Daryl Hall Disses Music Biz Execs, Critics, ‘Blue-Eyed Soul’

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Photo source: Daryl Hall Official Facebook Page

In a highly pointed interview with Salon on May 14, 2016, the taller half of Hall & Oates took aim at a number of targets and blasted away: the people who run record companies, critics that complain about “cultural appropriation,” and the term that has often been used to describe that music that he and John Oates create. The two – who are the second best-selling music duo of all time with some 40 million records sold – are currently on tour. And Hall says in the article that he’s working on a new record but fails to specify if it’s a solo album or Hall & Oates project.

Saying, “It is a great time for making music,” he nonetheless slams record company executives for being “stupid. They think anything new is the enemy…. They think streaming is the enemy.

“The real problem for young artists is that they don’t have any help or understanding from the record companies,” Hall complains. “Record company executives are the most backward bunch of idiots I’ve ever seen in my life. They are probably only surpassed by television executives. If I had a record company, I would know what to do, and how to promote new artists, and how to make money for myself, and for the artist. Now, all the artists are floundering, because all they can do is play live, and hope that they can gather a large enough tribe to support them. There is far too much ignorance right now and refusal to accept change.”

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Although Hall & Oates have been described as “blue-eyed soul” since they first emerged in 1972 – Hall was ranked at #5 on Best Classic Bands’ list of the finest blue-eyed soul singers – he rejects that term “for this very reason. There is no color to soul. Soul music comes from the heart. It was generated out of the church, and it became secular gospel.”

He also feels that anyone who criticizes white musical artists that utilize black music styles for engaging in “cultural appropriation” “should shut the fuck up. We live in America. That’s our entire culture. Our culture is a blend. It isn’t split up into groups. Anyone who says otherwise is a fool – worse than a fool – a dangerous fool.”

Hall does, however, have good words for the current state of the music he loves. “The original, organic, old soul is still very much alive and well. It might not be alive on the pop charts, but it is still alive and well.”

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