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That's what this thread was about until some DC wonk confused it with a musical genre and ran it off the rails.
You're upset because I made you look foolish with my music rant. You need to catch up with mainstream America and kill the Archie Bunker vibe. It's not a good look.
That's what this thread was about until some DC wonk confused it with a musical genre and ran it off the rails.
Actually, musical genres was brought up very early in the thread. This is why I said Memphis comes to mind first and foremost for me because of its very strong connection with the genre that's actually called Soul.
Kids playing soccer in the favelas is colorful, but it's really not all that much different then people who grow up playing football on the beach or street ball in Brooklyn or baseball in some dusty Southwestern suburb or hockey on some lake in Canada. So what's the difference in terms of soul? Not much really, one just seems more exotic and interesting to our American eyes.
Streetball in America would be the equivalent of soccer in the favela.
My point wasn't that Brazil is more soulful or colorful than the US. The point of the videos was to show one environment that encourages and generates creativity and another environment that doesn't. I could have compared streetball on the South Side of Chicago to organized league play in suburban Minneapolis to underscore the same point. I would call the former "soulful" because you have kids who are free to express themselves in any way they please rather than kids who grow up focusing almost exclusively on technical skills and rarely get a chance to use their imagination on the court.
I just used soccer as an example because our approach to the sport presents the most striking difference between "soul" and "no soul." Unless you grew up in a Hispanic or West African community, soccer often feels rigid, contrived and overly organized rather than something organic that average kids just take to the street to play. You won't see this going on in too many neighborhoods in America.
A person from Milwaukee of all places calling me a wonk? Wow.
See, you don't even know the definition of "wonk" and I'm the one who "looks foolish?" I already schooled you numerous times. You don't have a tiny percentage of the musical knowledge I possess. What do you know about Milwaukee? What do you know about anywhere outside the few square miles you live in? It's abundantly clear through numerous threads that the answer is "NOTHING."
I do in fact know all about the go-go sound, as I was buying go-go records in the 80s. Were you? There was a small interest in Trouble Funk because go-go "used real instruments" so it got some play in mainstream rock mags. It has been a dead musical form for more than 25 years. It was a small blip on the radar decades ago. Every single musical form gets sampled all the time. I know about your scene, in fact I was buying the records before you were probably even born, and you don't know anything about music outside DC because you are a wonk.
Regardless, a city's "soul" is not referring to "how many black people live there" or "a musical genre," but you're too thick to get it even though it's been explained to you numerous times. Have fun flopping around looking ignorant! You are a very poor representative of your city.
See, you don't even know the definition of "wonk" and I'm the one who "looks foolish?" I already schooled you numerous times. You don't have a tiny percentage of the musical knowledge I possess. What do you know about Milwaukee? What do you know about anywhere outside the few square miles you live in? It's abundantly clear through numerous threads that the answer is "NOTHING."
I do in fact know all about the go-go sound, as I was buying go-go records in the 80s. Were you? There was a small interest in Trouble Funk because go-go "used real instruments" so it got some play in mainstream rock mags. It has been a dead musical form for more than 25 years. It was a small blip on the radar decades ago. Every single musical form gets sampled all the time. I know about your scene, in fact I was buying the records before you were probably even born, and you don't know anything about music outside DC because you are a wonk.
Regardless, a city's "soul" is not referring to "how many black people live there" or "a musical genre," but you're too thick to get it even though it's been explained to you numerous times. Have fun flopping around looking ignorant! You are a very poor representative of your city.
Slim. I went to grad school at AU. We marketed the term "WONK." "Try harder, go further, go farther."
Streetball in America would be the equivalent of soccer in the favela.
My point wasn't that Brazil is more soulful or colorful than the US. The point of the videos was to show one environment that encourages and generates creativity and another environment that doesn't. I could have compared streetball on the South Side of Chicago to organized league play in suburban Minneapolis to underscore the same point. I would call the former "soulful" because you have kids who are free to express themselves in any way they please rather than kids who grow up focusing almost exclusively on technical skills and rarely get a chance to use their imagination on the court.
I just used soccer as an example because our approach to the sport presents the most striking difference between "soul" and "no soul." Unless you grew up in a Hispanic or West African community, soccer often feels rigid, contrived and overly organized rather than something organic that average kids just take to the street to play. You won't see this going on in too many neighborhoods in America.
We don't see stuff like that video because we don't have a great history of soccer culture in the US. Places like France or Brazil have kids who in America would play a different sport but in those areas everyone plays soccer for the most part--but at the same time those countries have much more kids going to highly rigid and structured youth soccer academies than the US. Many more.
But it's not as if creativity is solely limited to people growing up in poorer urban environments or everyone in the suburbs ends up in some highly structured youth league. I grew up in a medium sized college town on the California coast that produces some of the best and most creative surfers in the world(and skateboarders). That was part of the culture that people grew up around--and there was as much history(and soul) in those avenues as there is in the soccer in the favelas or anything else. Skateboarding for example is almost entirely creativity for most kids--as most people don't compete in any sort of structured environment or take lessons. When I lived in Canada as a kid everyone played hockey on ponds or little local rinks--that was the soul of that area going back over 100 years--though the best players would often be those with the money to afford time at the indoor rinks year-round and parents who pushed them into competetive youth hockey early.
There's a lot of assumptions here. The suburbs look like they lack soul for the most part and in a lot of ways people who are creative often leave as soon as they can. At the same time though you'll find people who have longer roots in some suburbs than a lot of places in more urban areas with historic architecture with the fluid nature of many neighborhoods these days. We associate soul with "having character" and on the surface most suburban environments look like they lack any sort of character---though as people from the "old neighborhood" move out to the suburbs, who knows where the old culture might evolve next. Though soul and character often have more to do with old traditions than inspiring creativity.
Regardless, a city's "soul" is not referring to "how many black people live there" or "a musical genre," but you're too thick to get it even though it's been explained to you numerous times. Have fun flopping around looking ignorant! You are a very poor representative of your city.
The terminology is open to different interpretations and there's no one set way to define it. No one person's definition is any more authoritative than the other IMO.
The terminology is open to different interpretations and there's no one set way to define it. No one person's definition is any more authoritative than the other IMO.
From the way the OP worded the subject, I'm definitely using it to describe cities most associated with black heritage, and I don't care who wants to whine about it.
From the way the OP worded the subject, I'm definitely using it to describe cities most associated with black heritage, and I don't care who wants to whine about it.
So basically no US cities outside the South had any soul prior to the 1940s.
Obviously that's what the OP was talking about since he mentioned San Francisco and Boston as cities with soul.
So basically no US cities outside the South had any soul prior to the 1940s.
I didn't say that.
Quote:
Obviously that's what the OP was talking about since he mentioned San Francisco and Boston as cities with soul.
He also said this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by 007jamesbond
First of all, there are no right or wrong answers here. So feel free to give your opinion and any thoughts.
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