Caught in a Bad Romance

OK, so I've gotten on Julia Nunes' case for being awful, so for the case of being fair to all YouTube stars, this is AMAZING.

It's Lucas Silveira of the Cliks' version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," and wow. This is what I'm talking about!!!

I wish I had this when I was in 3rd grade...

This is really cool. It's a PDF/PowerPoint presentation on this inner-city school in New York City, around Central Park, that has been using state-of-the-art music technology in their classes, with help from a pretty darn passionate teacher, Ms. Karen Garrett.

The basic premise, at least at this school, is that a select number of third-graders (around 50-100 each year) get to go into the lab for an hour a week, and just use the whole array of keyboards, computers, and internet services at their own speeds. They learn how to use the keyboard and read, write, compose, print, and publish music using a computer...something that is simply amazing, something that I thought only well-to-do schools like mine would be able to afford and provide for.

Supplementary to that, Garrett has created an online website at Music Technology where she and her associates put up links to help other music/tech teachers with their classes. There are a whole array of music lessons, quizzes, and how-tos, and for her hard work she was voted TI:ME teacher of the year.

This is amazing. I love music, and I really do think there is a strong, positive correlation between music use by kids and their quality of life. Music makes me happy - there is scientific proof that there is a connection between our emotions and the music we're listening to...just read this. By bringing music into the classroom, you're really bringing happiness to the kids, and that's something really wonderful. The fact that they're using technology to push it to that next level is even better.

There's a place for us....

I know, I know, tech blog and all that, but I'm on such an X-Factor kick right now! I sang this song for the musical two years ago, so I know how much determination and vocal stamina it takes to sing this, and Stacey just blows it out of the water. Wowza. Wait until the end, it's perfection.

To Find A Star

I've talked a lot about how technology can benefit the listener on this blog, but one of the ways technology really helps in the business is for the actual musician. Before the rise of the internet, getting publicity for a new singer or band to get an album put out was hard work, and it took a lot of time and money. You needed to get into the recording studio, pop out a solid single or EP, get yourself on the Ed Sullivan Show or an equivalent and hope to high heaven that the public liked what they heard. Or, you would slip some radio DJ a couple hundred bucks to play your song a couple of times, enough so that the people listening would start to go, "Hmm, what's that?" and go out and buy the song. It was a tricky business, publicity.

Now, not that payola isn't still an issue (an a big one, to all sorts of smaller labels that can't afford to be paying Z100 to play their artists' song ten times a day), but the internet makes it 100x easier for smaller bands and artists to make their way.

Just look at MySpace. Their music site has given so many musicians - and a couple of very, very famous ones - the chance to get their music out there to be listened to. For example, Lily Allen started on MySpace, posting a couple of songs, including her big hits Smile and LDN. She made so many "friends," got so much online hype that she garnered up huge publicity and huge demand for her debut album. Gnarls Barkley's massive hit "Crazy" also came into the limelight on MySpace - people were listening online, and suddenly so was everyone on the radio.

YouTube has also helped many people find their 15 minutes of fame - and for some, that 15 minutes has blown into actual celebrity. Esmée Denters, who posted a number of videos on her account of her singing popular songs, like JT's "What Comes Around," got massive numbers of views, and eventually grabbed the attention of Justin Timberlake himself, who asked her to open for his worldwide tour, and signed her to his record label.

The danger of this, of course, is the number of two-bit "music stars" coming out of this. One immediately springs to mind (and she has a pretty large cult following, so I might get in trouble for this), and that's Julia Nunes. Oh God.

By now, you guys all know how I feel about the Beatles. So that this has gotten such praise? It's embarrassing. Even a bit offensive. Every time I hear this, with its annoying ukulele and nasaly singing, I get a little bit angry. Because she's getting a record contract, and other more talented people are not, and it's just because there are thousands of fans out there that just eat this right up. Come on, people! I know, I know, to each their own, and "Everyone should have a chance to express themselves" and "Let the girl sing if she wants to" and "I like it so shut up who cares what you think" and "Oh yeah and you could do better?" and "It makes me happy so why are you being mean???" but this is just really bad.

And that's the downside of the whole internet fame. This Nunes girl will get her 15 minutes, and if she's lucky, a top 100 hit or two, but then she'll fade into obscurity, playing little gigs in small town bars until she retires and gets a desk job somewhere, or maybe a place on a reality TV show. Maybe that's harsh. But isn't that the truth? With so many "celebrities" popping up every other day, the actual meaning of "celebrity" has shrunk. Anyone can have those 15 minutes - everyone can have some sort of celebrity. Fame is no longer some special thing, it's actually pretty readily accessible if you have a computer with a microphone or even just a video phone.

Finding that "true star" is so much more difficult now...sure, anyone can have a top 10 hit nowadays if you have a six-pack and a smart record producer, but so few people have that infamy, that long-lasting quality that people will remember in 50 years. I have to wonder who the definitive celebrity is in this era. The 50s had Marilyn and Audrey, the 80s had MJ and Madonna, and the 00s have...Beyoncé? Britney? Every Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe can be a star, so the "wealth of celebrity," so to speak, is thinning. What's being famous when everyone is?

Our real lives, our real personalities are being hidden behind both a cyber wall and the wall of the protective public. Maybe Perez Hilton knows every detail about Britney Spears' life, but she's retreated emotionally so far away from the outside world that we don't know who the real person is anymore. So I'm going to throw it out there and say that in this time of growing exposure, with the paparazzi at every pseudo-celebrity's door and TMZ finding out gossip the second it happens, we are actually growing more and more insular and anonymous as a society.

Just something to think about on your Sunday afternoon.

And on a similar note...

And I'll get off my pedestal now, but this version of Franz Schubert's classic "Ave Maria" by Barbara Bonney is stunning. It's recorded, but no amount of studio magic can make this:

What Technology Cannot Do

You know, for everything I say about how technology is improving our auditory enjoyment of music; how it's advancing music production quality, giving us more and more excellent songs, I have to take a step back and say there are some things technology cannot do to music.

Technology cannot create that feeling that you get when you listen to something truly beautiful. Maybe this is a matter of taste, but I truly believe that sound bites and computer chips, no matter how pitch-perfect and flawless, can't give you goosebumps. They can't make you cry. They can make you want to listen again and again, but in the end, imperfections are what make a song perfect. Does that make sense? When I want to listen to a fun dance tune, that's one thing - bring out the AutoTune, I'm all ears. But when I'm in the mood to hear true art, true beauty, I look for one thing - the skill that it takes to make it.

Maybe it's because I'm in a choir who does operatic, choral music, but to me, nothing and no one demonstrates the true futility of technology than Pavarotti singing Nussun Dorma. This is classical music, but dear God it's absolutely gorgeous. There's no editing in this; actually, the backing choir could probably have been amped a little more and there's some annoying distortion, but you HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS. The imperfections are what make it so legendary - that he can pull notes like this so deep from within his body and make it look like there's so little effort involved. This is LIVE. This is not in a studio. This is Pavarotti and his voice, with a full orchestra behind him.

And so I sound like my grandpa, but where can true artisanship, true beauty, and true emotion be expressed in electronica or techno? How can Lady Gaga (no matter how much I love her) call herself an artist? THIS is art. THIS is true music. And it just goes to show that real talent, real musical might, transcends all technology.

4-Chord Song

This is an amazing video! It's a mash-up of a bunch of the songs that have been popular in the past couple decades - all of which use the same four chords. How much fun is this? Obviously these are just really catchy chords, as so many catchy songs have been made with the four-part combination. And it brings up the question (and this might be a bit out there, but oh well)...are we just hearing the same song over and over again? There's only so much one can do with four chords - is our understanding of music based simply in the auditory pleasure in hearing those same chords? Hmm...