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Mr. Dupre said:
"'Soul', in this context, is a completely subjective term and effectively meaningless. "
And as the person who made the comment about soulless music in the first place, I completely agree. That's where the "IMHO" part comes into play. I never meant to claim that it was an objective standard at all, but rather that it described music which, to me, seems completely devoid of spirit. Like the three examples I offered (Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor). These acts seem, to me, to have made a career out of going through the motions. They may have talent in one arena or another, but they fail completely in moving me or in being at all compelling. It's almost something I can't describe. I feel a great sense of emptiness whenever I hear music from the aforementioned "artists", like I'm staring into some expansive vacuum wherein nothing could possibly survive. That may sound like invective, but they quite seriously make me feel almost ill.
As regards Randy's later comment, that "(t)he only common ground that you're going to find in different people's definitions of 'soulless' is that everyone will apply it to music that they don't like," I don't necessarily agree. There's a lot of music that I don't particularly like but that I think a lot of heart and conviction went into. Dave Matthews Band might be a good example of this. I can't personally stand them, but I think they put a lot of themselves into what they do and I can respect them for that. Celine Dion is like arsenic in my oatmeal, but I think that her voice conveys some level of conviction on her part in what she sings (however misguided that conviction may be). I don't respect her artistically, but I think that she has the ability to move people emotionally. Perhaps some people are moved by my list of soul-sucking non-entity artists, but I sure don't know any. |
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