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

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I'm literally split on Mariah because I wasn't all that interested in her between, like, 1993 and 2005 or so -- that is, when I was a little kid and when I was starting reading Poptimists. And the nu-Mariah does nothing for me emotionally, while the old-Mariah does have a certain audacity to it that I can see as "generous in spirit in content" -- total giddiness in knowing excess, maybe (diff. between Celine and Mariah in that knowingness -- there's a self-seriousness to Celine's chops that Mariah didn't get until she stopped being so, uh, choppy...including on her new album which after the first couple of songs just sinks like a stone for me). Which I also don't expect to apply to most people.

But I guess my point here (if there is one) is that even though I think this argument is interesting, I just can't connect the common argument originating in the early 90's with what she's actually doing now. It kind of seems like a moot point to drag it back out! When she goes giddy on her new one, it sounds almost like a production trick, like Britney octave-jumping or something -- it isn't a naked swan dive off of a cliff.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Didn't read mcarratala's post above...

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Oof, lots of typos, but I mean to say I don't think that Mariah's former giddiness would necessarily APPEAL to a lot of people. But also, sorta new thought, that what she was doing didn't have much to do with "technique" at all! (I remember talking about Kelly Clarkson hitting an E-flat to my classical music composer friend, and he said "you think that's high? I don't even know if that qualifies as soprano!" but we were on different pages/wavelengths.) I think "audacity" is still a better word for it.