The 405

The unstoppable Amy Winehouse continues to reign on, despite her widely publicised and completely manic personal life. Amy Winehouse must be one of the most powerful forces in the music industry today. Winehouse has not only one, but two albums in the UK top 40.  Amy Winehouse’s first album Frank is currently at no. 29, while her last release Back To Black - The Deluxe Edition is at no 17 in the charts. It’s hard to believe that initially Frank only went in at no. 60 when it was first released back in October 2003 in the UK.

 Frank was a very powerful introduction to Amy Winehouse, and there is a very organic and remarkable sound to the album, that seems completely free from a lot of the highly commercialised manufactured junk that is in the charts today. Frank is what music should be about: pure and natural unprecedented talent.

The subversive element to Winehouse lies in her subject matter and lyrics which are extremely honest and very powerful. Winehouse also writes the majority of her material, unlike many of the “artists” in the industry today.

 Amy Winehouse’s image is one that many record companies are trying to replicate, and capitalize upon, as she seems to have opened a new market, whereby people are listening to solely the voice, and not the image. The success of Winehouse does prove that natural talent will always prevail despite whatever personal affairs you have going on around you. Since Winehouse has emerged, there have been other artists deemed as having a very similar sound, one of which being Adele. She also has a very amazing voice, and I honestly don’t believe that someone like her would have been given the chance a few years ago, as people seemed rather ignorant to people that did not fit a certain stereotypical look. Adele definitely counteracts the marketable franchise look that record company bosses invest in. 19 is Adele’s debut album. It was released on 28 January 2008 and debuted at number one on the UK charts on its first week. I say rock on, to the music charts actually being about music!

 Back to Black is definitely a much more commercial sounding album than Frank. There are many tracks that you will find on Back to Black that have been played continuously throughout nightclubs all over the world. Even though some may argue that Back to Black is a more commercial album from Winehouse, she keeps it real with her personable nature, drawing on her own personal experiences and sharing this with her fans all over the world. “Addicted” is one of my favourite tracks on the album, and the lyrics are extremely personable, which reinforces the fact that she is a real human being just like us. Lyrically it’s very gritty, like the artist singing the song, and at least we are getting something that is real, and not a fake studio-generated blonde bimbo, which is all too expected from pop music, whereby careful tactics are used to market and streamline an artist to such an extent that it exuberates nothing real. This can lead to inevitable failure, and not a long-lasting career, like that of Britney Spears. Britney must be one of the most manufactured artists, yet, simultaneously, one of the most memorable train wrecks in the world of music. When her real personality was unveiled many asked the question “what happened?”, and “why is she acting this way?” Maybe it was all the years of constant phoniness, and perpetuating such a false, and unrealistic image that grew tiresome and boring to the point where she just couldn’t be bothered to retain it anymore.

 Finally, it appears that the buying music market has changed (some might say matured), and we need to keep up with this, as people won’t spend money quite as easily as they did before. With the credit crunch coming into play, as a society we have become a lot more suspicious of peoples motives, and we question things a lot more. We want to know that what we are buying is genuine and not fake, and thus making it much harder to survive in the industry today. The fact that winehouse has two albums in the top 40 is living proof that this woman is not only a remarkable talent, but a survivor.

Darren Shoneye

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