Soulboys were a working-class English youth subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and fans of American soul and funk music. The subculture emerged in North West England as northern soul event attendees began to take more interest in the modern funk and jazz funk sounds of artists such as Lonnie Liston Smith and Roy Ayers, instead of the obscure 1960s soul records that characterized the northern soul scene.