Abstract

This chapter conceptualizes the ‘soul’ as a factor in Afro music and positions it within soul music as conclusively and inherently undefinable. Using several cases of black cultural theorists, I argue that the soul in soul music is uniquely embedded in subjective narratives derived from the intersection of oppression—politically, socially, and economically and how often the soul is in a state of constant fluctuation without a time constraint. On the other hand, the chapter examines the immortality of a soul the basis upon which we place soul music and its connection with oppression socially, politically, and economically and how the imagery and context of how soul music is portrayed in mainstream society as being a representation of the ‘other’.