Amy Winehouse and genre
I've been listening to Amy Winehouse's album "Back to Black" and I'm mighty impressed. Yeah, I know, I'm a little late to this party... This was released while I was in Yemen, give me a break!
The song that got the most airplay was "Rehab." While that falls right into my addiction soft spot, I think that it pales in comparison to the title track.
Back To Black - Amy Winehouse
This is significantly darker than "Rehab," but I think it is a stone cold, soul classic. It's got drugs, it's got sex, it's got codependancy and the inability to break away, and most importantly, it has heartbreak (We only said goodbye with words... You'll go back to her, I'll go back to us...) This is what I imagine Billy Holiday would have sung if she were singing back in the 60's. Janis would have done a good job with it too. The classic soul singers couldn't do it, they didn't have the darkness or the problems (You love blow and I love puff) that these ladies did (and do).
I'm not sure this got much airplay. It shares the same problem with a lot of the songs on the album in that they are not radio friendly. She isn't afraid to use some colorful language, and this kind of darkness doesn't do well unless there are some loud guitars to go along with it...
I was gushing about this album to a friend of mine and he described it as "affected." That seemed like an odd criticism to me. In my opinion, this is a great example of the "soul" genre. Her singing and style aren't affected, they are part and parcel of the genre. It is no more affected than any metal, hip hop, jazz, or trance song.
Working with a genre is both limiting and freeing at the same time. Once people understand what genre the work is in, the genre itself does a lot of the heavy lifting for the artist. You don't have to start from scratch when you use an established genre. When you write a mystery book, everyone understands what is supposed to happen. If you watch a western film, you don't have to be told that you don't shoot guys in the back or unarmed men. The ground rules are already there, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Of course, if you follow every single convention of the genre, it gets boring really fast. Amy manages to mix it up just a bit with some hip-hop inspired rhythms and that extra edge that only substance abuse and bad relationships can bring. It isn't clear where her songs end and her life begins. That's really too bad, cause there's a lot of pain and a lot of drugs in her songs. Recent reports have her doing well on the substance abuse front. Let's hope she can keep it together so we can find out what a happy Amy Winehouse sounds like...
The song that got the most airplay was "Rehab." While that falls right into my addiction soft spot, I think that it pales in comparison to the title track.
Back To Black - Amy Winehouse
This is significantly darker than "Rehab," but I think it is a stone cold, soul classic. It's got drugs, it's got sex, it's got codependancy and the inability to break away, and most importantly, it has heartbreak (We only said goodbye with words... You'll go back to her, I'll go back to us...) This is what I imagine Billy Holiday would have sung if she were singing back in the 60's. Janis would have done a good job with it too. The classic soul singers couldn't do it, they didn't have the darkness or the problems (You love blow and I love puff) that these ladies did (and do).
I'm not sure this got much airplay. It shares the same problem with a lot of the songs on the album in that they are not radio friendly. She isn't afraid to use some colorful language, and this kind of darkness doesn't do well unless there are some loud guitars to go along with it...
I was gushing about this album to a friend of mine and he described it as "affected." That seemed like an odd criticism to me. In my opinion, this is a great example of the "soul" genre. Her singing and style aren't affected, they are part and parcel of the genre. It is no more affected than any metal, hip hop, jazz, or trance song.
Working with a genre is both limiting and freeing at the same time. Once people understand what genre the work is in, the genre itself does a lot of the heavy lifting for the artist. You don't have to start from scratch when you use an established genre. When you write a mystery book, everyone understands what is supposed to happen. If you watch a western film, you don't have to be told that you don't shoot guys in the back or unarmed men. The ground rules are already there, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Of course, if you follow every single convention of the genre, it gets boring really fast. Amy manages to mix it up just a bit with some hip-hop inspired rhythms and that extra edge that only substance abuse and bad relationships can bring. It isn't clear where her songs end and her life begins. That's really too bad, cause there's a lot of pain and a lot of drugs in her songs. Recent reports have her doing well on the substance abuse front. Let's hope she can keep it together so we can find out what a happy Amy Winehouse sounds like...
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