There are many people that talk about artist as original and very unique. In this generation there are many rising artist because of social media and how quick one person’s video can go viral. It takes minutes for the whole world to see a video. I also believe with all the social media outlets people are quick to believe and assume what they see online. When I first started listening to Amy Winehouse I would go on the comments on youtube and see everyone posting about how original she was. To be honest I was thinking the same thing I felt like there were no other artist with her type of style, very pop and jazzy. After a couple weeks of this class I started seeing how much artist and music type influence the music of today. In my critical review, I make the following claim about Amy Winehouse live album at the BBC that; although one may seem unique their style of music and singing has a history through different genres and singers. I will use specific examples of songs from artist with similar style, songs from her album, as well as quotes from articles as evidence to support my argument that although Amy Winehouse was special she was not the only one with similar music style.
Amy Winehouse was 27 years old when she died. She was born London, England in 1983. Her first album Frank was released in the year of 2003. Her last album made a debut in the year of 2011. The album I am critiquing is a posthumous live album released on November 12th. The songs that are chosen for this album are some of the best in showing her performance skills as a live performer. When watching Amy’s live performances I see that most of her shows are done with her drinking on stage. I understand that many artists drink and perform but it seemed that towards the end of her career she would perform drunk. Even though she was drunk or sometimes even high on drugs her fans would still help her remember words by singing along and dancing to her music. Her choice of music and way of performing made her stand out and often recognized as “one of a kind” in reality her style of music is very much like past jazz, blues, R&B, and rock singers.
In the 6th song of the album, “You Know I’m No Good” starts off with congas sounds. This shows how there is some influence of Puerto Rican style of music. In fact according to Music of Puerto Rico the “conga drum was adapted from Africa” . This shows the influence music and style around the world. We as consumers of the music are sometimes not as well informed about the history and influences of music we listen to causing us to think the artist we hear are the originals. In the publication American Popular Music by Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman he talks about the influence of African Americans in popular music. He states that “African-American Culture took different forms in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and the United States”(9). With this we can see how much styles vary but still have the same origin no matter how unique something may sound it has a history as seen through Amy’s songs with a tropical vibe.
Apart from the tropical sounds she mainly uses soul and as her style of music. Soul was first sung and influenced by gospel singers, mainly African American that sung at church. It’s interesting how the faces of these genres aren’t always where it comes from. In the very popular song titled “to Know Him Is To Love Him”. we are able to hear the influence of soul into her song. The song has slow tempo very melo almost just in the background drum noises. The drummer keeps the same rhythm throughout the song. This song reminded me of the popular song by Percy Sledge titled “When A Man Loves A Woman”. The drummer keeps the same rhythm throughout the song as well as keeping the tempo very slow. In the Article Maureen Mahon “Big Mama Thornton’s Voice” they explain how blues and soul came to be popular. They said blues artist like Thornton, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and many other were “surprised by the audience: young, predominantly white Americans and Europeans”(7). the audience had fallen in love with this type of music so much so that “they started creating their own music” (7). As we can see this type of music traveled to Europe where Amy is from. There must have been influence in her music. I’ve seen a quote by an unknown author that read “people say soul died but it has always been here, it just evolved”. I see that as I hear her songs with a hint of soul in her own way.
Amy Winehouse is a very talented women and it is very sad that she passed on at a young age. She shared her talent with the world and made her fans happy with her performances. There is definitely something special about Amy Winehouse, she brings something edgy and different to the table. One thing is certain that her style of music is not one of the first. As I have previously stated her style of music has a history especially in the African American communities such as blues, soul, R&B and jazz. Even though it may not be completely the same as these genres it does have aspects integrated in her songs. Music keeps evolving!
Maureen Mahon, “Listening for Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton’s Voice: The Sound of Race and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll,” Women and Music, 15, 2011, 1-17. (PDF)
Maureen Mahon, “Rock,” The Music of Black Americans: An Introduction. Eds. Mellonee Burnim and Portia Maltsby. 558-584 (PDF)
Starr, Larry, and Christopher Alan Waterman. American Popular Music: from Minstrelsy to MP3. Oxford Univeristy Press, 2003.
www.musicofpuertorico.com/index.php/instruments/congas/
Critical Models
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