Reply #6: So many ways to define that. I give more weight to soul than to technical expertise. [View All]

[jobycom]

There are bands and artists who have clearly mastered their instruments and have an almost mathematical creativity at making music which sounds different, original, even entertaining, but still don't seem to be doing anything other than an academic or technical demonstration. Some of it you have to be a student of music to even understand, but some of it is easy to hear, can be listened to, and is often enjoyable by the average person.

Then there are artists who use music as a medium to transmit what's inside them, that undefinable emotional quality that only music can capture. It is often called "soul," but it doesn't have to be in the genre called soul. It can make a mediocre talent into a superior artist, and the lack of it can make the most skilled craftsmen as boring as dust. To me, anyway.

True musical genius should probably do both, but extreme degrees of one or the other can measure up to genius.

Musical geniuses: Hank Williams, Mark Knopfler, Dolly Parton, Jimi Hendrix, Howlin' Wolf, Queen, Miles Davis... just a random few.

Just my feeble thoughts.