Faux musicianship

[GoddessOfGuinness]

A friend of mine recently got a gig working on a PBS show tribute to George Jones, which will be airing on Thanksgiving. This friend is a huge fan of Martina McBride; and was totally shocked by the woman's poor pitch in the recording studio.

When she mentioned it to one of the other people there, they replied, "Yeah, I know...Faith Hill's even worse."

Apparently, the technicians just make the necessary adjustments with their fancy pitch-bending equipment, and voila...nobody is wise to the diva's lack of talent. The equipment is so sophisticated now that they can even fix pitch problems in a live performance. Occasionally in the recording studio, when a singer just can't get the rhythm, they'll bring in a real musician to overdub, and alter their voice electronically so that it is almost a double of the "star".

I've known for a long time that as far as women singers were concerned, looks were more important to marketing reps than talent; but I'm sure there are women out there who are musically gifted as well as physically attractive. It's mind-boggling to think that they're overlooked in favor of talentless bimbos.

On this same gig, my friend said that she was floored by Harry Connick Jr., but in a positive way. She said this man has a gift that nobody's ever heard on the pop charts the industry's been pushing all these years. What a pity...

[rwenos]

1. Harry Connick Can RIP

Have you ever heard his CD "Twenty" (recorded when he was 20), fresh out of the bars of the French Quarter? Swing, stride, boogie-woogie, blues, jazz standards. Smokin' hot.

Greatest jazz keyboardist of his era, but unfortunately he's gone pop to make the jack.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. He studied with Wynton Marsalis' father.

I've not heard any of his recordings. All I've heard him do is the vanilla fare that he does in guest stints on TV shows. I've always thought he had a good voice; but I'm not a fan of that sort of material.

I'm definitely going to check him out now, though.

[rwenos]

13. Harry Connick

Two best CD's I can refer you to are (1) Twenty, the one I spoke of before -- solo New Orleans piano; and (2) the soundtrack to "When Harry Met Sally," which includes lots of Harry playing solo and in front of his Big Band, whom he used to tour with back in the late 1980s.

Check out some sound bites on Amazon.com. You'll need Windows Media Player or Real Audio installed. Kewl way to check out his discography.

[miss_kitty]

2. wow. and Milli Vannilli took all that heat for being fake

[tuvor]

15. Funny thing about Milli Vanilli

They couldn't have happened, and rose, and fell, without video having blazed trails as a new medium.

[Spiffarino]

3. I have to admit

I'm in a singing group and we've been given a little electronic pitch boost in studio. It's a great help when you have allergies or your just not having a good voice day.

However, if we're so far off that we have to rely solely on electronics, we lay down instrument tracks and leave it for another day. The voices just don't sound right when they're all digitized.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. In cases like that, it's understandable...

Also in cases where the singer can't hear through their monitor properly, and I'm sure that happens fairly frequently in live concerts.

[Spiffarino]

17. It's funny but

...since I've used electronic autotuning, it seems like it's easier to pick out now. There's a kind of "vibration" to it that doesn't sound natural. Listen to Britney Spears (if your ears can take it) and I think you'll see what I mean. There's something incredibly fake about it that's beyond my ability to describe.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

26. Most of the stuff that gets played these days sounds

so plastic that I can't stand to listen to it long enough to discern the finer elements.

When you say vibration, do you mean it's like an electronic vibrato?

[tigereye]

31. I hate the sound of pitch changers

[jpgray]

4. Doesn't surprise me a bit

You listen to the Beatles' ancient recordings from '64 or so--just doubletracked vocals on a four track--and they sound great because the boys could sing. It's amazing what talent can do for you.

[wtmusic]

7. The pitch isn't 'perfect', nor is the 'time'

but it doesn't matter in the least.

[jpgray]

10. Well, in my view that's not what singing's about anyway

Celine Dion can hit notes, after all, but even with exceptional material I wouldn't be interested in hearing her sing.

[Spiffarino]

12. An engineer told me the Beatles in '62 and '63

...recorded on three-track tape. Instrumental on one track, then two for vocal layering. Rough by our standards, but they probably thought it was pretty amazing at the time.

I was too young to go, but my sister and brother saw the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl in '64. They even sang well in spite of the thousands of crazed, screaming tweens.

[wtmusic]

16. Many people are unaware how good the Beatles were live

The Shea Stadium footage is unbelievable. They are rocking their asses off.

[Spiffarino]

21. Oh yeah!

Damn that Brian Epstein. He took a badass working class rock band and turned them into friggin' teen idols. It took them years to shed the cutesy image he dreamed up for them and which they despised.

The Shea concert showed a side of the Beatles rarely seen at the time. In their early days, they were consummate rockers.

[wtmusic]

5. Autotune...everyone uses it

everyone. You don't have to sing in pitch, period.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

8. I've adored Harry Connick , Jr since I was like 12 .

Oh man ... I don't normally go goo goo ga ga over entertainers but whenever I see him perform on tv , I just stop , drop and watch .

[tuvor]

9. It's been rumoured that Paula Abdul

benefitted from this technology.

As for Harry, I saw him in concert about 10 years ago. (Had to postpone Edmonton because he broke his leg in Vancouver, or something like that.) I love all genres of music and I like to think I know my stuff, so believe me when I say it was one of the most entertaining shows I've ever seen.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

19. That really would amaze me...

None of the songs Abdul sang had a range of more than an octave.
I always figured she was more of a dancer than a singer anyway.

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. Harry's got a nice career going

He does a lot of work for movies, and he's able to live a normal life in New Orleans.

As for Martina McBride and Faith Hill, they may be able to fix things with Pro Tools in the studio, but what about when they're on the road. That's how most artists make their real money since no one is buying CD's anymore (hardly). I'm not a country fan, but I thought Faith Hill sounded beautiful when she was on that Tribute to Heroes program after 9/11.

[politicat]

22. You can mix on the fly. Which means live shows can be covered....

In college I worked at America West Arena (Phoenix) occasionally because I had my AFTRA card and some gigs were union. Even in the early 90s there were a lot of people that you wondered how many casting call couches they'd seen to get the gigs they'd gotten.

The $15 an hour to play wing speaker balancer for a certain set of heavy metal bands was not worth it.... and don't get me started on the country artists.

Pcat

[tuvor]

18. k.d. lang

could kick all of their asses.

If I were a lesbian...

;)

[Spiffarino]

23. No, if she would just say "OK"

;)

She may not be beautiful in the classic sense, but her voice thrills me.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. K.D. plays with quite a variety of styles

I like what I've heard. Especially her album with Tony Bennet.

[Ruffhowse]

20. Brittany Spears and Christina Aguillera are prime users of this technology

This is one reason I think I appreciate oldies so much, you HAD to have talent back then or it would show up in the recording studio. Nowdays, pop music is all about fashion, a certain look, an attitude. The music industry just pushes no talents out there now, and pretties em up with overproduced assembly line music. I haven't bought a current music CD in years. (although I may buy the new Green Day cd, love the single "American Idiot")

[TexasBushwhacker]

25. Brittney more so than Christina

I know Christina works the image thing, but she's still got some pipes. Jessica Simpson can sing too, but bless her heart, Ashlee just can't, sorry. I don't blame her though. They're both being pimped by their ex-preacher dad.

[Bake]

27. Faith Hill, FEH! Give me Patsy Cline any day!

Now THERE was a real singer!!

I don't care for Christina Aguilera's music, but I gotta give it up for the pipes. She CAN sing. I think. Maybe it's all studio-gimmick-enhanced.

Patsy Cline, on the other hand, was the REAL THING.

Bake

[GoddessOfGuinness]

28. She had an amazing voice....

They hold competitions in Winchester for Patsy Cline sing-alikes.

One of these days I'm going to enter...

[Squeech]

29. The good old days weren't always so good

There were manufactured popstars in the old days too.

Keskey Gore, who had a big hit called "It's My Party" back before the Beatles, couldn't sing either. The story is that they made her sing the song a zillion times, and pieced together the final vocal track by splicing together the bits of tape where she was actually on pitch.

I'll grumble about how much better it was once upon a time just like the rest of us, but the truth is, there were always musical charlatans looking to game the system and beguile the hapless audience.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

30. That's true...

There've always been and always will be amazingly talented musicians who are basically unnoticed by the masses. Of course, most of those people aspire to be musicians rather than celebrities.