June is Black Music Month, and every Monday night at 10 throughout the month of June, The Current features a special program, Good Times: The Evolution of Black Music. Hosted by Debonaire, we'll celebrate Black music and its contributions to America's musical landscape.

For episode 3, we dig into three genres that originated in African American communities the mid-20th century: Soul, Motown and Funk.

Soul is a genre that originated in African American communities in the 1950s and the early 1960s, combining gospel, rhythm and blues, and jazz. The Motown sound is a style of soul music with a mainstream pop appeal that included 79 records achieving top 10 success in Billboard's Hot 100 between 1960 and 1969. Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the 1960s, and it is a mixture of soul, jazz, and rhythm and blues, focusing on rhythmic grooves of basslines with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure, which was James Brown's signature groove.

Program Playlist

Ray Charles, "Hit The Road, Jack"
Etta James, "Something's Got A Hold On Me"
Sam Cooke, "A Change Is Gonna Come"
Otis Redding, "I've Been Loving You Too Long"
Aretha Franklin, "Respect"
James Brown, "Cold Sweat"
Martha and the Vandellas, "Nowhere to Run"
The Temptations, "My Girl"
The Supremes, "You Can't Hurry Love"
Stevie Wonder, "My Cherie Amour"
Marvin Gaye, "Mercy Mercy Me"
Sly & the Family Stone, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"
The Meters, "Cissy Strut" (1969)
The J.B.'s, "Pass The Peas"
Parliament, "Up For the Down Stroke"
Funkadelic, "One Nation Under a Groove"

Gallery

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