With regard to real soul music, I suppose it's general knowledge that in the
past few years or so, the soul music fraternity have been
a long-suffering lot, not so much as a result of the lack of quality
material out there, but as a result of the seeming apathy of the
record company executives in charge of promotions, A&R, presentation,
etc in the mistaken belief that the music-listening population is
mainly interested in ever-younger acts, releasing teeny, sugary
pop-soul-R&B. And something else: There must be someone or some people in
all the A&R departments, barking out orders that all those kids (especially
the girls) must have their hair done in that wafer-thin, long, straight style
that makes it difficult for you or I to differentiate one from the other!
Never mind the fact that you can't tell their voices apart!
It's true that a lot of music-loving thirty-somethings don't necessarily
have an excess amount of disposable income, for obvious reasons of new
family committments and expenses, but that is not enough reason for
the A&R guys to do away with the search for quality in the work that
they do on a daily basis...
"How can they live with themselves?" was one of the many questions a
good (music-loving) friend of mine asked me a few days ago, demonstrating
his exasperation. The simple implication has to be that the soul-loving
punter will have to do that little bit more in research, to find the
music that he dearly loves, because...believe it or not...it is out there!
Some of the purveyors of the sound of 'Nu-Classic Soul':
