Did Janis Joplin sound too black? Does Amy Winehouse? Justin Timberlake certainly borrowed heavily from "R&B" (his words, not mine - I'd call it Pop). Personally, I think she's fundamentally irritating. It's not that she's stealing the cultural identity of a genre so much as she has none of her own.

You don't need a sociological explanation for everything.

Stone's records so far have sounded too derivative and uninspired, regardless of race issues, but she's got tremendous potential, because of both her innate gift and her obvious love of the music. That's why years from now we'll all still be hearing her voice, long after the more self-conscious Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, etc. have vanished.

can't we ever get past this kind of crap?when i play guitar should i avoid my influences of Robert Johnson and Jimi Hendrix?make sure i don't use the timing of Charlie Parker or Billie Holiday?like her or not,the girl sings the way she sings,we hear what we like and out it comes.this kind of column shows we are nothing but a permanant state of grade school.until we can just let folks be who they are,and realize we are all influenced by art and music from all over the world now,we will just be in the same old rut.how about if we just grow up and get over it?it's not like if you hear something,you don't hear the roots of where it came from.but i guess some folks with empty ideas and shallow minds have to find something to write about...maybe we can have some more columns about Obama being too white...just stupid...

Dear Salon:

STFU. This is the dumbest, most racist piece of reporting I have ever read, and that says a lot since i read your site often.

I mean, they use ENGLISH and everything, which is hardly the language from their ancestral home. Come to think of it, German and Italian American singers sound too white because they speak English, too.

What a stupid question. No, of course she doesn't sound too black.

I think imitation can be a sincere form of flattery. Even if you don't like her music, Joss Stone's voice is amazing. Her voice is suited for the style of music she is making. I read somewhere where Kierkegaard said that irony or comedy cannot be successful

if it is not understood by the majority of the public, and if it has been,

then the comedy or a sense of irony has projected a form of acknowledgement

to an aspect of culure. This is the case with Joss Stone. Let it be.

Soul music may have a black face, but as anyone who reads Perter Guralnik's Sweet Soul Music knows, it's also the product of white promoters, white backup musicians, white songwriters, etc. It's an amazing art form that would have been impossible without cross-cultural collaboration.

Besides, the English, with none of the cultural baggage of a slave-decendent black underclass, have been honestly and successfully stealing African American music since at least Mick Jagger. Yeah, there was still a sense of exploitation but it's always worked a whole lot better than when white Americans try to sing the blues. I don't know much about Joss Stone's personal backround but her home of Devon is not exactly a beacon economically so maybe she comes from a similar place as the great soul singers. She sure sounds good.

Does Joss Stone sound "too black"?

What a silly question.

Did Elvis? Mick Jagger? (Well, maybe...)

What about Mick Hucknall, of Simply Red? Did Billie Holiday phrase too much like sax player Lester Young? Did Frank Sinatra phrase too much like Billie Holiday? Does Van Morrison phrase too much like both of them? Did Picasso and Georges Braque paint too much like each other in the early stages of Cubism? Do any of these questions have any value whatsoever?

Questions like this are pointless, really. Joss Stone sounds like she sounds. It's her choice, and I'm willing to accept that. If I get tired of her singing, I'll simply stop listening.

Those who ask questions like this are either trying to graft a poorly-fitting outside agenda on something unrelated, or have too much free time and too little respect for the choice a performer makes about his or her own musical approach.

And please, please, please save the whole silly, pointless "white privilege" trope for Sociology 101.

A melody, good, bad, or otherwise, doesn't care about the color of the singer singing it.

If I understood this article correctly, the problem here is that Stone does not, somehow, acknowledge her place in the evolutionary artistic chain. Do I have that right?

(I confess, I didn't know who Joss Stone was until I read about her here...I have since gone and listened to some of her work)..

Since I don't read much about popular music in general, I was unaware of Stone's PR prowess, or lack of it. It sounds like she has not properly propitiated the arbiters-of-taste in this area, whoever they may be.

However, this article, and Stone's work, did bring up someone else for me: John Hammond Jr.

Listen to Robert Johnson's original version of Preachin' Blues, and then listen to Hammond's, from a recording of about 15 years ago (name of the album escapes me at the moment)...and it's clear that cultural alchemy is the *only* way to go. Hammond's version of the song is SO much better than Johnson's that I hardly know where to begin.

Hammond's eerie channeling of the old-time bluesmen is not only uncanny, it's deeply moving. Hammond may be channeling, but he's his own man, an artist of real stature, and can be appreciated on his own merits, completely aside from his too-obvious-to-be-mentioned influences...and that's a good thing.

Hell, if Johnson were alive to hear Hammond, he'd probably be insanely jealous...then do everything he could to one-up Hammond..and that too is a good thing.

If people don't like Stone, there's no sin in that. But if you don't like her because she's "too black" that's just stupid. If you think she doesn't "deserve" to sing like Gladys Knight..then go out there and sing better.

That said, one thing about Hammond that is very hard for other channelers to get right, is that he *sounds* authentic. He's not black...but he doesn't have to be. He sounds like John Hammond Jr.

I'm not sure about Stone. Is she authentic? Is what she does just a stunt? If she can create her own artistic profile, even channeling Knight, that's enough. If she can't master the authenticity problem, then she's in trouble.