I somehow ran across the reference to “blue-eyed soul” on wikipedia a while back and just have to disagree with some of the claims on that page. Here is a excerpt from the “1980’s”:
In the 1980s, artists such as Hall & Oates, Michael McDonald and Rick Astley scored blue-eyed soul hits, as did Steve Winwood, an artist heavily influenced by 1960s soul. Boy George, although not having the black voice, was considered a blue-eyed soul artist because much of the music of Culture Club fit in the genre of R&B. Around the same time, audiences were shocked by the soulfulness of Teena Marie.
Now I can see Michael McD, thats a given, and I’ll let Rick Astley slide since he doesn’t get much credit anywhere else for anything. Now Steve Winwood I can appreciate because of some of his earlier work but the 80’s were NOT his soul season. Tracks like “Valerie” or “Back In The High Life” are as much soul music as Slayer’s “Richard Hung Himself“. Now comes the best part, Boy George and Culture Club. WTF is this? Soul? I don’t even think crack makes people so messed up that they would hear “Karma Chameleon” and think that was soul music. I’m going to have to chalk this one up to the writer not knowing what soul music is. There is no other explanation.
Here is a thought on music, this time NOT soul. How many songs with the word “water” in them does Eddie Money sing?
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