Soul vs Technique

[datura800.livejournal.com]

I hope he won't mind me quoting him, but I read an interesting assertion in Alex's review of the new Mariah album (today's Guardian):

"Carey's voice has been mocked, bizarrely, as being a triumph of technique over soul - an argument that fails to comprehend that technique and soul are intertwined, that technique primarily exists as a means to convey emotion".

I thought this would be a good discussion to have here - it's a point I quite strongly disagree with (generally, not specifically with relation to Mariah), but I'll wait to see if anyone is interested in commenting before launching into it.

Comments

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Hip-hop? Virtuosity? Or has the label hip-hop been reappropriated in much the same way as R&B?

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Virtuousity of rapping is a big thing in hip-hop discourse.