While interviewing Darius Rucker, formerly of Hootie and the Blowfish, Oprah and him were discussing his song "It Won't Be Like This for Long." Darius wrote the song about his wife and kids. Oprah made a comment that right now Country music is the true soul music. She added that only country music allows you to write about what you feel and topics like your family. In agreement, Darius said that Country music was the only genre for the singer-songwriter.
I was angered by those statements. First, I know Country music is now top-selling when comes to album sales, and is more down to earth than most mainstream music today, but that does not mean there is no Soul music out there. One might have to seep through the trash of mainstream music to find it, but it is there. Just look at the Neo-soul or Alternative Hip-hop artists out there. All of these artists write about subjects that are personal to them. And when I think about most music is "soul" music because someone is writing about what he or she feels.
Moreover, why is the singer-songwriter type delegated to Country music. It is irritating when people put the ability to be a singer-songwriter in a specific genre of music. Every music style has its batch of singer-songwriters, from Alternative Rock/Pop (Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, The Killers, Kings of Leon, etc.) to Hip-hop (Novel, Spree Wilson, Mos Def, etc.).
So, I suggest that Oprah and Darius think before they say something that would insult the rest of the artists in the industry.
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