Like the Northern Soul scene, the Modern Soul scene is a broad church that often shares records with its elder relation. Coming out of the Northern scene in the mid-70s, it originally concentrated on soul releases from that decade, while the traditional Northern crowd stuck with their 1960s recordings, be they old favourites or later discoveries. Over the decades some collectors have come to prefer the smoother production sounds of the 70s tunes and concentrated on those releases for DJing and collecting, while others kept bang up to date with the newly released US black music that had the danceable beat they preferred. Today, at most Modern Soul venues you'll probably hear a mix of both new and older tunes. The beat on the Modern scene tended to be slower than that which punters had previously been dancing to in Northern Soul clubs in their younger days. Indeed it could be claimed that a conversion to Modern Soul was the logical step for ageing Northern fans. Their bodies had slowed down by their late twenties/early thirties and their intellectual tastes became more attuned to the more mature lyrics of that era, as compared to the lighter uptempo love songs often associated with the neo-Motown sounds of the 60s. Of course many of the same acts, writers and producers were growing up too, and musicians like Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye grew older and wiser and took much of their audience with them.
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