‘Soul Singing While White’ Is Killing the Legacy of Soul Music
Posted on February 6, 2015
GQ magazine lauding UK singer Sam Smith as the new face of soul pushed me over the edge recently. White faces are never the faces of soul music.
White soul singers are given inordinate amounts of praise by the masses. There is just something about a White person treading into soul singer territory that gives them all the “street cred” in the world (at least to other White people). This is not to say that Sam Smith or any other White artist isn’t a “soul” singer. “Stay With Me” is dope (listen below). And for the first couple of times I heard it, I assumed he was Black. But only White people can put out one song and suddenly become the face of an entire genre of music.
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