Contemporary reactions to blue-eyed soul from 1965, Righteous Brothers [time travel in music]

Unchained Melody

Pay close attention to how these women react to the singing: when they react, and how. They are enthralled by the music.

Compilation of Reactions

Analysis from Britain

Notes

The music was recorded in 1965, but the reactions are contemporary (that is, now). Music has collapsed that half century to almost nothing. That's how music is. I explain that in some detail in Beethoven's Anvil (2001, pp. 164-166) and this working paper, The Magic of the Bell: How Networks of Social Actors Create Cultural Beings (2015).

Bobby Hatfield's melisma and faultless falsetto ("Unchained Melody") are characteristic of the African-American gospel and soul traditions. I don't know where Hatfield picked it up, but by the 1960s it was all over the radio (if you knew were to look).