Music

This was on Digg, so some of you may have seen it, but I think it’s worth repeating here. They took the strict ingredients for pop music to recreate its end result:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irk3_p15RJY&w=425&h=344]
(link for facebookers)

This happens for all styles of music, including classical. Except for the most trained ears (not mine) it is impossible to tell whether or not recorded music reflects upon the actual skill of the musician. Right now it’s most true with vocalists, but the tools are evolving to let even the most complicated of instrumentals be edited and tweaked to the point of false perfection.

For many, this doesn’t make music any less enjoyable. After all, who cares how it was made if it sounds good? As a music listener, I don’t have huge problems with it, as I’m sure that a lot of my studio albums (if not all of them) have received such treatment. But as a musician, it feels like a disappointment. I like to appreciate artists with remarkable skills, and talented musicians are the ones who really lose out most on this “musical photoshopping”. Sure, when I record drums, I want them to sound perfect, so I don’t object to fudging a few things so that listeners don’t notice my mistakes, but that can’t be done with live music. Hearing something difficult to play on a recording is one thing, but seeing them pull it off with such precision live is another one entirely.

Here’s another point in case, just to beat a dead horse: Saosin’s “Voices” has been nagging at me for about 2 weeks now. Watch the first verse twice: first pay attention to the singer, and then the drummer.

Studio

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avu9oeqeD2k&w=425&h=344]

Live

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYqJyrv_LYo&w=425&h=344]

The vocalist is considerably more annoying live- whiny and shaky on pitch. But the drummer’s beat during the verse is incredibly solid – both in recording and in live performance. That’s something that only comes with a lot of work, unlike studio tweaks.

I’m shutting up now, I’m longwinded even when I blog.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXRLEyIoJZA&w=425&h=355]

Motorcycle Driveby on YouTube

Summer time and the wind is blowing outside
in lower Chelsea
And I don’t know what I’m doing in this city
The sun is always in my eyes
It crashes through the windows
And I’m sleeping on the couch
When I came to visit you
That’s when I knew
That I could never have you
I knew that before you did
Still I’m the one who’s stupid
And there’s this burning
Like there’s always been
I’ve never been so alone
And I’ve
Never been so alive
Visions of you on a motorcycle drive by
The cigarette ash flies in your eyes and you don’t mind
you smile
And say the world it doesn’t fit with you
I don’t believe you
You’re so serene
Careening through the universe
Your axis on a tilt
You’re guiltless and free
I hope you take a piece of me with you

And there’s things I’d like to do
That you don’t believe in
I would like to build something
But you’ll never see it happen
And there’s this burning
Like there’s always been
I’ve never been so alone
And I’ve
I’ve never been so alive

And there’s this burning
There is this burnin

Where’s the soul I want to know
New York City is evil
The surface is everything
But I could never do that
Someone would see through that
And this is the last time
We’ll be friends again
And I’ll get over you
And you’ll wonder who I am
And there’s this burning,
Just like there’s always been
I’ve never been so alone, alone
And I’ve, and I’ve
I’ve never been so alive

So alive

I go home to the coast it starts to rain I paddle out on the water
Alone
Taste the salt and taste the pain
I’m not thinking of you again
Summer dies and swells rise
The sun goes down in my eyes
See this rolling wave
Darkly coming
To take me
Home

And I never been so alone
And I’ve never been so alive