Soul I think is in the imperfections. Part of what people are feeling I think is the incredible production we see in music today. Everybody in isolation booths playing to a click track, perfect compression, and all the other essentials of modern production. 30 Years ago guys still played the music live with dividers to keep the mics isolated.

If you think their's no soul to modern music, then go see some live shows. I reccomend Jim's Big Ego www.bigego.com, Incubus, Milligram, The Urge www.urge.net, and a slew of bands that nobody out of their home towns have heard mentioned. If you can't find soul in music today it's from a lack of searching, not a lack of soul or creativity. Rest assured, awesome music is out there.