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

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was going to mention this as well and the only thing I can think of is that people just don't like Mariah. That combination of being by all accounts a manifestly unpleasant person plus stroppy diva to the power of ten is just offputting so people are unwilling to accept "blatantly obviously generous in spirit and content".

Obviously I'm not saying that every great musician has to be a nice person as well but it seems to be writ large across Mariah's public persona to a far greater extent than pretty much any other pop star. It's one she embraces as well.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Accept or believe, I mean. That's why you get accusations of "lacks soul" or "triumph of empty technique" or whatever, its a slightly mean-spirited but understandable trick of using someone's proudest attribute as a stick to beat them with.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

I personally really don't think her behaviour comes into it at all. I think the public are very forgiving of the behaviour of pop stars as long as they're seen to be delivering the goods.