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Music vocabulary · Genres and Styles

Soul

Meaning in music, with examples

nounCommon term

In music, soul means: A popular music style rooted in African American gospel and rhythm and blues, with expressive singing and strong emotional delivery.

In Turkish: soul müzik

How it is used

Used in genre descriptions and vocal production. Soul performances may use vocal responses, rich harmony and flexible phrasing; no single tempo defines the style.

Example sentences

  1. The soul arrangement pairs the lead singer with warm backing vocals and a small horn section.

    The supporting voices and horns help frame the featured vocal performance.

  2. He studied soul recordings to learn how singers vary the same line on each return.

    The listening task focuses on expressive variation rather than memorising one fixed delivery.

Common collocations

  • soul singer
  • soul music
  • soul arrangement
  • vocalsThe singing parts of a piece of music, especially in pop, rock and jazz. The main singer sings the lead vocals, and others sing the backing vocals.
  • backing vocalsVocal parts sung behind the lead voice to add harmony, texture, rhythmic support, or emphasis in a song.
  • genreA category of music with shared features such as rhythm, instruments, harmony or history, for example jazz, rock, hip-hop or classical music.

More terms: Genres and Styles

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