Brown-eyed soul, also referred to as Chicano soul, is
soul music
Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became po ...
performed in the United States mainly by
Latinos
Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as ...
in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
, East Los Angeles, and San Antonio (Texas) during the 1960s, continuing through to the early 1980s.
[ AllMusic: Brown-eyed Soul All Media Guide, LLC. Retrieved on 2008-12-30.] The trend of Latinos started with Latino rock and roll and rock musicians.
[ "Brown eyed soul" contrasts with ]blue-eyed soul
Blue-eyed soul (also called white soul) is rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly-black Motown and Stax ...
, soul music performed by non-Latino white artists.
History
Critic Ruben Molina said roots of chicano soul music was from the 1950s jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
, blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
, doo wop
Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...
, jump blues, latin jazz, rock, ranchera, norteno, and conjunto music in the West Coast, Texas Latino communities. Latino artists began to draw inspiration from African American R&B hits, and as a result, Latino soul began sounding very similar to African American soul music. Early artists owed little to traditional Latin and rarely performed in Spanish.
Latin rock singer Ritchie Valens
Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens was killed i ...
, also became one of the first artists to bring traditional Latin music and rock and roll. Valens recorded "Donna", " La Bamba", "Come On, Let's Go", and "Donna" reached #2 on Billboard pop chart in 1959.
1960s and 1970s bands such as Cannibal & the Headhunters ("Land of a Thousand Dances
"Land of a Thousand Dances" (or "Land of 1000 Dances") is a song written and first recorded by American rhythm and blues singer Chris Kenner in 1962. It later became a bigger hit in versions by Cannibal & the Headhunters and Wilson Pickett. A ve ...
") and Thee Midniters
Thee Midniters were an American rock group, among the first Chicano rock bands to have a major hit in the United States. They were one of the best known acts to come out of East Los Angeles in the 1960s, with a cover of " Land of a Thousand Dan ...
played R&B music with a rebellious rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
edge. Sunny and the Sunliners
Sunny is a daytime weather condition. It may refer to:
People
* Sunny (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Sunny (singer), member of Girls' Generation
* Sunny, of Sue and Sunny, who also recorded as a solo artist
...
were popular in the 1960s.
However, the large Latino 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."[ Latino groups on the West Coast and Texas also drew from the ]doo wop
Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...
-influenced Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
soul ( "Philly" soul). The West Coast Latin rock
Latin rock is a term to describe a subgenre blending traditional sounds and elements of Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean folk with rock music. However, it is widely used in the English-language media to refer any kind of rock music featurin ...
scene continued to influence other Latino soul musicians as well. Tierra gained the top 40 hit "Together".
Brown-eyed soul artists
* Cannibal & the Headhunters
*Frankie J
Francisco Javier Bautista Jr. (born December 7, 1975), better known by his stage name Frankie J, is a Mexican-American singer and former member of the musical group Kumbia Kings.
Born in Mexico, he grew up in San Diego and became a freestyle ar ...
*Paula DeAnda
Paula or PAULA may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Paula, in video game '' EarthBound''
* Paula, in ''The Larry Sanders Show''
* Paula Campbell (''EastEnders''), in 2003
Film and television
* ''Paula'' (1915 film), a s ...
*Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...
*Malo
Mal, which in Spanish means ''bad or evil'', may also refer to:
Places
* Malo, Italy, a town
*Malo Island, formerly known as St. Bartholomew, Vanuatu
* Malo (Solomon Islands), an island
*Malo, Washington, Ferry County, Washington, United States
* ...
*Thee Midniters
Thee Midniters were an American rock group, among the first Chicano rock bands to have a major hit in the United States. They were one of the best known acts to come out of East Los Angeles in the 1960s, with a cover of " Land of a Thousand Dan ...
*The Premiers
The Premiers were an American garage band in the 1960s, best known for their 1964 hit, "Farmer John."
Career
The band was formed in 1962 in San Gabriel, California, by Mexican-American brothers Lawrence Perez (guitar) and John Perez (drums), and ...
* Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
*Sheila E
Sheila Cecilia Escovedo (born December 12, 1957) better known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American percussionist and singer. She began her career in the mid-1970s as a percussionist and singer for The George Duke Band. After leaving t ...
*Sunny and the Sunliners
Sunny is a daytime weather condition. It may refer to:
People
* Sunny (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Sunny (singer), member of Girls' Generation
* Sunny, of Sue and Sunny, who also recorded as a solo artist
...
Sunny Ozuna: The Brown Eyed Soul Man, The Village Voice
/ref>
*Tierra
Tierra may refer to:
Astronomy
*Earth in the Spanish and Asturian language
Computing and games
* Tierra (computer simulation), a computer simulation of life by the ecologist Thomas S. Ray
* Tierra Entertainment, now known as AGD Interactive, a ...
*War
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
See also
* Latin rock
Latin rock is a term to describe a subgenre blending traditional sounds and elements of Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean folk with rock music. However, it is widely used in the English-language media to refer any kind of rock music featurin ...
* Tejano music
Tejano music ( es, música tejana), also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences. Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres – particular ...
* Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist who rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band Santana, which pioneered a fusion of Rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured ...
* Chicano rock
Chicano rock is rock music performed by Mexican American (Chicano) groups or music with themes derived from Chicano culture. Chicano Rock, to a great extent, does not refer to any single style or approach. Some of these groups do not sing in Span ...
* Chicano rap
Chicano rap is a subgenre of hip hop that embodies aspects of Southwest Mexican American or Chicano culture. It is typically performed by rappers and musicians of Mexican descent.
History Early years
The first widely recognized Chicano rap arti ...
* Lowrider
A lowrider or low rider is a customized car with a lowered body. These customized vehicles are generally individually painted with intricate, colorful designs, rolling on wire-spoke wheels with whitewall tires. Lowrider rims are generally smalle ...
* Yacht soul
Notes
{{Amerisalsa
1980s in music
1970s in Latin music
1960s in Latin music
Soul music
Hispanic American music