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

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

and i'm saying "which is a pity bcz it means they're entirely missing the fun of her for not a very good reason in my opinion"

the argument we're having would have a very different shape were it transferred to food ("acquired taste means being brainwashed into liking stuff which i find yucky -- why bother") or sense of humour ("how dare you say i have no sense of humour?" <--- no one in the worlkd thinks they have no sense of humour but really lots of people pretty much don't)

i don't believe it is the case that technique can EVER be empty, i genuinely think this is a bad way to think about technique (or indeed virtuosity) -- obviously it can be inappropriate or misguided or ineffective or annoying or ________ or ________

[datura800.livejournal.com]

I don't think they necessarily are tho - I listen to Mariah, and I downloaded the new album. I'm just saying that I don't find her emotionally engaging (for the most part), but if I only ever listened to music which I found emotionally engaging then I wouldn't listen to many of the artists that I do.

To follow your analogies, if we were talking about painting and I said I found someone who was brilliant at textbook painting techniques to be unengaging and a producer of work without much 'soul' to it, and you replied that I only thought that because of various other concepts of what 'a good painting' is' or whatever, I think that would be more akin to this. I think technique CAN produce work of not much consequence. That doesn't mean I think Mariah ALWAYS does this, or that I cannot enjoy a song which I think is bombastic and empty melodrama, it just means I can appreciate it for what I think it is.