Cansei de Ser Sexy?
1. Some great Autotune discussion on the Brooke Hogan post. Eppy sez:
Having actually been present for an attempt at pitch-correcting my own voice recently, I now find the idea that vocals don't count because you can just make 'em do whatever you want particularly hilarious. You can now take samples of instruments and cut them up and sequence them and really rearrange them however you want, but the human voice doesn't take very well to that sort of manipulation. If it's the wrong note, it's the wrong note. AutoTune can nudge it up or down maybe a quarter-tone, but any more than that and the voice isn't going to sound human anymore to even the least discerning set of ears. You can have the vocalist do lots of takes and layer those takes on top of each other to get a fuller sound that smudges individual technical flubs, but the idea that you can do to a voice what you can do to drums or strings or whatever is just ludicrous.
And:
Also, as a producer, I've worked with a weak vocalist or two, and in terms of mixing and effects, there's suprisingly little you can to to mask a weak performance. But you can structure the songs in a way that either hides the voice's flaws or turns those flaws into weaknesses, and if you want to talk about songs with weak vocalists, I think it's far more interesting to talk about how the producer attempted to work with that in terms of the song structure and sonics of his instrumentation choices rather than just throw out another bullshit "it was pitch-corrected!" charge.
Good to hear someone relate firsthand experience. I do wonder what "Autotune" usually stands in for -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine's Paris rave included an aside claiming that her voice is "almost certainly auto-tuned and tweaked by a computer." He likes her voice, but my problem with the statement is that it assumes Autotune was used for reasons that aren't explained. He might mean that Autotune is a norm in pop production (so why not assume Britney's "awkward squawk" was Autotuned? Why the Britney ambivalence [this album is also "more fun" and "fresher" than all of her albums] when he's the one who reviewed every Britney album at AMG in the first place?). Or he might mean that Paris is not fully responsible for the pleasing aesthetic effect of her voice. I lean toward the second (it could be both), but I may be overreaching here. It just seems to me that the Autotune claim is standing in for something else, that in a way Paris hasn't earned her performance.
Gotta be careful in making that leap, though, because the language is so ambiguous. I wonder why Erlewine can't, for instance, just say that he finds Paris's voice appealing, and not qualify that it's a computer-tweaked voice. I might just be getting paranoid, too, and projecting the arguments I want to see onto writing that's merely the result of a few unfinished thoughts -- which doesn't mean that the "finished thoughts" would logically be what I suggest they are.
Arg, still need a rewrite on the Paris essay, isn't there yet. Drat.
2. Vanessa Hudgens' "Come Back to Me" is number one on RD, bodes well for Ashley Tisdale's first single but doesn't bode well for my listening to Radio Disney, haven't listened to it for more than about ten seconds in a few weeks. Apparently a Spanish version of one of the High School Musical songs was just "picked" in the weekly Mailbag, "Eres Tu" by Belanova. The English version ("What I've Been Looking For") is our official apartment HSM song because the harmonies are so fun/easy. We occasionally require the assistance of Autotune but try not to let the computers do it all for us.
3. Briequote:
it was also discussed last night if it was appealing to the male species to be a human starfish. I thought the idea of being able to cut your legs off and watch the grow back was somewhat sexy, but I guess its only the case when youre naked. good to know.
4. ITA update:
Confirmation on Go Betty Go's new record has been shaky (they sent me the one from 2005 but I thought there was a new one released this month). I believe Rose Falcon has been officially accepted as a candidate by the ITA organizers:
A couple of weeks ago, from her MySpace page:
"Ok I've just got to tell you about this girl you may already know. Her name is Lily Alan you have got to check out her music. I haven't heard anything I liked this much in a long time. I think I like her so much because it seems she doesnt take herself too seriously - she'f funny and sarcastic. (listen to smile and LDN) I've been going through some interesting times lately - not bad just different . I think I fell in love w/ music again today. No matter how many times it breaks my heart and disappoints me it never fails to find a way back into my heart. I'm having a good day ... i'm playing tonight in Franklin at a place I don't really wanna play- but hey I'll make the best of it. I have had a great weekend so far and I'm crossing my fingers that it stays that way. I hope everyone is doing well... Tara if your reading (I felt the urge to give u a shout out)this call me sometime !! Miss you."
Rose Lists her label as indie, so she must no longer be connected to Columbia.
Standing Waltz also merits consideration.
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