Amy Winehouse 1983 - 2011

 Though she could hardly be considered a performer of rock music, London R&B singer Amy Winehouse, who was found dead in her North London home yesterday, due to unknown causes, was one of those female pop singers who constantly had singles in the charts, who I genuinely respected as an artist. Her music brought a sense of class and style to the singles charts with a traditional style of blues and jazz mixed together to create a soulful and passionate sound and suited the lyrics of tragedy in tracks such as "Back to Black" and "You Know I'm No Good" which were also made more real by her contralto vocals. Naturally, I preferred this kind of thing to other female pop artists in the charts, whose whiny vocals are put to nasty talentless synthesizers. Needless to say, there are still many artists who are topping the charts without the use of whiny vocals and synthesizers, Adele being a good example, but these artists don't share the same soulfulness and raw talent that Winehouse had. Her death will leave a huge hole in the world of pop music that many horrible talentless artists will recklessly attempt to fill.
The reaction to Winehouse's death has been surprisingly respectful which is a good and unexpected thing considering that she spent most of her career in the tabloids for her constant drug and alcohol abuse which caused many to lose respect for her. And many are still cracking jokes since it is suspected she had an accidental overdose. This isn't something I'd laugh about were that the case. I've seen it happen before with The Rev and Paul Gray and this is no different from those cases, even if Winehouse became a household name for her controversial drug usage, whilst Gray and The Rev were known for their musical skills and never really became household names.
Overall, whilst she was not a rock performer, Amy Winehouse certainly lived fast and died young, a true rock n' roll ideal. And so I hope she may rest in peace as she joins Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix in the 27 club. For now, it's back to hating pop music. It's not going to get as good as Amy Winehouse was any time soon.