musicians, producers, labels, and venues through which soul as a form
was sustained and developed.
n.(a The Soul Circuit) (a Soul Circuit) The interconnected system of institutions —
labels, studios, radio stations, touring routes, and independent distributors — through which soul music was
created, distributed, and maintained as a coherent tradition across the 1960s and 70s.