>Does JB's cape routine stand for something? Mean anything,
>besides just theater?

no. well, yes. it “represented” his dedication to his craft and his self-myth as “the hardest working man in Soul business”… that’s more than Marques Houston or somebody making kissy-faces at the camera

>Does the "social awareness" or whatever that we hear in some
>seventies soul mean anything, or is it just trend-following?

of course, most of it is trend-following. but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t “mean” anything

>To me, we have this distorted idea of what soul music is
>about... evidenced by those people on the last big soul post
>who were talking about how no one has lyrics anymore. Huh?
>Since when did anyone in soul music have lyrics?

I **kinda** agree… it depends on what you mean by “lyrics”. I personally don’t even judge lyrics by their content so much as I do for their craftsmanship. so even if Soul artists weren’t always singing about the deepest things, at least they had some good songs

but yeah, Soul is really more about the performance than the song

>Is it more valid to ape Stevie or Marvin or whoever than to
>ape Kieth Sweat or R. Kelly or whoever?

I think so. because if you’re gonna emulate someone, why wouldn’t you emulate the best?