blue eyed soul

Blue-eyed soul is a form of soul and rhythm and blues performed by white artists, generally marked by an earnest, expressive vocal style, gospel-derived phrasing, and arrangements built around electric piano, organ, horns, guitar, and a strongly syncopated rhythm section. The term emerged in the late 1960s as artists such as the Spencer Davis Group and Small Faces adapted the sound of American soul for British rock audiences, and it later encompassed the polished, radio-oriented work of Boz Scaggs, Hall & Oates, and Michael McDonald.

Although it often overlaps with pop, funk, and disco, blue-eyed soul is distinguished less by a fixed tempo or production formula than by its commitment to soul vocabulary and vocal performance. Some recordings lean toward rock and new wave, as with Dexys Midnight Runners, Fine Young Cannibals, and the Style Council; others favor sophisticated adult-contemporary arrangements or modern R&B, as in later work by Fitz and the Tantrums and Robin Thicke. The genre’s appeal lies in hearing familiar pop craftsmanship animated by the emotional directness, rhythmic detail, and vocal intensity of soul.