Line #0 YMMV/SoulTrain


1	* BrokenBase: Regarding the eras:
2	** TheSeventies are well liked while TheNineties and TheEighties are polarizing. Maybe or maybe not related to nostalgia, and the shift in musical trends and genres. Either way discuss at your own risk.
3	** Also some hated the 90's, but not because they ''were'' the 90's, but because it never fully ''embraced'' the 90's to their satisfaction. The 90's era never really fully embraced HipHop (neither did the 80's for that matter). The hip-hop representation was there though. Your milage just may vary about if it was represented enough. However, the Dance show did ''much'' better with other urban genres like New Jack Swing and Hip-Hop/Soul. Either way, younger audiences found MTV and especially ''Yo! MTV Raps'' (or, for some viewers, Creator/MuchMusic and ''[=RapCity=]'') to be far more relevant to their hip-hop interests, and the new viewers that the show needed simply didn't arrive. Didn't help that Don Cornelius more or less admitted that he didn't "''get''" hip-hop.
4	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
5	** The best known is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GN7ODPaAJY&ytbChannel=lyslinger Cheryl Song aka "the Asian chick with the hair"]]. Another famous example would be the other Asian chick with the long hair who replaced her, Sally "From the Valley" Achenbach.
6	** "[[https://youtu.be/5DKqo_p59Ko Monoque Chambers]]"
7	** The cute Filipina girl from the late 90's who went by the name "[[https://youtu.be/Rln_SjvC4C0?list=PL-JETDgz_I3oKNS8LRtnhFVOTj9qENT16 Apple]]".
8	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqGppSmNf2c&ytbChannel=DaHookChannel Lou "SKI" Carr]]
9	** [[https://youtu.be/NP7hfYunoeU Rosie Perez]]
10	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjmrWw-V6c&ytbChannel=MrBo131 Leonette Scott]]
11	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYHr_hRRhk&ytbChannel=MrBo131 Robin Power a.k.a. Robin Herron]]
12	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eej_JEHNI-A&ytbChannel=phttech Sapphire]]"
13	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdbWLzjdCKo&ytbChannel=phttech Barbara, the "Cuban Barbie"]]. Though her detractors point out she couldn't dance, and people only liked her for [[MaleGaze other reasons]].
14	** The cute black guy with the Pig Tails, Freddie "''Flexx''" Bell.
15	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOE1ovgIBr8&ytbChannel=phttech Shann "The Body" Johnson]]
16	* MemeticMutation:
17	** ''THE '''SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUL''' TRAIN!''
18	** Cornelius' tendency to sway when [=MCing=], lampshaded on ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' once.
19	* NeverLiveItDown: Although outlasting the genre by two decades, the show couldn't escape its connection to disco (particularly big bellbottoms and bigger Afros).
20	* OlderThanTheyThink: Cheryl Song had been a ''Soul Train'' Dancer since at least the late 1970s.
21	* QuestionableCasting: Some of the white rock acts that made it onto the show made sense because of their R&B, soul or funk influences, particularly with some of the British new wave bands that were able to get on... But then there was the inexplicable 1985 appearance of [[Music/{{Eagles}} Don Henley]], who performed the decidedly non-soulful "The Boys of Summer".
22	* RealSongThemeTune: Many people think "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" was written specifically for ''Soul Train''... and actually, it was. In an interview for a Creator/VH1 documentary about the show, Cornelius stated that he hired the Philadelphia-based songwriting team of Gamble and Huff to write a song for the show. He liked it, but he was adamant about '''not''' calling the song "Soul Train", so they called it "TSOP" and he approved. Cornelius went on to say that he regretted that move.
23	* ReplacementScrappy: After Don Cornelius stepped away from hosting, every subsequent host was tolerated at best by the fandom.
24	* TheScrappy:
25	** Any white male dancer in the ''Soul Train'' Line. Bro, give it up — you can't dance.
26	** White women tended to avoid this Trope, holding their own on the dance floor.
27	** White singers were tolerated, but only a few of them (including Music/EltonJohn, Michael [=McDonald=], Music/DavidBowie [[note]] hilariously, the first white man on the show and while transitioning to his aristocratic, "emotionless ''[[NaziNobleman Aryan]]'' [[{{Ubermensch}} superman]]" "Thin White Duke" phase [[/note]], Music/HallAndOates, Music/PetShopBoys and Teena Marie) were deemed worthy.

Context YMMV / SoulTrain