Incorporating outstanding figures such as James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and Stevie Wonder, and also the lesser-known but highly-influential Archie Bell or Eddie Harris, this is a guide to some of the best soul music available on CD. As many artists achieved success through singles rather than albums, the book also covers the best of the soul-selection CDs, including "Classic Mastercuts" and "The Sound of Philadelphia". Soul's constant evolution and fragmentation is traced, from its roots in R&B, through its emergence as the first genuine black pop style, through funk and disco, to rap, hip hop and swingbeat. But soul was also a soundtrack to social situations, and the book examines not just the histories of the artists, but also how the music affected and was affected by events and circumstances such as Vietnam, Woodstock and civil rights.