I place great emphasis on someone's opinion who lived through a certain era.
Why? Because although one can definitely learn a lot from just listening to music, much like with art, film and literature....there are and were many forces (cultural and historical) which help to shape something. So someone who has lived through something was also exposed to the same elements the author lived through, thus...similar viewpoints.
Take a typical 70's funk band. The original musicians probably had lifetime exposure to gospel, soul, motown, etc...even possibly a little new wave (the use of synth and space effects), jazz fusion like Herbie Hancock's headhunters and of course Weather Report... the music they then created was shaped by those influences...but some band of white kids messing around with funk in this day and age? Sorry, but it lacks substance. They (more then likely) just decided one day "hey, lets be a funk band" ...and the result? End up needing to dress up like Mummies.
I don't much like "updates" and "retreads" and "reboots" to original styles...it seems to me most miss the important aspects of whatever they are trying to mimic.
Seems like when you put the words "neo" in front of something, the end result is often too distilled or full of kitsch to be of any worth.
I will give you one current example. I am a part of the "tiki" scene (my bands)...
the original tiki music was called exotica, and was performed by jazz musicians with orchestral backgrounds. Thus, you had the music of Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman, Martin Denny, Esquivel, etc...
The music was definitely jazz based. Hallmarks included vibraphones, bird calls, ambience...basically a hollywood cinematic jazz based take on foreign music from africa, the carribean, polynesia and asia....
Nowadays, there is a huge resurgence that is called "tiki revival", and except for a few great bands that really did thier homework, most of it is just surf rock bands and garage rock bands that write songs about tiki stuff, may have a few bird calls, but nevertheless have no elements of jazz in their music. It is (for the most part) very simplistic, 3 chord music which is nothing like the lush, orchestral stuff of the original scene.
As a result, I like very little of it.
I feel the same thing has happened with Funk, and even with another genre I have fondness for, Prog rock.
Having said that, I do like a lot of "neo soul", because I think that is one genre that actually got it right.
And PS, I am no longer in "the Hula Girls" band, which though is a great band, also had little to do with the original "exotica" style.
Even up into the early 90's folks were challenging that Hair was double-tracked and Larry played it live on the radio! While a lot of the stuff he played with Sly was groundbreaking, he was being subdued musically. Beyond the issues with Sly, Larry had to go out and do his own thing! And I'm damn glad he did!
