There are a plethora of songstresses that draw their inspiration from yesteryear big band, Motown and RnB, but most of all soul thus the ‘Soulstress’ is born. Seeing as the inspiration for their music is very apparent, is this just a a blatant act of forgery or do these women genuinely have something new to bring to the table?

Soul music is said to be “music that arose out of the black experience through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying”.  Today the majority of big name modern soul comes from middle class white females’, I suppose this is why these artists like Amy Winehouse, Duffy and Adele are being placed under the “Blue Eyed Soul Recording” by The Times Encyclopedia of modern music

Singing about heartache, love and lust these ladies usually come across as whinging middle aged women and when they are trying to be are trying to be powerful like an enigmatic Aretha Franklin they come across like snotty little brats.  There is definitely a thin white line between enlightened and deluded. White line, get it Winehouse? Oh I kid, she’d certainly smoke the stuff like a chimney.

Speaking of Amy let’s start with the successes, the most notable being Amy Winehouse. The British singer/songwriter won a record number of five Grammy awards for her critically acclaimed sophomore album Back to Black. Although now more known for her infamous drug addictions, marrying and divorcing a guy who apparently hooked up with transvestite and spent more of his marriage in jail than out. Her music not only was critically acclaimed but commercially successful, even in the very hard to break into American music charts.

With the success of Amy Winehouse came a larger contingency of British females with a similar style of act such as Adele and Duffy. Duffy, a Welsh singer, hooked audiences in with her hit Mercy which was played to death on nearly every radio station and used in most television series. Her unusual tone of voice and her vintage throwback good looks gave her some differentiation from Winehouse although besides the looks and the back story were undeniably similar.

With the good of course comes the bad; Gabriella Cilmi & Joss Stone bring the whiney teenager shtick to the table with their efforts. Can someone so young really have the conviction of heartbreak and experience? In my opinion, hell no. Cilmi began writing her album at the age of 13 and living on the “mean streets” of Dandenong, Melbourne doesn’t really warrant the amount of attitude she has by proclaiming in her one big hit that “nothing’s sweet about me”.

What also works against the likes of Joss Stone and Gabriella Cilmi are there less than charming  personalities within the media. Cilmi sounds like a vacant airhead where as the barefooted Joss Stone is quite unpopular with the very decisive British public, apparently due to her newly obtained American accent and her supposed arrogance. Whether you think these ladies have great voices or not, their material and overall package isn’t doing them any favours.

Although this invasion of likeminded, mainly British artists, did extremely well in a global aspect the genre is definitely having a lull of sorts. Cilmi has moved her sound in a more of a disco direction, Adele and Duffy are working on new albums, Joss Stone keeps releasing disappointing flops and Amy Winehouse is left as tabloid fodder.  With the upcoming new albums, the listening public will be able to see if these songstresses were just a flash in a pan or a long lasting force in the music industry.