I do a lot of digging through old vinyl, and eventually I picked up on a genre that I'd never heard of before... "Northern Soul". I thought it was a strange designation, because I've seen some places (especially online) stick the label on fairly Garage-y classic 45's like these:
And yet I've also seen it used to describe songs like these:
After doing some research, most people say that Northern Soul was a sort of rejection of the hard and funky "James Brown-esque" sound that was merging with mainstream Soul during the mid to late 1960's, featuring hundreds of artists that tried to recapture the classic Motown sound (although I don't know if I agree with this description, since I've heard some pretty funky Northern Soul). There were plenty of underground bands, as well those who managed to attack the charts, and 45's from this scene can be very expensive and sought after by collectors.
It's a very eccentric scene if it actually does cover Soul and a bit of Garage Rock/Pop as well, and I've been meaning to learn more about it for awhile. So, is there anyone out there who knows about this genre, who can set me wise about it?