Entry · catalog no. 1193
Soul Train line
/ /soʊl treɪn laɪn/ /SOHL trayn LYNE
noun · Chicago, then Los Angeles and nationwide · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
The formation in which dancers make two facing lines and go down the corridor between them one at a time or two by two, while the rest clap, holler, and judge. On the television show it was the segment where the dancers got the camera to themselves and where new steps entered the country. Off the show it is a fixture of Black weddings, cookouts, reunions, and birthday parties, and needs no music cue to start.
“Somebody moved the tables and by the second chorus there was a Soul Train line going.”
2.
By extension, any arrangement in which people take turns being watched — a run of solos, a receiving line, a procession with an audience.
“They had us doing introductions like a Soul Train line.”
Origin & Attribution
Black American, out of Chicago and then national television. Soul Train premiered on WCIU-TV in Chicago on 17 August 1970, live and in black and white, sponsored by Sears, with Jerry Butler, the Chi-Lites, and the Emotions on the first show. National syndication began 2 October 1971 after Johnson Products, makers of Afro Sheen, signed on; Don Cornelius went after twenty-five markets and seven bought in. The line itself is older than the show — it is a televised, individualized restyling of the Stroll of the 1950s, and behind that of older ring and line forms.
1970
Soul Train premieres on WCIU-TV in Chicago on 17 August, live, weekday afternoons, sponsored by Sears
1971
National syndication begins 2 October; seven of twenty-five targeted markets buy in, backed by Johnson Products
2006
The show ends 25 March after 1,117 episodes; the line stays in Black social life untouched
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Chicago, then Los Angeles and nationwide · 1970s
Spoken by
Black Americans nationally; originally the show's dancers, then everybody at every function since
$SOULTRThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Enduring55 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
80/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1971
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Soul Train: A Billboard Spotlight, Billboard, 28 September 1974
magazine · printed
■
Soul Train dancing: The line goes on, The Boston Globe, 4 February 2012
newspaper · printed
■
This Week in Illinois History: Soul Train premieres, WNIJ, 16 August 2021
radio · broadcast
■
+ Cite a sourceUSC Digital Folklore Archives, entries recording the Soul Train line at Black family gatherings
archive · online
See also