Estelle, currently hauling the nutrasweet-soul of 'American Boy' around the world, has attacked
the state of the music industry.
She said: "I'm not mad at 'em - but I'm just wondering, how the hell is
there not a single black person in the press singing soul? Adele ain't soul. She sounds like she heard some Aretha records once
and she's got a deeper voice - that don't mean she's soul. They keep trying to tell me in the media what soul music is and I'm
like, we KNOW what soul music is."
Fair enough, Adele isn't soul music, she's Coldplay with breasts... but this little rant got me thinking. Where is all the black soul music? Now, before we begin, let me determine what I think soul music is... or rather... what soul music isn't. Soul music isn't about histrionics. Soul music isn't about a floor length mink coat. It ain't diamond earrings and showing opulence. Soul is something almost undefinable... something that can stir you and, when the mood takes, force you on to a dancefloor. Of course, I'm biased toward soul that sounds like it came from the fifties, up to the seventies. Since then, soul and funk seems to have lost it's way, and now, the nearest thing we have to that golden period is a couple of pop singers and the grooves found in certain hip hop joints.
On this subject, Duffy, doing rather well for herself with her retro pop soul, has insisted that when it comes to soul music, the colour of an artist's skin is irrelevant. She's got a point. Surely the world has moved on a bit from the days when you weren't 'real' unless you were black? Duffy told Newsbeat:"If the talent and the desire is there, I don't really think it matters what colour you are." She continued: "We don't live in the 1950s any more, we're in a multicultural country. So no, I think that's pretty far from the truth, look around and I think you'll see that it [Black Soul] really does exist."
But does it?
I can't remember the last time I discovered a soul group that were black that didn't fall into R&B schmaltz or bling! bling! It pains me to say it, but I'm really struggling here. Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings? I like a couple of songs but I can't be certain that I'm not going soft and that, in fact, their records are a bit... acid jazz. Yuck. The closest thing to the spirit of soul that I've come across is in the releases of The Roots, Outkast, Roots Manuva and the weird bug-eyed releases of Missy Elliot. However, when it comes to the latter, she is prone to releasing some absolute turkeys.
It's not just in soul that black music has suffered. When I see some NME favoured indie band with a black singer, the positive discriminator in me leaps out thinking "Go on! Impress me! Save indie from dour jangle-o-thons!" However, what we get is Bloc Party who sound more like Elvis Costello than Jimi Hendrix. Y'see, there is a sorry absence of black artists being signed who are inventive and genre hopping. Jimi, Sly and the Family Stone, Funkadelic... were all bands that didn't give a frig 'bout what dem fool think. They got on with whatever they wanted to do, and if that meant stealing from soul, rock, country, blues, electronic artists... they did... and the world was a richer place for it.
Sadly, all the black artists that appear on the airwaves now seem to peddle the same crap as those that appeared in the 80s and 90s. It's either ballad warbling from big lunged ladies or it's some bloke comin' over all smooth. I've always looked to black artists to bring me passion and intensity... but it's not there. So who is to blame? Are there black artists out there making the music that will knock me for six, but aren't getting a chance from the recording industry? Or is black music in a state of flux, deciding what it wants to be before it brings the ruckus once more?
The Noisettes, although far from my favourite band, seem to have it right. There's definite funk in their sound and their singer is clearly a fan of both Beefheart and Grace Jones. So where are the others? It may sound weird... backward even... but black people have always been, and probably always will be, the coolest people on the planet. With that, we need someone to take a chance... a record label or an artist... to come and save music's sorry ass. Whatever the world of black music does, us whiteys copy. The Beatles and Stones did. Elvis did. Dusty Springfield did. Hell, we've even had a stab at hip-hop. Black music gave us Public Enemy and Wu Tang Clan, we returned the favour with Vanilla Ice and Eminem. Maybe black musicians are waiting for us whiteys to say sorry? Well, consider this both an apology and a rallying call. Drop the show of wealth and bring back soul power!
Mof Gimmers
