"I get no kick from champagne..."
Posted on 12/17/2008 10:32:48 AM PST by weegee
After Kanye West's performance on "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend, the chattering classes are wringing their hands today over the gee-whiz revelation that, maybe underneath all that gratuitous Auto-Tune, West's voice might be a bit, as they say, "pitchy." We can go back and forth about the relative disaster-or-not qualities of his two-song set, but the hullabaloo over it begs for a few responses. First: hey, indie rockers, if you don't think that half your favorite beardo bands use things like Melodyne... But the second, and more crucial one, is this: What makes a "good" singer anyhow, and what does that changing value system say about the culture making it?...
...There's also something racially pernicious about the complaints that Kanye can't sing; it feels fraught with the racist meme that all African-Americans are supposed to be able to sing well. When someone lobs that same complaint at Britney Spears, it rings more as a general indictment of the pop star-making system. Whereas in Kanye's case that criticism seems to imply that he's not living up to the established traditions of black vocals in R&B and hip-hop, that the lack of expert rapping or singing somehow makes the record not "real" (read: "black") enough.
...By sounding bad in even the wrong ways on SNL, Kanye's arrived at something wholly new in the spectrum of vocal values: sheer charisma in place of both skill and authenticity. I certainly don't want most musicians to try this style, but in Kanye's hands it's a new and arresting sound for pop and rock alike, a willingness to put even the unglamorous mistakes (both on stage and off) high in the mix. In other words, he's the perfect frontman for a time in music where there is only an ever-changing front.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
“Kanye West hates the ears of white people”!
Art is subjective.
As proof I give you Bob Dylan.
“... and the lyrics themselves were sophomoric, when intelligible.”
I’ve been warned about being critical of the hit songs of today unless I write something better. Never mind that this list shows just how closed the market is to diversity of contract agency, label, or genre.
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Singles&f=The+Billboard+Hot+100
The top 10 songs today are:
1 T.I. Featuring Rihanna - Live Your Life
2 Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
3 Britney Spears - Circus
4 Lady GaGa Featuring Colby O’Donis - Just Dance
5 T.I. - Whatever You Like
6 Beyonce - If I Were A Boy
7 Katy Perry - Hot N Cold
8 Kanye West - Love Lockdown
9 Ne-Yo - Miss Independent
10 Britney Spears - Womanizer
Um, no, not all black people are supposed to be able to sing. Just the ones who, you know, go into the singing business.
“When you guys were slaves, you sang like birds.”
The Grammy Awards were shown to be a fraud too.
Then again the “best spoken word” album awards to Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Franken, et al reveal this too.
I know a bit about singing live years ago in front of people. Adding a little bit of digital delay to the voice and having monitors at your feet plus a decent PA can make even an avg voice sound very good. The monitors allow you to hear your voice. This was 20 years ago before the current modern technology.
If Kanye West cannot sing with all the modern gizmos then he must really must suck. It is hilarious that they have to inject racism into the article.
That was close! We almost lost a four hundred dollar hand cart.
"I get no kick from champagne..."
<< cough cough >> Horse poop << cough cough >>
When Brittany is bad no one makes racial excuses for her.
When Spock put out an album no one made it an 'intergalactic humanoid' thing. He was just bad.
Everybody is so concerned about being called out for lip-synching a la Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears, they aren’t even using accompanying vocal tracks when they peform live like that.
I actually caught Kanye’s performance. Despite the fact that I can’t stand him as a person I find some of his music catchy. I commented to my husband during the first song that I bet Kanye wishes he used backup tracks during his performance. It was painful.
At the end of the day I don’t care if they get a little enhancement while on stage. They may have had 10 guitars on a studio track but certainly aren’t going to put 10 guitars on stage with them. Just have a recording to play a long.
There is a grain of truth to that, not just as slaves but as criminals on a chain gang doing labor.
There were work songs to set the pace of the job.
None of it was inherited, it was a rough life but through repetition, singers were made.
Leadbelly was on death row twice.
And chain gangs employed men of all colors. There are probably examples in the country music field too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_songs
A work song is typically a rhythmic a cappella song sung by people working on a physical and often repetitive task. The work song is probably intended to reduce feelings of boredom. Rhythms of work songs also serve to synchronize physical movement in a gang. Frequently, the usage of verses in work songs are often improvised and sung differently each time. The improvisation provided the singers with a sometimes subversive form of expression: improvised verses sung by slaves had verses about escaping, improvised verses sung by sailors had verses complaining about the captain and the work conditions. Work songs also help to create a feeling of familiarity and connection between the workers.
...
Work songs sung by sailors during the 20th, 19th, and to a lesser extent 18th centuries are known as sea shanties. These songs were typically performed while adjusting the rigging, raising anchor, and other tasks where men would need to pull in rhythm. These songs usually have a very punctuated rhythm precisely for this reason, along with a call-and-answer format.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_gang
I can guess the function of “Auto-Tune” but can someone explain what this is more fully?
And why is it that every song in the top ten has to “feature” somebody?
150 songs is grueling. I recall playing in clubs and doing a set with maybe 20 songs or maybe two sets in total of 30 and it was a lot. This might be a Sat night once a month.
The best was when Jessica Simpson’s sister got busted lip syncing on SNL when the backing track screwed up. She started hopping around - it was priceless. It must be on YouTube.
In a club live if you cannot add a little digital delay and sound good - find another job.
I am amazed that Sinatra still sounded good into his 70s and even 80s (?). He was from my parents era but his 1940s and 1950s singing was incredible. The phrasing etc. Dean Martin may have had a better voice but he did not have Frankie’s material.
Elvis also had a tremendous voice. My tastes are much later circa 1960s to 1980s but these famous old timers could sing.
It's certainly a far cry from the time Elvis Costello stopped in the middle of a song and started playing "Radio, Radio."
I was singing six nights a week. By about Thursday I was already losing my voice. Arrrgghh.
Sinatra had (IMO) just about THE most amazing voice I’ve ever heard. Someone once told me that he could even sing a tone as he was INhaling. Bizarre. What a treasure he was.
If you get a chance, go see Robert Plant with Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett on their tour together. Plant is pushing 60 now, and no, he can’t hit those soaring screams like he did on “Black Dog” and “Stairway to Heaven” anymore. But if you watch and listen to him in concert, he’s better than ever. He knows what he can and can’t do at this stage of his career, and he works within those limits beautifully. The man may look like King Theoden waking up after a bender, but he prowls a stage like a panther and COMMANDS it. My wife and I paid a pretty penny for tickets to see him several months ago and came away thinking they were worth every cent. He’s amazing.
}:-)4
Emmylou Harris' voice in her heyday... nothing else compares.
1. Love Hurts -- with Gram Parsons 2. Boulder to Birmingham 3. Making Believe 4. Pancho & Lefty 5. One of These Days 6. (Lost His Love) On Our Last Date (Live) 7. Born to Run 8. Beneath Still Waters 9. If I Could Only Win Your Love 10. Together Again 11. That Lovin' You Feelin' Again -- with Roy Orbison 12. To Know Him Is To Love Him -- with Dolly Parton & Linda Ronstadt 13. Two More Bottles of Wine 14. Wayfaring Stranger 15. Calling My Children Home 16. Green Pastures 17. Orphan Girl 18. Michaelangelo 19. Here I Am 20. The Connection
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