Just to make the same link come up 3 times a row on my friendslist

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Lex interviews Estelle - and the 'racist music industry' argument gets into the main news section too. IN YR BROADSHEETS SETTING YR AGENDA.

The opening bit of the interview reads - probably unintentionally - like classic Morleyan entrapment though: get Estelle to rant about how Adele ain't soul and she can't tell me what soul is, then ask Estelle what soul is and get staggeringly vague answer.

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

There is a whole herd of elephants in the room I think Lex!

- Amy W's success very obviously!
- Pop Idol/X Factor and the tighter definition of "good voices"
- For Duffy at least the 60s retro thing goes WAY beyond soul (what white working-class kids - which clearly Duffy isn't - DO with soul is a massive part of UK pop tradition too)
- The way the media treats soul when it's out of fashion - which it is for LONG periods of time - I simply don't know whether soul music *is* any kind of living tradition in large parts of the black British music industry or community.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I particularly thought of your third point too! And come on, the Duffy album is called ROCKFERRY, I get a strong kitchen-sink-y thing from Duffy (which I quite like actually).

I have let Adele completely bypass my radar, quite purposefully but Duffy just keeps on howlin', she juuuust keeps howlliiin' awaaaaaaay (thanks Leona for that).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah Duffy seems to me like some kind of How Does It Feel To Be Loved fantasy figure scrubbed up for the mainstream!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

By Bob Stanley, at that!!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's what he's been dreaming of ever since "One Goodbye In Ten" flopped!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

well, by bernard butler actually...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

- also: strictly speaking Estelle is/has been more hip-hop anyway and the question of why UK hip-hop is ignored vis-a-vis why UK soul is ignored has long been a bigger beef (until white-girl soul suddenly became fashionable) (I hope this was made clear: the hyping of white girls singing soul is only a part of the wider issue, ie the entire spectrum of black British music, not just soul, being ghettoised or ignored)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I think it's clear to us because we've been discussing it for the last few weeks, but your average Graun reader may think different. What saddens me is that music dudes who should know better are already sharpening the knives for Estelle. £5 to the first person to spot a press article branding her as 'bitchy' or 'mouthy' :(

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I know right, agh I hate people. It's not as if I couldn't see it coming, but I think I've represented Estelle's views fairly (and I think they're views which needed to be expressed), and it's just frustrating to see anyone who speaks their mind about what they perceive as injustice to immediately be labelled UPPITY BITCH by idiots who can't fucking read.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

nb: this comment (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/03/estelle.html#comment-1017786) from the related Grau blog is pretty much spot on.

the others remind me why I don't tend to read Grau blog comments.