Sharon Jones Quotes

A lot of music that's my favorite doesn't sound like the music I write.

In the early '70s, I started to feel like Philadelphia soul was the black-sheep brother of rock and roll. I decided to try to get away from it.

I was a pop freak. I love music. Of course, I knew soul because I grew up in it. Writing it and everything. I love soul. But I love a tune that has some meat in it. Something I could hang my hat on. Because music is universal. Therefore, I felt no boundaries.

We are just fans of music, we are not fans of a specific kind of music. We just happen to be a rock band. Until we explain ourselves, sometimes people don't understand why we limit ourselves to just being a rock band. It's because that is what we like doing.

When all my friends were into punk, I'd be singing versions of soul ballads. I thought, 'Oh my God, I don't want them to know I'm doing this.' But I really enjoyed singing those songs.

Funk could very easily be called jazz, but you call it funk. Does that really matter? People dig that they associate themselves with certain genres, but the genres to me are made up things, like an imaginary world.

It didn't even occur to me that I'm the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

You know, somebody mentioned that I was sort of a jazz-pop singer. And I'm thrilled that somebody would find that, at last, in my presentation, because it's such a part of where I live.

I don't like rock. Honestly, I like to listen to it, but it's not for me. There's a lot of musical genres that I find interesting, but they don't suit me. It's one thing to listen to different genres, but to perform a genre that isn't yours is counterproductive.

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.

We're a gumbo of American music, and aren't ashamed to play pop or soul or rock because we all grew up on radio.

The thing is, acoustic could be like a four-letter word to a lot of kids.

From the beginning, I've always had a knack for catchy melodies. But I went through a period when I was trying to be rock n' roll and have a rock n' roll attitude. I was fighting my nature by trying to play really hard and sing really hard. But at a certain point, I realized that I loved syrupy pop music with tons of harmony.

Music is entirely subjective. I was thinking that for myself, for songwriting and what I like to listen to, to help motivate me as a songwriter, as a musician, there are certain things I lean towards and certain things I don't.

I started playing in my first band when I was 12. I like to date myself by saying I was in a New Age band when it wasn't ironic; it was actually called new wave because it was new.

Then I met people at school who were into Erykah Badu and Snoop Dogg. I like heaps of different music, but that was a real pivotal time in terms of finding my way.

I don't just sing R&B: I'm able to sing pop and play with other sounds, but it's all real soulful.

I am friends with the most amazing musicians that can do pop, rap, punk and jazz.

You don't really learn how to write songs; you learn to develop as a writer, and you get to meet lots of musicians and figure out what kind of sound you want. You have the time to just develop and try different styles, and that's what I did.

I never called myself a jazz singer. I just call myself a vocalist because I love to sing all kinds of things.

I have different sounds... I don't want to be just that girl that sings reggaeton or trap music.

I have nothing to say about the music of others because it's a matter of taste.

When you have legends who want to do music with you, and you befriend the Kendrick Lamars and the Chance the Rappers, that's due to you really being authentically hip-hop and not being contemporary Christian.

I'm a rock drummer. I couldn't sit down and pretend to be a jazz drummer.

Those that know me know that I'm not 100% in love with commercial pop music. It's not my preferred genre - I don't do squeaky clean pop.