Soul Is Not Nostalgia

Nostalgia: A sentimental longing for something in the past (Webster’s)

There was an item in Jon Pareles’ New York Times review of last week’s Amy Winehouse show that I haven’t been able to get past. He wrote that if Winehouse was a “purely an old-fashioned soul singer, she’d just be a nostalgia act.” I couldn’t help but think when reading that line, why is someone who draws upon soul “nostalgic,” and bands like the Strokes, who draw upon 70’s New York punk and proto-punk bands like Richard Hell & The Voidoids, aren’t? Why aren’t the Killers a nostalgia act, given their aping of 80’s new wave? Given the lack of technical innovation in rock in general for the past 2 decades, what the hell is (or isn’t) nostalgic?

It’s hard for me to imagine people being nostalgic for a time they didn’t live in. Amy Winehouse’s album is appealing to people because it connects with them, occurs for them as emotionally authentic, and just plain sounds good. I’m a believer in the possibility of soul coming back in a modern context – not because the 60’s or 70’s were “better,” but because at its best, soul music connects simply, directly and intensely. It's music that gets to the heart of what it is to be a human being; to love, to struggle, to win and to lose. It might have a piano, a horn section and play in 4/4 time, but that doesn't make it nostalgia.