While looking over my Most Played Albums chart generated by last.fm, I realized I might be something I didn’t necessarily intend on being: a SoulHead. I know I pointed out the presence of a number of soul artists, but upon further inspection, I noticed that there were way more on there than I initially realized. The chart basically looks like guidelines for the interns over at VH1 Soul.
This is unsettling for a number of reasons.
I was telling the bf the other night while VH1 Soul played in the background that I tend to look at some of these artists with suspicion, as I do most things, and it was the reason I was initially turned off by India.Arie when she first came out with “Video”. I found the song annoying, and didn’t partically care for the way it sounded despite my closeted love for “Put It in Your Mouth”. And I posed a question to him: Could it be that these soul-classified artists have images and sounds that are just as contrived and calculated as their pop counterparts?
I think it’s a fair question, because I swear I needed fingers and toes to count the number of sistas on TV walking through the grass barefoot strumming a guitar singing about empowerment. And I added that in striving to be so “different”, are they running the risk of just being the same?
It occured to me that I have just as many conflicting emotions about soul music as I do hip-hop.
I liken the mindset of these artists to gay men that, in their quest to defy stereotypes, create new ones that are just as tired. So if a soul artist makes a conscious decision to not wear revealing clothes, shake her ass, wear a blonde weave and pen songs that have a “point”, is she not feeding into another industry-generated pigeonhole?
Like I said not too long ago, everything is commercial and this post for me is complicated.
I went ahead and looked up neo-soul’s Wiki and something stood out to me:
Many musicians who create what is considered “neo-soul” prefer to disassociate themselves from the tag, due to the term’s buzzword-like usage. These artists argue that many record labels, hoping to cash in on the success of the “neo-soul” style, simply had A&R departments take R&B singers, give them a bohemian look, and have them state Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, or Marvin Gaye as their favorite artists. Instead of using the “neo-soul” tag, many artists simply refer to themselves as soul musicians.
By that logic, what exactly separates the Lizz Wright’s from the Keyshia Cole’s? How does one craft a specific sound that would be classified as “soul” when there are many R&B-classified artists that, aside from rocking the bohemian look, also have old school, blues, and jazz-influenced material and are doing pretty much the same thing? And why are we, as an audience, so quick to jump on these classification bandwagons (myself included)?
One thing that irritates me about folk is that they use their music tastes as a validation, or a badge of honor. Do you have a friend that says with an air of superiority that she only listens to “real” artists like Jill & Erykah? What exactly does that mean? And how many of you shitted your pants when you came to the realization that Alicia Keys and Musiq Soulchild were just as R&B as Mary J. Blige and R. Kelly?
All that aside, I listen to what I listen to because I find it sonically appealing, and it was never predicated on any fedelity to what some of us think “real music” is.
And I do plan on seeing Jill and Erykah in concert later this summer, because I live for them.
This should be a blog post on my site but I’m lazy. The short answer is “Yes.” ‘Alternative’ artists run the same risk of being put into packages just like their popular counterparts. That’s how the business works. However, alt artists tend to buck against the pigeonhole complex while popular artists are drawn to it (while proclaiming they are unique).
Ultimately, their success depends on whether the audience is digging them, right? Not completely. Entire office floors are dedicated to making us believe we like certain types of artists while the rest fall to the wayside. And that’s when it gets stank for me.
I would prefer radio/video to play a true variety of music and let me make an informed choice. Instead, the music industry plays the audience dumb and only plays artists that sound like the one before. This is especially true with R&B/Hip Hop with its rent-a-hot-producer formula.
Is it really a coincidence that Beyonce’s new single is similar to Christina Aguilera? Or is each artist being pitted against each other for bigger sales?
As for people having snobby attitudes about their music, that’s to be expected. Music can be very personal. If you listen to a lot of music that don’t get airplay, you want others to know the gems you find. That can create resentment for popular artists and the fans who support them.
My irritation grows when I meet folk who ONLY listen to 1-2 genres of music and ALL artists in that genre, to boot. In other words, their tastes are indiscriminate which, to me suggests they do not open themselves to enough of what the world of music has to offer. This can be true for the hip hop head who buys every major release in that genre and the nu soul freak who does the same. There’s a lot of fuckin artists out there; why limit yourself to the 20 they play on the radio?
So when someone tries to argue the merits of music with me, and they only listen to popular music yes, a smirk forms on my face. Good and bad are relative. However, when you listen to a variety of music (more than just radio) than you can make a better decision about what is and isn’t good music (according to whatever criteria you use).
Personally, I try not to get caught up in the titles like Neo & Nu, but the industry has divided the urban music into separate categories! I just like GOOD soul music..period! All of these titles makes it that much harder to find the music overall? Some soul music may actually fall into two or three different music categories, so where do you place them?
I am not a big India Arie fan! She has some songs that I like, but I don’t really go out checking for her music. After listening to her speak in several interviews, I actually think she’s a little off (touched) her rocker?? Some of the stuff she says just baffles me??
There is so much music out there, it is senseless to be a music snob! For every artist that you brag about knowing, there are 10 more that you don’t know about! I stay on the grind finding new music daily, and I still haven’t scratched the surface on all that is available.
Keep doing ya thang my man!
I listen to all music one song at a time. There are so many writers for singers it’s hard to exclusively classify an artist based on their music because it’s not all their music.
And it somewhat bothers me too for a “music snob” to take a holier than thou attitude with their eclectic play list…
To them I say, “Get over it…”
It’s all about the money. I don’t know too many artist that would turn down radio or video play. But I do find it odd that there are a lot quality artist who get no radio or video love.
Real music lovers will seek tunes beyond the TV and radio…
“For every artist that you brag about knowing, there are 10 more that you don’t know about!”
This is the very comment that got me kicked off of my
You know, I never really stopped to think if the Neo-Soul artists out there have contrived images. It’s so obvious in Hip Hop and RnB but never realized this (fake image) could exist in Neo-Soul. To be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is so, that labels are fabricating the images of Neo-Soul artists.
Alicia was probably Neo-Soul on her first album, but she’s not that anymore. That’s not to say I don’t dig her music, though.