Spoken word soul

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Spoken Word Soul-An eclectic blend of Poetry, Jazz-funk, Electronica & acoustic Country soul music elements. The style is largely considered to be an underground offshoot of the Neo Soul movement from the 1990's & became very popular around the turn of the century (2000 A.D.), to the present. From origins in 50's & 60's Beatnik culture & Bop Jazz associations, Spoken Word Soul music has become very popular today as indie artists (Musicians, Singer-songwriters, Poets) & the public, dissatisfied & frustrated with current major record label releases & business practices, utilized the power of the internet to network globally with other Artists & fans; as a result, the Genre has become an international "Underground culture" of sorts via the increased use of various music & blog sites such as Myspace, You Tube, Solarradio.com, DustyGroove.com, CDBaby & Soulchoonz, etc. Artists such as Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, The Watts Prophets, and contemporary artists like Meshell Ndegeocello, Jill Scott, Floetry, & Ursula Rucker are considered the "Progenitors" of this style of Soul, while Indie (Unsigned) acts such as Detroit bred-Atlanta, Ga based artist Abyss, Baltimore's brilliant Taalam Acey, Fayetteville N.C.-based artist & radio personality Val "Imani" Jones, L.A.-based Actor/Poet-Bassist Malcolm Jamal Warner, along with the jazz-funk flavorings of Cincinnati-based Shades Of J and others, are constantly releasing powerful, thought provoking blends of original Spoken Word music with insightful, creative expression, all while expanding the Genre worldwide. "It's still Evolving", says Shades of J Co-founder/ producer Donald "Dee M" Manor, of the musical style. "Spoken Word Soul has been around & will Always be relevant."

[edit] References

Who is Jill Scott? Now she's a Poet, too..

Algarin & Holman, ALOUD: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe

Cross, Brian (1993). It's Not About a Salary: Rap, Race, and Resistance in Los Angeles. The Haymarket series. London and New York: Verso.
Imhorst, Christian: The ‘Lost Generation’ of the Music Industry, published under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License 2004
Leonhard, Gerd: Music Like Water - the inevitable music ecosystem

[edit] Print

Beat Culture and the New America 1950-1965 published by the Whitney Museum of American Art in accordance with an exhibition in 1995/1996 -- ISBN 0-87427-098-7 softcover, ISBN 2-08-013613-5

hardcover (Flammarion)

Sanders, Ed Tales of Beatnik Glory (second edition, 1990) ISBN 0-8065-1172-9
The Word Is Here: Poetry from Modern Africa. New York: Anchor, 1973.
When the Clouds Clear. Johannesburg: Congress of South African Writers, 1990.
Approaches to Poetry Writing. Chicago: Third World, 1994.
To the Bitter End. Chicago: Third World, 1995.
If I Could Sing: Selected Poems. Roggebaai, South Africa: Kwela and Plumstead, South Africa: Snailpress, 2002.