I've been letting this go on entirely too long without saying it. And in fact, I would have said it sooner, but I thought there was a possibility that someone with better music credentials would say it.
Sure, she's white, British, has a drugs problem (I love how they pluralize the word "drugs" in this context in the UK) and the songs are updated to include references to the issues of our current social scene, but really, there's nothing more to her than an acquisition of a certain musical style from the past and a lot of press for her bad behavior.
Don't get me wrong, she does Ronnie Spector better than I could or you could, but it's still an imitation of Ronnie Spector.
I started thinking about this the other day when she was performing for Mandela (you know, the show where part of her creative process was throwing elbows at her audience) that it was almost insulting that she should be there co-opting the musical style of an African-American to celebrate the birthday of the most famous African on the planet.
Apparently no one felt that way at his birthday fundraiser. I guess I was the only one.
Still, could you imagine any of the white kids who had hits with rearranged versions of so-called "race music" in the 50s and 60s showing up at a reunion of the early R&B labels?
Okay, I've said it and I feel better now.
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