R.I.P. Amy Winehouse

[Runesmith]

Noisettes, blue-eyed soul? That's nonsense. The others sure; but the Noisettes first EP struck around 2005 if I recall correctly, around a year or so before Winehouse hit big (though it was her second album, but I still find it ridiculous she is going to be heralded like this) While it's true that Back to Black hit pretty large and did reinvigorate neo-soul, it's hardly a new thing and I wouldn't call Winehouse single-handedly the reason for this as there have been soul incursions throughout the last two decades that rejected the urban soul/pop (or "RnB" catchterm).

Also totally forgot to mention The Pipettes and Cults in my original post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRFHiBW9RE8

Her vocal style is pretty damn steeped in the blue-eyed soul tradition if you ignore her skin tone.

As for being single-handedly responsible for the soul renaissance, no, I don't think so, either. D'Angelo spearheaded it, but Amy helped reinforce it, especially for women. Her lyrics are a total subversion of the casual misogyny which often plagues male-sung soul music.

[Gowienczyk]

Also totally forgot to mention The Pipettes and Cults in my original post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRFHiBW9RE8

Her vocal style is pretty damn steeped in the blue-eyed soul tradition if you ignore her skin tone.

As for being single-handedly responsible for the soul renaissance, no, I don't think so, either. D'Angelo spearheaded it, but Amy helped reinforce it, especially for women. Her lyrics are a total subversion of the casual misogyny which often plagues male-sung soul music.

Even throughout the years of blue-eyed soul; the only thing that ever connected the genre was the fact of the skintone as none of these individuals like Adele, Winehouse, etc. follow the same songwriting strides as when folks like Dusty Springfield, Timi Yuro, Laura Nyro and others did so when it started being used in the 1960s. I really cannot in good faith go along with this trite label as it was nothing but a way to separate, isolate and segregate soul music to begin with and it's use today just seems to be similar or alternatively to pigeonhole "british" soul or soul lite as it were. As everyone from Paloma Faith to Fritz & the Tantrums to Joss Stone to Alison Moyet is labeled within this improper descriptor.

It's garbage.

[LoopyChew]

Also totally forgot to mention The Pipettes and Cults in my original post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRFHiBW9RE8

Her vocal style is pretty damn steeped in the blue-eyed soul tradition if you ignore her skin tone.

As for being single-handedly responsible for the soul renaissance, no, I don't think so, either. D'Angelo spearheaded it, but Amy helped reinforce it, especially for women. Her lyrics are a total subversion of the casual misogyny which often plagues male-sung soul music.

I don't know about the Pipettes. Don't get me wrong; I love them (Dirty Mind is on my wishlist for RB3 songs), but they've been touring since before Frank was released, and I'd argue they were more or less the logical conclusion to the girl-band/riot-grrl trends that were big at the time. (Maybe you can argue that they benefited from Amy's popularity, but less so that she inspired them.) I agree about most of your list, though, and would probably also add that Lily Allen was a compatriot-in-arms in terms of attitude if not genre.

Even throughout the years of blue-eyed soul; the only thing that ever connected the genre was the fact of the skintone... I really cannot in good faith go along with this trite label as it was nothing but a way to separate, isolate and segregate soul music to begin with... It's garbage.

I'd be perfectly fine with "blue-eyed soul" as descriptor if we could use it as an argument to define a genre known as "white chocolate rap."