![]() “Soul Train was so personal to me – it started my whole career. ![]() Later in the show’s life, Cornelius even made some exceptions for non-black artists, allowing headliners “with soul”, like David Bowie and Elton John, to grace Soul Train’s stages. Barry White once performed with a 40-person orchestra, Al Green delivered a jaw dropping performance with a broken arm, and James Brown joined the floor dancers in a bedazzled purple jumpsuit. In its early days, performers lip-synced to their hits during tapings, but Cornelius recognised that they needed to integrate live performances to stay relevant. Aretha Franklin performed at the peak of her career, Stevie Wonder improvised a new song on air, and the Jackson 5 were some of show’s most frequent guests. Soon, musicians were the ones asking to be on Soul Train, not the other way around. It premiered nationally in 1971 with a bold and bright new set befitting of its new location, and the staple line “welcome aboard, you’re right on time for a beautiful trip on the Soul Train”. It quickly amassed the necessary backing to make it a national programme, and Soul Train moved its headquarters to Los Angeles. Black Chicago was given a show that didn’t just alleviate a gross lack of representation, but a show whose purpose was commending the breadth of black talent. Cornelius sourced local teens for talent, who lined up outside of the network building every day after school, hoping for the opportunity to dance on-screen. The network approved, and Soul Train first premiered in 1970 as a local, daily show, making Cornelius one of the first African Americans to have created, owned, and produced their own TV show.Īlmost overnight, the hour-long adventure “into the exciting world of soul” was a raving success. Although black artists were increasingly topping the charts, American Bandstand tended to feature white dancers and performers, leading Cornelius to pitch his show, the “ American Bandstand of colour”, to WCIU. Scripted comedies and dramas gave African American actors stereotypical or servantile roles.Ĭornelius’s desire to see not only genuine, but positive, representations of African Americans in media led him to brew up ideas for his own TV show based directly on the ABC network show American Bandstand, a widely popular hour-long segment that showed teenagers dancing to the latest music. Footage of the Civil Rights movement was skewed, making what were often peaceful protests seem like violent upheavals. Biased news stations, particularly in the South, over-reported black crime and under-reported police brutality. National television chronically misrepresented black America, either distorting or demeaning their narratives, or omitting them entirely. For Cornelius, working in television brought into focus the way that racism in the real world was reflected on screen. A Chicago native who came of age during the turbulence of the Civil Rights struggle, Cornelius spent his early 20s reporting on social unrest and meeting his personal heroes, Reverend Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr., for local TV station WCIU. ![]() “I’m black and Mexican and grew up on the streets of Inglewood, and every Saturday morning, that was our chance to see our people, and to indulge in our own dances, styles, eras, and crazes.”ĭon Cornelius was the official host, or “conductor”, of Soul Train, and doubled as its executive producer. “It was a way of life for me, my culture, and my generation,” says Louie Ski Carr, a fan favourite Soul Train dancer. Soul Train’s message of black empowerment was urgent, despite its joyful and seemingly unserious exterior. Its foundation was rooted in resistance against a bigoted media and a bigoted culture more broadly, and it came of age in a time of tremendous upheaval and frustration, as poor economic conditions persisted even as the Civil Rights movement made advances. Beneath the dazzling lights, bewitching performances, and cascading paisley, Soul Train was revolutionary in its depictions of black identity. It was a pop cultural pipeline that taught mass audiences how to dance, how to dress, and who to listen to.īut while the principle of the show was simple, its radicalism has been somewhat forgotten with age. It became an indispensable promotional platform for black musicians in the 1970s, and by the 80s, was responsible for giving groups like Run-DMC their first national exposure. The show’s self-proclaimed reputation as “the hippest trip in America” made Soul Train not only the place to show the latest dance moves, hairstyles, and threads, but also the place to premiere new music. Every Saturday morning, for 35 years, Soul Train gave America an hour-long celebration of black youth culture.
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