Otis Redding's Influence On Soul Music

On par with famed soul singers, such as Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding’s impact on Soul music is undeniable. His commitment and passion to his music was a result of the influences he had in his hometown, Macon, Georgia, and connections developed throughout his career. With his impassioned stage performances and famed voice, soul music and its audience would positively evolve into the globally revered and feel good music that it is today because of his efforts.

Numerous artists, such as Little Richards, would get their start in Macon and leave their own influence in the town, which would, in turn, set the foundation and inspiration for Otis’s musical development. Idolizing Little Richard, he would compete in and win

Like many Stax artists, Otis had an intensity and charismatic composure to him. When his first Stax session single, “These Arms of Mine,” took five months to reach the charts, Stax didn't contact until a year later where he would come back undeterred to record his own original, “Pain in my Heart,” which would top the R&B charts. His emotive nature and likeable personality reflected in his performances and music, and his audience and bandmates were able to connect with him because of this. Many of his hits were team efforts, and every Stax session was an event (Guralnick, 2002, p.149). His bandmates would feel revitalize whenever Otis arrived, which would lead to top hits often from the randomest of inspirations. “Singers such as Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and Isaac Hayes screamed, shouted, begged, stomped, and cried, harkening back to the blues shouters of the Deep South.” (Ritz, 2013) More so than the techniques or musical prowesses, the emotions and feelings an artist omits are what the audience receive, which are the main factors of Southern Soul music. Redding’s earlier compositions had a “self-pitying”(Guralnick, 2002, p.143) underly to them, but as he became more confident with his own identity as a performer, his vocals became more assertive and took on a uniqueness of its own, which contributed to the spread of Southern

Dubbed the “Summer of Love,” the three day event would immensely boost the careers of many colored musicians who, at the time, were still not making a mark in the “White American Mainstream Market.” (Inglis, 2006, p.33) Barely denting the pop charts, Otis’s inclusion in the festival would have been shocking if not for his successful 1966 Europe tour and performances at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go and Fillmore Auditorium in Los Angeles and San Francisco where he would attract the attentions of the Californian audience and famed promoters, such as Bill Graham (Inglis, 2006, p.34). Southern Soul music would gradually migrate over and break into the American Pop charts because of his performance at the festival. With the signature horns section and Gospel techniques, such as call-and-response and repetition, he introduced the audience, who had mainly been exposed to only rock and pop music, to the true, deep, and gritty Southern Soul sound as opposed to the more well-known, refined, and lyrical pop-soul style of Motown, and got them more engaged than previous