Brown-eyed soul

Brown-eyed soul is a subgenre of Soul music or Rhythm and Blues created mainly by Latinos and

Brown-eyed soul is a subgenre of Soul music or Rhythm and Blues created mainly by Latinos and Italian-Americans during the 1950's and thriving into the 1980's. The genre of soul music occasionally draws from Latin and Italian folk music, and often contains rock influences.

Brown-eyed soul emerged from the 1950's simultaneously on the East Coast United States, in the large Italian-American neighborhoods and smaller Hispanic communities, and on the West Coast, in the much larger Hispanic communities. Chicago soul and Motown hits were crowd favorites at dances and clubs during the late '50s and early '60s. Italian-American and Latino artists began to imitated and draw from the Motown hits, and as a result, brown-eyed soul began sounding very similar to African-American soul. Early brown-eyed soul artists owed little to traditional Latin and Italian music and rarely performed in Spanish or Italian.