The Death of Soul Music

Saying that you're 'a material girl in a material world' is a sign of resignation. Why? Because the world isn't necessarily materialist. There are other options as to how we lead our lives.

Equally money measures how succesful music is. The value in music is not what it does, what is shared through sublime melodies that carry some messages more powerful than any words ever could, but how many units it has sold. That is the 'objective' measurement that we equip ourselves with, in order to measure whether there is a point in even venturing into releasing your music into the general public.

Even worse is when music starts revolving around itself in this respect. When music is not about the message or the meaning or the experience that someone wants to share, but about this evaluation of its own success - in terms of sales and status - things have gone too far.

Soul music came from spirituals, and turned into gospel. It was all highly spiritual. When gospel diversified into also being soul music the spiritual quality of the gospel was applied to all sides of life; sharing different stories and different aspects of life but with the same emphasis and care that was put into the 'spiritual' music. In other words: Soul was not about God, but it was highly spiritual all the same.

So when The-Dream (an artist that I find catchy and moving beyond the point that I'm comfortable with) fills almost three entire albums with stories about how many millions he sold, and how instead of morals he now has money, I can conclude that soul music - in the sense that deserves to be called soulful - has died. I'm thinking of course about a man who sees no problem in cheating on his girl. His sollution is simply to buy a bag for 5000 dollars in order to redeem himself. And this apparently works every time. I give you the death of soul music. I give you The Makeup Bag: