FinishMySong Blog

Today marks Joss Stone's 19th birthday and learning this really reminded me of how seemingly random twists of fate, such as our collective discovery of these extraordinary talents, are actually so massively contrived by the powers that control our media.



In Joss's case, no great harm seems to have been done thus far but it does make me wonder if it really was a good idea to place a 17 year old girl into the international spotlight, however much potential talent she showed. Her own website, www.jossstone.com*, refers to her as "perhaps the most precociously gifted vocalist of her generation" and who could blame the girl for taking on a sizeable ego boost with her new found fame and, presumably, great financial freedom?

And, the truth is that, unlike other child stars of years gone by such as Charlotte Church, Joss Stone does exhibit a really remarkable musical ability. The songs she does tend to be of an interestingly retrospective style, blending soulful melodies with 'Austin Powers-esque' instrumental arrangements, particularly in Don't Cha Wanna Ride. But the lyrical content is quite naive - exactly the kind of ramblings you'd expect from a teenager in the throws of her nth love affair this term. And then there's the fake American accent that seems de rigeur for any upcoming British pop act of this day and age...

I really can't help feeling that if the EMI's of this world concentrated their efforts more on nurturing the artists they record instead of inflating their own ever increasing bank balance through excessive and premature distribution schemes, then young musicians like Stone would have more time to develop a musical, artistic, emotional, political and, ultimately, aesthetic voice in the way that does them real justice BEFORE being thrown in front of the cruelly fickle media machine of the early 21st Century.

Of course, like any commercial venture, the record labels are in the business of making money and without that sole drive on their behalf a whole industry would collapse. But, when you look at other artists who were shot to fame at a young age, it makes you wonder if the end really justifies the means, particularly in this internet age of free and easy communication - we can now share our music directly, cutting out the middleman altogether.

For example, when another soul songstress, Shola Ama, was interviewed recently for a British music television station she described how being flung into the limelight at 17 years old had been a metaphorical double-edged sword : yes, she suddenly felt empowered by money and recognition, but behind the scenes the chain of events that started with her signing a recording contract had had a detrimental effect on her emotional wellbeing, as her creativity and literal freedom of expression and movement were stifled by an organisation that used her for its own monatory ends. And remember, not only did she personally suffer in this way at the hands of the businessmen, ill-prepared for a dash through the spotlight, but we the public ended up losing out because the label could not fulfil its promise to us : they could no longer deliver the 'real' Shola. So, who won in the end?

Looking further back into pop history, there are too many cases to cite that have ended in much more marked tragedy, directly or indirectly as a result of pressure on artists exerted by the media machine that drives our sense of public taste and decency, not least the deaths of such characters as Kurt Cobain, Karen Carpenter, John Lennon etc. etc. Let's hope Stone is tough enough not to end up going down one of those roads.