sam smith- plastic syntho soul anyone?

[Geeselad]

Does anybody  else think this guy, and a host of contemporary artists, have all the styling's with none of the real emotion and authenticity of true soul  

[Mark S]

Poor imitators the lot of them . My view has allways been that struggle and social upheaval and racism right from the early days have shaped generations of black Americans who have loved and lost throughout those traumatic times and soul music amplifies that exquisitely

Can a blue man sing the whites indeed.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Mark S

[Guest Spain pete]

Got it in a nutshell , trouble with them is , not hungry, or poor , or  been around  round the block enough  , to feel what their  singing .

20 minutes ago, Mark S said:

Poor imitators the lot of them . My view has allways been that struggle and social upheaval and racism right from the early days have shaped generations of black Americans and soul music is the amplification of those generations

Can a blue man sing the whites indeed

 

[Soulsides]

2 hours ago, geeselad said:

Does anybody  else think this guy, and a host of contemporary artists, have all the styling's with none of the real emotion and authenticity of true soul  

It's just music for children in my opinion. 

It's all style and no substance.

Virtually all of the contemporary Pop musicians I've heard in recent years with very few exceptions, couldn't even write a note to the milkman .

[Dylan]

Shoot me down but some of the rag and bone man stuff is ok.

 

it doesn’t get me on my high horse like some of the others.

[Geeselad]

Big problem for me and goes for virtually all contemporary dance music too is just so transient. Selling off a lot of house records I've bought in recent years, all sounded great on the few Initial plays, but but even just a few years down the line sound so disposable. 

[Geeselad]

5 minutes ago, dylan said:

Shoot me down but some of the rag and bone man stuff is ok.

 

it doesn’t get me on my high horse like some of the others.

Not offensive but any better than Michael Bolton or simply red? 

[Dylan]

I always had Michael Bolton down as something your granny might listen to.  I couldn’t name any of his songs.

 

simply red Is a soul fan.  Not sure we are or have been his target audience.

[Chatty]

2 hours ago, Spain pete said:

Got it in a nutshell , trouble with them is , not hungry, or poor , or  been around  round the block enough  , to feel what their  singing .

"Poor imitators the lot of them . My view has allways been that struggle and social upheaval and racism right from the early days have shaped generations of black Americans who have loved and lost throughout those traumatic times and soul music amplifies that exquisitely

Can a blue man sing the whites indeed".

We've had more than one thread on here singing the praises of Lisa Stansfield in the past.

 

 

[Lfcjunkie]

4 hours ago, geeselad said:

Does anybody  else think this guy, and a host of contemporary artists, have all the styling's with none of the real emotion and authenticity of true soul  

Totally agree and the dreadful 'fake soul' of Ellie Brooks "rising cost of love"... and the other single she had out not so long since..

[Guest Shufflin]

I heard one of his new songs yesterday on radio while driving, bloody painful, had to turn over the station

Not gonna say all new soul is bad, buy my fair share of soul vinyl off of Bandcamp and so on

[Guest Spain pete]

Maybe the people that listen to the dross your talking about need to be educated about proper soul music , they obviously have some understanding of music that is felt ,but are only being drip fed by commercialisation, record company's agenda's ,etc etc ,  trouble is ,the desire has to be there to dig deeper,and in most cases its not , so the lightweight imitators will continue to churn out their dross and be successful. 😢

[Illusive]

Sam Smith isn't suppose to appeal to our generation, him and all of his contempories are for the kids of today, not yesteryear.

So in the words of Ty Karim "lighten up" 😜

[Guest Spain pete]

How comes Gregory porter does, is it an age thing ?🎶

[Guest Spain pete]

Prefer Larry Atkins myself 

13 minutes ago, illusive said:

Sam Smith isn't suppose to appeal to our generation, him and all of his contempories are for the kids of today, not yesteryear.

So in the words of Ty Karim "lighten up" 😜

 

[Guest Spain pete]

Now there's a poll ? Anyone? 🎶🎶👍

[Illusive]

35 minutes ago, Spain pete said:

Now there's a poll ? Anyone? 🎶🎶👍

Ty Karim on Romark, any day of the week. 70's version knocks every other into the middle of next week.

[Geeselad]

1 hour ago, illusive said:

Sam Smith isn't suppose to appeal to our generation, him and all of his contempories are for the kids of today, not yesteryear.

So in the words of Ty Karim "lighten up" 😜

If my son is listening to such middle of the road, sanitised pap by the time he's 18, he's in for a kicking off me.  it's worse than him turning into a Vale fan! Seriously though it's hard to lighten up. This stylised, home bargain soul,  lacks any of the vigour, vitality and edge I associated with youth. It's like perry como  in the 50s,  like rock and roll never happened. 

[Dave Pinch]

I don't think there's such a thing called soul music today... It's a lost art form

[Chalky]

Why would you sully one of th3 premier rare soul forums with Sam Smith?  Everything about him is hype and clever marketing and kidsand teens who buy into it and him  

as for no soul, rubbish, go and seek out some of the independent stuff, plenty of good music being released today. 

[Shinehead]

Can never understand why such topics as these turn up on soulsource where the members are into the music of black America.

I would have thought even Sam Smith and the like would not describe themselves as soul singers. 

And also as Chalky says some great soul music is still been made today.

Just one gripe from me,  what really does my head is the knobs like Bradley Walsh turning at Christmas time with cover versions of standards , who the f88k buys those type of albums.

[Thinksmart]

I fundamentally disagree that there isn't such a thing as Soul music today.  Have a listen to the new album by Sugaray Rayford and many other artists.  It's not in the charts but there is a lot around.

[Daved]

Sam Smith is a pop singer. I have no idea where the soul connection came from.

Plenty of good soul music around today if you know where to look. It's not as a good as it used to be, I grant you. Check out the new Crack of Dawn stuff.

 

[Jaco]

I personally think that Sam Smith has got a great voice but his music is a galaxy away from how we define soul music, contemporary or otherwise. 

[Guest Spain pete]

Disagree with the black american music statement , a lot of the stuff brought and sold on here is white sixties pop , any way l digress ,there is some great. New soul music out there , check out mick O'Donnell's show soul discovery on solar radio Sunday night 6 pm  some blinding stuff on there 👍🎶🎶🎶

1 hour ago, shinehead said:

Can never understand why such topics as these turn up on soulsource where the members are into the music of black America.

I would have thought even Sam Smith and the like would not describe themselves as soul singers. 

And also as Chalky says some great soul music is still been made today.

Just one gripe from me,  what really does my head is the knobs like Bradley Walsh turning at Christmas time with cover versions of standards , who the f88k buys those type of albums.

 

[Soulsides]

14 hours ago, Spain pete said:

Maybe the people that listen to the dross your talking about need to be educated about proper soul music ,

Good point. 

A few years back a friend of my wife's was obsessed with Amy Winehouse and her music. Now,I'm not knocking Amy because I think she had a real passion for the style of music she was paying homage to but my wife's friend acted like Amy Winehouse invented this stuff .One time my wife's friend came over ,we got chatting about music and i asked her if she had ever heard of singers like Esther Phillips,Ruby Winters and the like,she hadn't so I played some of those artists records for her and instantly she understood that this was the genuine article..job done , no beating around the head ,just me playing some great songs for her and opening her eyes to something she had no idea existed.

On a similar tip I've worked for many years in Hip Hop production and a lot of the kids come to me wanting to sound like Tupac or Eminem  or whoever is popular that particular week.

Most of them have no idea that the Hip Hop records they want to imitate are built from samples of old Funk,Soul and Jazz records and think that these rappers are somehow responsible for the sounds involved, so you play them the original tracks and at first they're all crestfallen but then it's like a little lightbulb goes off in their heads and they get it and understand where the roots of the music actually come from. 

As I said you don't have to beat people round the head, just steer them in the right direction and they can ultimately draw their own conclusions to what the real deal actually is and not the watered down and commercialized version of the artform they are listening to or being influenced by...  

 

[Shinehead]

16 hours ago, Spain pete said:

Maybe the people that listen to the dross your talking about need to be educated about proper soul music , they obviously have some understanding of music that is felt ,but are only being drip fed by commercialisation, record company's agenda's ,etc etc ,  trouble is ,the desire has to be there to dig deeper,and in most cases its not , so the lightweight imitators will continue to churn out their dross and be successful. 😢

What's proper soul music to you Pete ?

The music of black America or certain white 60s pop that got plays on the scene in years gone by as you stated in a post of mine .

You stated in an earlier post that to sing soul music you had to be hungry and poor and I would assume black ?

Just because records that are played on the Northern Soul scene and people still buy them hardly makes them soul records .

Most soul artist are to me black and just because an artist such as Paul Anka had a couple of soul orientated records it does not make him a soul singer and the same goes for Little Richard for that matter.

Edited November 16, 2017 by shinehead

[Mark R]

These conversations a largely futile on here.  With the odd exception, most on here only like "black" or "soul" music that sounds like it was recorded years ago..........times change, some people don't.

 

Cheers,

Mark R

[Guest Spain pete]

Proper soul music to me,  is music that comes from the soul and the heart, music that the artist is feeling   that resonates with my feelings in life  ,and 99% of the time it's black artists,so l think we are singing from the same hymn sheet , but my point was that this site as good as  it is is full of people talking ,buying ,and selling records that have been made by artist's that are not black ,so to say that it's mainly black american music ,is not correct   IMO ✌🎶🎶

3 hours ago, shinehead said:

What's proper soul music to you Pete ?

The music of black America or certain white 60s pop that got plays on the scene in years gone by as you stated in a post of mine .

You stated in an earlier post that to sing soul music you had to be hungry and poor and I would assume black ?

Just because records that are played on the Northern Soul scene and people still buy them hardly makes them soul records .

Most soul artist are to me black and just because an artist such as Paul Anka had a couple of soul orientated records it does not make him a soul singer and the same goes for Little Richard for that matter.

 

[Dave Pinch]

7 hours ago, ThinkSmart said:

I fundamentally disagree that there isn't such a thing as Soul music today.  Have a listen to the new album by Sugaray Rayford and many other artists.  It's not in the charts but there is a lot around.

I kinda gave up listening  to any new release stuff about 10 years ago due to lack of quality real instruments and there were always raps involved somewhere along the way..and some always sounded retro. Maybe I should find the time to listen some more. My bad... But I'm still buying discovering loads of late 60s 70s and onwards stuff I've never heard before

[Shinehead]

36 minutes ago, Spain pete said:

Proper soul music to me,  is music that comes from the soul and the heart, music that the artist is feeling   that resonates with my feelings in life  ,and 99% of the time it's black artists,so l think we are singing from the same hymn sheet , but my point was that this site as good as  it is is full of people talking ,buying ,and selling records that have been made by artist's that are not black ,so to say that it's mainly black american music ,is not correct   IMO ✌🎶🎶

 

Just one thing, I agree this site is full of people buying records made by white artists but one point I would make is that by and large these records were probably made at the direction of the record company to try and get the said artist a hit on the back of the success of motown at the time.

I think you would agree though some of the pop played at wigan had F**k all to do with soul music in any form or fashion and most people today are a bit embarrassed what was danced to back then.

I own some great records produced by white artists who I would call soul singers , Eddie Hinton,  George Soule come to mind .

I did not know who Sam Smith was till this topic came up and I do not think I will be buying any of his stuff after giving it a listen

Mayer Hawthorne , Paper Boy Reed now I,m listening  

 

[Shinehead]

11 minutes ago, dave pinch said:

I kinda gave up listening  to any new release stuff about 10 years ago due to lack of quality real instruments and there were always raps involved somewhere along the way..and some always sounded retro. Maybe I should find the time to listen some more. My bad... But I'm still buying discovering loads of late 60s 70s and onwards stuff I've never heard before

I mainly stopped buying new releases when Voices From The Shadows folded because when they where in business you knew if Dearlove, Barker recommended any thing chances are I would like it.

After they went it was basically buying blind and I bought more duds than good uns so I went back to buying the older stuff again.

 

[Geeselad]

54 minutes ago, shinehead said:

Just one thing, I agree this site is full of people buying records made by white artists but one point I would make is that by and large these records were probably made at the direction of the record company to try and get the said artist a hit on the back of the success of motown at the time.

I think you would agree though some of the pop played at wigan had F**k all to do with soul music in any form or fashion and most people today are a bit embarrassed what was danced to back then.

I own some great records produced by white artists who I would call soul singers , Eddie Hinton,  George Soule come to mind .

I did not know who Sam Smith was till this topic came up and I do not think I will be buying any of his stuff after giving it a listen

Mayer Hawthorne , Paper Boy Reed now I,m listening  

 

George soul is white! wow!

[Mark R]

43 minutes ago, shinehead said:

After they went it was basically buying blind and I bought more duds than good uns so I went back to buying the older stuff again.

 

Well there's certainly no need to buy blind now with t'interweb, that is one good thing about the technology shift!

 

Cheers,

Mark R

[Shinehead]

3 minutes ago, Mark R said:

Well there's certainly no need to buy blind now with t'interweb, that is one good thing about the technology shift!

 

Cheers,

Mark R

So true but then the problem with that is it takes away a bit of the excitement out of the actual first playing because you are familiar with the tunes.

Used to enjoy the written review and if they got it wrong in your opinion you could always scream wtf its crap  , I am a album buyer mainly.

Funny f**kers  us record buyers 

[Mark R]

Just now, shinehead said:

So true but then the problem with that is it takes away a bit of the excitement out of the actual first playing because you are familiar with the tunes.

Used to enjoy the written review and if they got it wrong in your opinion you could always scream wtf its crap  , I am a album buyer mainly.

Funny f**kers  us record buyers 

Ah, right.....gotcha.  Fair comment......I used to do the same in Blues & Soul etc.

 

Cheers,

Mark R

[Daved]

There doesn't seem to be an reliable album review for new music anymore. I wouldn't rely on Soul Tracks as they recommend everything.

[Soul-slider]

What gets me laughing to myself is white middle class kids on X Factor singing Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come' , and it happens a lot....now that song IS about a black man's struggle.

[Soulsides]

18 hours ago, dave pinch said:

I kinda gave up listening  to any new release stuff about 10 years ago due to lack of quality real instruments and there were always raps involved somewhere along the way..and some always sounded retro. Maybe I should find the time to listen some more. My bad... But I'm still buying discovering loads of late 60s 70s and onwards stuff I've never heard before

Same here with the regard to buying and discovering of records from the 1960s & 70s era which for myself will always be the period for the greatest music but lately I've also come to quite like and appreciate some of the Funky Soul tunes that Hope Street records have released.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with Hope Street it's a fairly new Australian label formed in 2009 by Bob Knob ( great name !)) and another bloke who's name temporarily escapes me. 

I think the people at Hope Street have the right intentions and have a proper appreciation for Soul related music and it certainly isn't a big corporate type set up with an eye on making records solely for the Pop charts.

 

This is a nice one.

 

I also think this lady and her band are pretty good.

 

[Geeselad]

1 hour ago, Soulsides said:

Same here with the regard to buying and discovering of records from the 1960s & 70s era which for myself will always be the period for the greatest music but lately I've also come to quite like and appreciate some of the Funky Soul tunes that Hope Street records have released.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with Hope Street it's a fairly new Australian label formed in 2009 by Bob Knob ( great name !)) and another bloke who's name temporarily escapes me. 

I think the people at Hope Street have the right intentions and have a proper appreciation for Soul related music and it certainly isn't a big corporate type set up with an eye on making records solely for the Pop charts.

 

This is a nice one.

 

I also think this lady and her band are pretty good.

 

like both of those, well worthy of checking, thanks .

[Moutton Noir]

Amy Winehouse was nothing more than a Motown tribute act. Although I enjoyed her RECORDINGS (her awful live performances were another thing!) I never understood the hype and praise heaped upon her. She was not original by any stretch of imagination. Her image was a Ronettes.Shagri-Las drag act mash up. Most of her music was a straight rip off of well known Motown hits- almost like the Supremes greatest hits and Ashford & Simpson songbook.  Why was she adored by the mainstream music journo's? Because of their ignorance of soul music and the legacy of the various soul labels and iconic performers. Their narrow white rock/alternative music knowledge exposed that ignorance. Amy exploited that for all it was worth. I continually pointed out the source of her work to the amazement of friends and colleagues who knew little about soul and r&b music- you know these guys- the ones who think music started with the Beatles "the most influential band in history". They were astounded to hear the blatant rip offs when confronted with the truth! Listen to ANY modern pop singer and you can hear the dominant influence on the singing style of 99% of them is unmistakably soul/r&b. The racism that skews the history of popular music desperately needs to be addressed