Musically ignorant singers

I found this quote from the article....

"It is rather scary," said Whitney Matheson, pop-culture columnist for USAToday.com. "Then again, Avril was born in 1984 and grew up on church music. You can't expect her to know 40 years of rock 'n' roll history by age 18."

...to be complete ********!!! Except for the "It is rather scary... " part. By the time I was 12 or 13 (I am now 42) I knew about all kinds of music from big band jazz to Ray Conniff to The Hi-Los to Tom Jones to Deep Purple and Elton John. If you are going to be in the "spotlight" then you should educate yourself so you don't look like a complete idiot! When I heard her say David Bowie's name incorrectly I just flipped. It's not like he is some obscure artist or anything. Even if you were born under a rock, you should have come in contact with someone who knows how to pronounce his name by the time you're 18.

 

Bob,

I'll have to give her that one because if she grew up on church music, she may have been isolated from much music most of her life. I have met many people like this who are well into their thirties! I have met thirtyish people who have no idea who the Beatles are. I know a few people who grew up with very strict religious doctrines and never heard much, if any music outside gospel music. There are people who don't own TV sets or radios. One guy I talked to said he threw out the TV in 1973. The last things he remembers is the Watergate hearings and M.A.S.H.. I talked to a baby boomer who said he hadn't watched a single TV program since the 50s!

I went off on a tangent. Getting back to music, there are people who just don't listen to whole genres of music. You could mention Barbara Striesand and they wouldn't know her from a name in the phone book.

 

I think the key here is probably the fact that most of these young stars have all the shots called for them, which is stated in the article. They just do what they're told. Problem is, with this kind of puppetry there's no discovery on the "artist's" part. Don't they even hear demos anymore...or get ideas from previously-released songs?
Consider somebody like Connie Francis. She often took old standards and successfully put a contemporary spin on them. She found these previously-released songs by listening to older music for ideas. This way, not only can you take note of how a song was previously performed, you actually learn WHO did the performing. Though this was once commonplace, it seems it's becoming rare among today's "faces" who happen to do a little singing. There's a lot to be learned from history that if properly utilized, can go a long way in furthering one's career. Oh well, who cares about artists and careers in pop music now, anyway. When they fizzle out, the machine'll just churn out some more puppets.

 

Well, I can excuse all of those people for their lack of musical knowledge because they are not recording a song they never heard before! I can excuse the mis-pronunciation of Bowie, but I cannot excuse never hearing Piece of My Heart after you've released a cover version of the song. I wonder if Frank Sinatra ever heard of the Beatles, or Van Halen ever heard of The Kinks (or David Lee ever heard of Louis Prima, for that matter). Did Elvis ever hear of Big Mama Thornton? <insert endless analogies of your own> Of course they did. That is because they had INPUT into the songs they performed, how they were arranged, and how they sounded.

I don't recall who said it (Pearl Jam, Dire Straight's???) but I remember some musician lamenting over how music video was going to change musicians into actors and actresses. Less talent, more pretty faces. So it took a generation before that became true, but it did become true. How can you release a cover version of a song you've never heard before?

I can assure you that whoever actually arranged Piece of My Heart and scribbled out the lyrics for her to sing heard the Janis Joplin song. So the actress read her lines and looks good in the video, the musicians know their influences. I guess musicians don't get their picture on CD covers very often these days.

 

Hey Mr Tambourine man. Mr...Mr Tambourine man?

 

Sad.... If the guy had been more perceptive, he would have suggested Holly Dunn.

 

I've heard this one too... but I am told they were referring to him doing a duet with her in the same fashion that Allison Krauss did with Keith Whitley on "When You Say Nothing At All." They go get the vocal tracks and have them do "the duet" together.

Its not really a far fetched idea. Been done with Lynyrd Skunurd, Natalie Cole, and others.

 

Actually Alison Krauss's version of When You Say Nothing At All doesn't feature Keith but Lorrie Morgan did an electronic duet with "Keith" on Til a Tear Becomes a Rose. Casual fans may think these are really duets when they aren't.

 

Which group was it (one of those female "contemporary r&b" acts) that announced it was splitting up -- but one member said words to the effect of 'we'll all go our seperate ways, but then we'll get back together and be better than ever -- you know, like the Beatles'?

 

And don't forget the record company who asked Pink Floyd "Which one's Pink?"... later immortalized in "Have A Cigar"...

 

A radio chain "concocted" a duet of Alison Krauss and Keith Whitley singing "When You Say Nothing at All" for airplay, then sent it to its affiliates via satellite. It was never officially released, not even as a promo CD single. Just as in 1978, someone at the former Metromedia chain of radio stations "concocted" a pairing of Linda Ronstadt and Elvis Presley, who both sang "Love Me Tender." It was then sent to other Metromedia stations after it got positive feedback where it was created.

In the early 1980s, I think there was an entire album of Jim Reeves/Patsy Cline electronically created duets. Two ghosts singing together was rather spooky. Even worse is that both artists' labels got into the act -- one single came out on RCA (Reeves' label) and another came out on MCA (the successor to Cline's label).

 

Actually, the RCA album the electronic duet version of "Have You Ever Been Lonely" appears on is "Jim Reeves & Patsy Cline Greatest Hits," onn RCA and the "I Fall To Pieces" electronic duet appears on is Jim Reeves & Patsy Cline-Remembering" on MCA. Other than these electronic duets, they are essentially greatest hits compilations with original Patsy and Jim recordings.

 

[sarcasm mode] The article mentioned someone called Spears - is that some musician I've never heard of??? Or does she do something else? [sarcasm mode off]
Seriously, is that possibly one of the reasons for how weak much contemporary pop music is? I always thought that one of the strengths of good music is how it builds on - or knowingly rejects - what has gone before. If you can cover someone without knowing who it is you're covering, then there is something wrong.
Obviously, I just don't fit in the modern world. And I thought I was so cool...

Dave

 

Allison does have a version with Kieth... I play the "duet" on my country station.

I'll post it on my sebsite tonight and you can download it. Look for a post later today regarding it.

 

I will admit that this may, I stress may, be true. I'm not sure. I can tell you buy listening to you can not tell that this is concocted. It is VERY good. Studio Quality. Allison and Keith singing not just separately, but in unison. No fade in or fade out of the "Keith version" ... instrumentation or otherwise. Most radio guys don;t have the talent to do anything this good. This version clearly has none of the noisy artifacts that satellite delivery.

 

Rock & Roll for Dummies

I remember hearing that when Dion was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, U2 were in the audience and
Bono was overheard asking The Edge who Dion was...

 

This was not released to the general public. Some quickie research has determined that it was put together by WSM in Nashville, which of course has some radio guys who know their way around a studio. For a while, the keithwhitleyblvd.com web site was giving away copies of it if you sent them a receipt for a selected "CD of the month" by an artist they liked.

Back in 1978, when a radio station in Louisville, Ky. "created" the Barbra Streisand/Neil Diamond version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," it did an exceptional job. The two later went into recording studios to do it for real, but I've heard the "created" duet (Casey Kasem played it once in place of the Columbia version on AT40) and the creator did some amazing things with those two synced-up originals. And that was in 1978, when everything was still analog.

 

Say WHAT!!!

 

I remember my brother telling me about a situation around '77 or '78. Some kid (around 9 or 10) walked into the local Hifi store (the Augmented Fifth) and asked for a copy of Sgt. Pepper (the soundtrack). The guy behind the counter asked "Do you want the soundtrack or the original?" The kid got a puzzled look on his face as he replied "There was another?"

Also...
When I was in high school, around '83, we had a teacher who had never heard of The Beatles, Stones, Who or even Elvis. The saddest part of that was she was the music teacher... in her mid 30's I might add. It's one thing when a teeniebopper doesn't know, but when the music teacher doesn't know, that's inexcusable in my book.

 

Hey... as a radio guy.. it pains me to admit it.. but it is true. Most of the good ones have left the business. The so many of the people we hire now have now idea what the term splicing tape means, much less know who to operate a reel-to-reel deck. Their idea of hi-rez is the latest download to their Ipod. I have to teach them editing, mixing, compression, fx, leveling, and even basics, like what the difference between sample rate and bit rate. And let's be honest. So many people in radio are just plain going deaf, due to the wearing of headphones and listening to such high volume levels.

 

Avril who?

 

Re: Rock & Roll for Dummies

Celine Dion is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ?

signed,
Clueless

 

Somebody feed him some more nauga...

 

Re: Re: Rock & Roll for Dummies