# Artists who have excellent technique but lack "artistry" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718 "2025-10-06T15:56:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/81 "2025-10-08T12:54:54Z")
What about authors? Say, Lillian Jackson Braun or someone else who specializes in, say, cozy mysteries or any other well-established genre for that matter? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/82 "2025-10-08T12:59:26Z")
James Patterson? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/83 "2025-10-08T13:19:23Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > What about authors? L. Ron Hubbard. He was like a human recipe book when it came to writing genre fiction. Give him a one sentence prompt limited to genre, setting, and predicament and he could knock out a 10,000 word story in a couple days. But all he was doing was reassembling ingredients borrowed from other writers; contributing nothing original. Worse than that, it’s clear from just reading his stories that he actually really hated the genres he was writing for. ---
**Author:** ![icon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@icon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icon)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/84 "2025-10-08T14:02:17Z")
For me where this is most visible is Figure Skating. There are some performances where you are truly amazed at the technical skill in which they perform particular jump or pirouette, but otherwise seem to have no artistry. I know judging for Figure Skating is highly subjective (not to mention controversial) but I remember watching an Olympics where some were complaining that the Silver Medal winner should have won the Gold because her technique was so excellent. For me it was clear that Gold Medal recipient received it because not only did she perform all the required techniques well (no falls or anything of the sort) but the feeling she put into the performance elevated her above the merely excellent technical performer. `//i\\` ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/85 "2025-10-08T14:40:29Z")
M Night Shyamalan’s movies. They are all meticulously edited, framed, and staged to a degree that seems to remove any emotion or lifelike spontaneity. They feel more like an academic flowchart of film techniques rather than an artistic flow from one shot to the next. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/86 "2025-10-08T14:54:59Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Art, like beauty in general, is in the eyes or ears of the beholders. Yep. When someone describes art as “soulless” or whatever, what I hear is “I can’t connect with this art”. Art is a medium of communication from the artist to the observer. Whether a connection is formed depends on both the artist and the observer; it’s unfair to blame solely one or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/87 "2025-10-08T14:58:50Z")
Joe Satriani was the first name I thought of in connection with the OP (though his albums are listenable). Technically amazing, not very memorable. I don’t feel that way about Jeff Beck. https://www.youtube.com/embed/F6dsffOrOoI?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&list=RDF6dsffOrOoI ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/88 "2025-10-08T15:54:54Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > L. Ron Hubbard. He was like a human recipe book when it came to writing genre fiction. > … > But all he was doing was reassembling ingredients borrowed from other writers; contributing nothing original. So L. Ron Hubbard was the original LLM? 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/89 "2025-10-08T16:17:48Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Any number of candidates can be found from the Hudson River School. Albert Bierstadt was probably the most prominent. I have a framed museum copy of [this Bierstadt of the distant Farallon islands from a beach](https://vitruvius.museumseven.com/render/450-525@2/dp-449976-22.jpg) hanging in my study 😉. It’s very evocative for me personally, because I used to live a few blocks from Ocean Beach in San Francisco and on a very few veryyyyy clear days you would get those same tell-tale outlines in the distance. However yeah, by contrast [this one of Mt. Whitney](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/S5AAAOSwrV1j9TN2/s-l1200.jpg) comes off as too idealistically Olympian for my taste. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/90 "2025-10-08T16:32:33Z")
I don’t recognize Bierstadt’s Mt. Whitney specifically, but that’s sure the style I was referring to. Olympian indeed. ---
**Author:** ![knavette57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knavette57/32/3871_2.png) [@knavette57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knavette57)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/91 "2025-10-08T16:55:52Z")
I never got her, and she was quite popular when I was in my teens, early adult. Then again, teens were not really her target audience, perhaps. Olivia Newton John is just such another, though she improved doing “Grease”. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/92 "2025-10-08T17:20:31Z")
In defense of Chick Corea (I even contrasted him versus his soulless bandmate Al DiMeola on this point), Corea isn’t technically flashy and he has a good ear for a lyrical melody; he belongs with the Romantics like Chopin and he plays with a lot of heart. I saw him in concert with Herbie Hancock—just the two of them and two grand pianos—and did they ever go to town. They had excellent rapport and we all had loads of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/93 "2025-10-08T19:27:18Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Take Frank Zappa, for example. The vast majority of his songs have no feeling or “soul,” but offer something else that’s appealing to his fans: witty & clever parody and humor. Are you familiar with “Watermelon in Easter Hay”? Zappa could play with feeling when he wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/94 "2025-10-08T20:17:12Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > How do we feel about Steve Vai? I think he wrote most of the music for Eat’m and Smile. That wasn’t too bad. > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > This is how I tend to think of Lawrence Welk, Liberace, and a few others Liberace would have made an excellent typist. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/95 "2025-10-08T20:43:49Z")
My opinion on Vai: he’s only listenable when someone else writes the music. He was fantastic, IMO, when he played for Zappa. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/96 "2025-10-08T21:49:40Z")
That piece is what kept me from bringing up Zappa. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/97 "2025-10-08T23:03:30Z")
Back in the day, school figures counted as much as the free-skating program, and there was one memorable Olympics, IIRC 1972, where the gold medalist was top-notch in school figures, which weren’t televised because they aren’t very interesting to watch, but not quite the artist in the free skate as Janet Lynn was. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/98 "2025-10-08T23:16:36Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > Karen Carpenter. She’s got a strong voice, but she completely lacks soul. Never more evident than on Superstar. I’ve never heard “ baby” sung in a less passionate way in my life. I think the lack of soul was more due to the record’s production, especially her brother Richard’s arrangements, which were too slick and glossy. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/99 "2025-10-09T01:50:21Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I think the lack of soul was more due to the record’s production, especially her brother Richard’s arrangements, which were too slick and glossy. I’m actually referring to her singing style. I’m not knowledgeable enough about arrangements to really comment, but I don’t think I ever noticed. For me, it’s her over enunciating and generally sounding uptight and uncool. ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718/100 "2025-10-09T02:30:08Z")
The first name that comes to mind for me is Neal Peart, the drummer for Rush. Played every song almost exactly like it is on the album. Technically, he’s fantastic. But he bores me to tears with his lack of improvisation and feel. He’s more of a craftsman than an artist, IMO. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-have-excellent-technique-but-lack-artistry/1023718.md?page=6)