As one journalist pointed out, there aren’t many artists who can boast being played on both Radio 2 and 1Xtra. But Amy Winehouse’s appeal is understandable and makes perfect sense: the young Londoner was born with a truly amazing voice, an ability to use it, and an aptitude for making music that sits neatly between grassroots hiphop and jazz.
Amy is the queen of combination, with a number of different influences clearly employed in her style: the muted and pizzicato guitar of early electric jazz; the gritty/smooth slutty/angelic vocal style of Black American singers like Minnie Ripperton, and latterly, Jill Scott, India Arie, and Alicia Keys; the vocal content of a truth-saying modern street poet; and the x-factor that puts her head and shoulders above the competition: balls.
We spoke to Amy to see why she thinks her champions range from ageing music pundits further down the dial at the BBC, to cutting edge forward thinking music stations, publications and buyers.
What did you grow up listening to?
“Ours was a Michael Jackson house, not a Prince house. My brother had ‘Bad’ and I had ‘Thriller’. The first music that I was really into - that was my music, was hiphop. But then I got into guitar and loads of jazz music after that, and have since come back to everything. I like a lot of everything.”
How do write your songs?
“I write on guitar mostly. But I do write songs on keys as well. I’m a guitarist before I’m a keyboardist.”
What was it like playing with Jamie Cullum?
“It was great. It was a great opportunity to grow an audience for my music, for people to see me perform and expose my music to people.’
Do you feel industry pressure to be a certain way or do a certain thing?
“No. I’m not going to be ‘the next best thing’ because I’m not the next best thing. I just do what I do; pleasing [industry] people isn’t on my agenda.”
Why do you think you have such wide appeal?
“I’m a straight jazz singer. But because of people like Erykah Badu on the hiphop side, and Jamie Cullum on the contemporary jazz side I’m able to appeal to people who might not otherwise discover me.”
One of the reasons for her mass appeal is the avoidance of obvious clichés: love songs, anti-drug messages and tales of urban youth, choosing instead to ignore the hiphop/soul lyrical paradigms, favouring instead a more narrative style with ambiguous sentiments.
Watch my video interview with Amy Winehouse
“I think people like the honesty in my music. It’s very straightforward in that it’s honest.”
Media/critical faith is not a surefire sign of success to come, but the fact that the business-minded and cash-concerned industry gave Amy two years' grace on her debut album is proof that she has the longevity to outlive fads.
Comments