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

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think they are compatible - the reason technique works as a fallback is that they believe it to be the best way of conveying emotion (even if their nerves then stop them thinking through the song as coherently as they'd like)

The point about the music they like and listen to is a very good one too.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

But if they were 'falling back on technique' then there would have to be an acknowledgment there that this didn't actually mean conveying emotion - and I don't think that acknowledgment is there for most of these people.