The story of a subterranean club situated in the backstreets of Leeds, that changed the lives of all who went there. Top of The Stairs tracks the origin of the Central Dance Club and its transition, from the early mods, through the Northern Soul era to Jazz Funk, and ultimately back again. It captures the unique and personal stories of the DJs and the dancers alike, along with some of the incidents and events that have persisted in Soul folklore for decades, including stories from Tony Banks, Twink, Ian Dewhirst, Richard Searling, Paul Rowan, Pat Brady, Paul Schofield and many more.

2020 marks the 60th anniversary of Tamla Motown, arguably the greatest recording label in the history of African American soul music. Detroit Motor City 1960 and with racial tensions simmering and with only eight thousand dollars, Berry Gordy, a man with an unshakeable detrmination and vision moved into a modest building that was to become HITSVILLA USA from where he and his close inner circle gave the world the unique Motown sound. The first person Berry Gordy hired at Motown was a white jewish boy called Al Abrams, who got The Supremes on the cover of a magazine, as the first black group ever. From the plantations of the Deep South where African American music was born to Gordy's early successes with Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Martha Reeves, to his involvement with the Black Mafia and his move to Los Angeles following the race riots and the departure of his legendary songwriting team of Holland Dozier Holland. This is the story of Berry Gordy and Motown who changed the face and sound of African American soul music forever more.

K-pop (Korean popular music) reigns as one of the most popular music genres in the world today, a phenomenon that appeals to listeners of all ages and nationalities. In Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop, Crystal S. Anderson examines the most important and often overlooked aspect of K-pop: the music itself. She demonstrates how contemporary K-pop references and incorporates musical and performative elements of African American popular music culture as well as the ways that fans outside of Korea understand these references. K-pop emerged in the 1990s with immediate global aspirations, combining musical elements from Korean and foreign cultures, particularly rhythm and blues genres of black American popular music. Korean solo artists and groups borrow from and cite instrumentation and vocals of R&B genres, especially hip hop. They also enhance the R&B tradition by utilizing Korean musical strategies. These musical citational practices are deemed authentic by global fans who function as part of K-pop's music press and promotional apparatus. K-pop artists also cite elements of African American performance in Korean music videos. These disrupt stereotyped representations of Asian and African American performers. Through this process K-pop has arguably become a branch of a global R&B tradition. Anderson argues that Korean pop groups participate in that tradition through cultural work that enacts a global form of crossover and by maintaining forms of authenticity that cannot be faked, and furthermore propel the R&B tradition beyond the black-white binary.