{"id":1999,"date":"2009-02-18T22:29:53","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T03:29:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-07-24T14:26:27","modified_gmt":"2011-07-24T18:26:27","slug":"amy-winehouse-blackcredibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/amy-winehouse-blackcredibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Amy Winehouse&#8217;s Backing Singers: Blackredibility or the Acceptable Selection of Human Instrumentation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IlRF43-xaYc?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nA televised <strong>Amy Winehouse<\/strong> performance would not be complete without a lot of camera time given to her retro-style singin&#8217; and dancin&#8217; backup singers. You know these guys: two stylish, handsome, and animated black guys in dark, &#8217;60s-cut suits who perform a frantic, nonstop array of choreographed Motown-style moves to add some needed life behind the scrawny atrocity exhibition who&#8217;s paying the bills. The camera can only hang so long on Winehouse, in hopes of her falling over or throwing up. The backing singers keep things FUN and LIVELY!<\/p>\n<p>During our examination of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2009\/02\/04\/exploitive-black-rock-history-robed-choi\">African American Robed Choir<\/a> (AARC) I addressed whether a rock band being supported by &#8220;colored girls&#8221; as backup singers constituted an example of exploitive black rock history. We seemed to agree that if a performance called for the <em>tone<\/em> of African American backup singers, the selection of a trio of African American singers as acceptable in terms of <em>instrumentation<\/em>, no different than a guitarist selecting a Gibson over a Fender. None of us would deny the importance of showmanship and <em>mach schau<\/em> in rock, so we can&#8217;t immediately jump on any backing singers who dance and dress in a way that adds to the performance. In the case of Amy Winehouse, however, a young, white, English singer who apes African American vocal characteristics and themes, I&#8217;ve got to question whether her use of her backing singers is a ploy for <strong>Blackredibility<\/strong> or the acceptable selection of human instrumentation.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n0Qwya7Xpo0?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nAbout 10 seconds into the above performance, the camera can&#8217;t pull back fast enough to distract viewers from Winehouse&#8217;s drunken chicken shuffle to a view of the soul city roller-blading slide of the backing singers. They do add a few <em>ooohs<\/em> along the way, but their dancing is as much a part of the song&#8217;s arrangement as the drummer&#8217;s hi-hat work. Coming out of the song&#8217;s breakdown and heading into the finale, Winehouse resumes her chicken shuffle while the backing singers crank up their boogaloo down Broadway. Rock hasn&#8217;t seen such hammy, choreographed shuckin&#8217; and jivin&#8217; since <strong>Jake<\/strong> and <strong>Elmore Blues<\/strong> were doing their thing.<\/p>\n<p>Who are these guys, and can&#8217;t they put their talents to better use? One guy goes by the name of <strong>Heshima<\/strong>, or as his MySpace page lists him, <a href=\"http:\/\/profile.myspace.com\/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&amp;friendID=75505875\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Heshima (Amy Winehouse&#8217;s Backing Singer).&#8221;<\/a> He&#8217;s got a <a href=\"http:\/\/profile.myspace.com\/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&amp;friendID=75505875\" target=\"_blank\">special message<\/a> for you.<\/p>\n<p>The other guy&#8217;s name is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chichester.co.uk\/entertainments\/MUSIC-Amy-Winehouse-backing-singer.4576462.jp\" target=\"_blank\">Ade Omotayo<\/a>. He also goes by the name <strong>Zalon<\/strong>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zalononline.com\/\">Zalon&#8217;s got a message for you too<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>His association with Amy Winehouse goes back to an outfit called the Bolsha Band. &#8220;We were in the band together,&#8221; says Ade. &#8220;Amy went on to international stardom, but she doesn&#8217;t forget those who were with her from the start.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>To her credit, Winehouse is willing to turn the spotlight on her backing singers, even if, as the following YouTube clip is entitled, &#8220;Amy Winehouse Is Outsung by Backing Singer.&#8221;<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qYaMS4UDve8?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t meant to diminish the talents of these men by calling them into this analysis &#8211; and I&#8217;m not sure where I fall on the Blackredibility vs Acceptable Human Instrumentation question regarding their role in support of Winehouse, but they are so popular with her fans that they have their own <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=18367149906\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Facebook appreciation page<\/strong><\/a>. Maybe my possibly white guilt-driven defense of their dignity is motivated above all else by my distaste for Winehouse, but I don&#8217;t know. It&#8217;s one thing to find these guys toasting in a 2-Tone-era ska band; it&#8217;s another to see them rolled out for this fourth-generation schtick in support of a most white, vacant artist, yet another in a now long line of artists who fulfill <strong>Lenny Bruce<\/strong>&#8216;s &#8220;Girl Singer&#8221; bit.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a young Amy, from 2003, with a few healthy pounds on her frame, a Strat in her hands, her hair well conditioned and let down, and absolutely no stage presence. Worse yet, she&#8217;s <em>sans<\/em> Heshima and Zalon! Check out this clip and tell me what she&#8217;s missing more: the instrumentation of their backing voices or their Retro Negro Entertainer routine. I can&#8217;t fault them for paying the bills &#8211; and they do a fantastic job &#8211; but do you think they ever wonder when they&#8217;ll be free of this arhythmic junkie?<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ADN29DLJUbY?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I could be so wrong about all this that it&#8217;s not funny, but during Exploitive Black Rock History Month I feel compelled to ask you to help me examine this situation and take that risk. I don&#8217;t doubt that Amy appreciates and tastefully utilizes the talents of these men, but what percentage of their role is to add Blackredibility? And what does this say about us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A televised Amy Winehouse performance would not be complete without a lot of camera time given to her retro-style singin&#8217; and dancin&#8217; backup singers. You know these guys: two stylish, handsome, and animated black guys in dark, &#8217;60s-cut suits who perform a frantic, nonstop array of choreographed Motown-style moves to add some needed life behind <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/amy-winehouse-blackcredibility\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[485,147],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}