Talk:Blue-eyed soul

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Why is Wikipedia so obsessed with this term?

Isn't it just a bit ridiculous how many articles link here? There are currently more than a thousand articles linking to this page. It seems as if some race-obsessed person has added this terminology and a link to this article from every single article about any white person singing soul whom the term might apply to, from Joe Cocker to Dusty Springfield to Timi Yuro. Like Wikipedia's deranged obsession with "portmanteau words", and the many other odd obsessions of a small minority of Wikipedians, Wikipedia would be a better resource if this kind of obsessive linking to some obscure hobby-horse bit of terminology was curtailed. Johnny Reverse (talk) 11:54, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Never mind all that, here's a mess

The second sentence, the one a reader would expect to enrich and expand beyond the opening definition, reads:

"The slang, coined in the mid-1960s, was invoked by music magazines in the 1960s such as Life who used it for the Righteous Brothers (album Soul and Inspiration for Verve Records), Barry McGuire, Sonny & Cher; other times it meant style and mannerisms associated with soul music sung by white musicians."

1. Opening with "the slang" is a terrible idea. I'm not sure why that is even mentioned. It could be in the first sentence ("...is a slang term for...") - except it is not slang. Regardless of whether it is in some slang dictionary or not.

2. Life is not a music magazine.

3. There is no need to insert the title of a Righteous Brothers album.

4. The unfinished list of three acts abruptly changes to another unrelated half-sentence beginning with the awkward phrase "other times"

5. That final part, besides missing articles that would usually be used in English, is terribly unclear - are they associated with soul music, such music sung by white, or with the white musicians?

Deletion would be a pretty good fix for this, as on the whole, it actually says nothing informative.

Huw Powell (talk) 03:01, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

Totally agree. The wording has gone through many changes, but it would be better to revert to an earlier wording of the second sentence, which more simply read: "The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the music of the Motown and Stax record labels." Explanations can be given in the main text. Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:32, 12 November 2022 (UTC)