Brown-eyed soul

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Brown-Eyed Soul
Stylistic origins:	Soul music, Doo-wop, Blues, Rhythm and blues, Latin music, Italian folk music, Rock and roll
Cultural origins:	late 1950s United States mainly by Italian-Americans and Latinos
Typical instruments:	Guitar - Bass - keyboard - Drums - Horn section - Vocals
Mainstream popularity:	Significant from 1960s through early 1980s
Derivative forms:	Funk, Latin rap, contemporary R&B
Other topics
Soul musicians

Brown-eyed soul is a subgenre of soul or rhythm and blues created mainly by Italian-Americans and Latinos during the 1950s and thriving into the 1980s. The genre of soul music occasionally draws from Latin and Italian folk music, and often contains rock influences.

[edit] Origin

Brown-eyed soul emerged from the 1950s simultaneously on the East Coast United States, in the large Italian American neighborhoods and smaller Hispanic communities, and on the West Coast, in the much larger Hispanic communities. Chicago soul and Motown hits were crowd favorites at dances and clubs during the late '50s and early '60s. Italian American and Latino artists began to imitated and draw from the Motown hits, and as a result, brown-eyed soul began sounding very similar to African American soul. Early brown-eyed soul artists owed little to traditional Latin and Italian music and rarely performed in Spanish or Italian.

Ritchie Valens, one of the original pioneers of brown-eyed soul music, also became one of the first brown-eyed soul artists to bring traditional Latin music and rock and roll influences into the genre. Meanwhile, the popular crooner Dean Martin began to bring Italian and Hispanic influences into his soul records. On the East Coast, the Italian American Newark soul group, Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, as well as their fellow East Coast Italians, The Elegants and The Mystics, brought Italian Doo-Wop influences to brown-eyed soul. Still other Italian American and Latino groups on the East Coast drew from the funk-influenced Philadelphia soul, or "Philly" soul.

Inspired by Ritchie Valens, 1960s and 70s bands such as Cannibal & the Headhunters ("Land of a Thousand Dances") and Thee Midniters played brown-eyed R&B music with a rebellous rock and roll edge. Many of these artists drew from the frat rock and garage rock scenes. However, the large Hispanic population on the West Coast began gradually moving away from energetic R&B to romantic soul, and the results were "some of the sweetest soul music heard during the late '60s and '70s." (Allmusic Guide)

Despite the movement to smoother soul, War, Malo, El Chicano, and other brown-eyed soul bands of the 1970s continued to create soul more influenced by funk, rock, and Latin folk music. Funk-influenced brown-eyed soul anthems continued to breach the charts during the mid-'70s (a good example being Bloodstone's "Natural High"), but the genre began to waver during the 1980s.