(Title pending)
Thomas Patrick Hooper
ATHENS, Ga. – Bands like the Beatles may have revolutionized music, but with the digital age in full swing, the artists may not be the only driving force in the music industry anymore.
With music piped into elevators and laid over commercials, people experience music now more than ever before.
“The way that the world is experiencing music is new,” said Eric Stetson, a 23-year-old music composition major at Georgia Southern. “We take music for granted. It’s ubiquitous. It’s all around us.”
TV programs like the wildly successful American Idol have put up-and-coming musicians in the public eye while video games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero make the everyman into the musician.
“It’s not really anything new, but I think they’ve done the best job of it,” said Bruce Burch, director of the Music Business program at the University of Georgia, of the American Idol phenomenon.
However, American Idol may be symptomatic of a greater trend in the musical world, as the industry has begun moving to court the performer and not the other way around.
The progressive rock group the Decemberists have emerged as a clear cut example, coming out of the city of Portland, Ore., far from the musical capitals of Los Angeles and Atlanta.
“Music has been decentralized,” said Burch of the Decemberists. “You don’t have to be in a major music center anymore.”
That hasn’t kept the innovations of the digital age from having received its fair share of flack from performers of many genres.
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds lampooned the changes of the editing process in the lyrics of “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” which carries the line “the song producer with computers fixes all my shitty tracks.”
Folds isn’t the only one who has taken notice.
Indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie made a statement at the 51st Grammy Awards, when the band members wore blue ribbons to protest the widespread use of Auto-Tune, a software program that corrects the tune of a voice or instrument.
Rapper Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, took things a step further. In June of 2009, he released D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune) in protest of the program’s widespread use in the industry.
“It’s been around a lot longer than people think,” said Stetson in reference to the program, which began to gain national attention after Cher’s obvious use of it in her1998 song, “Believe.”
Since then, Auto-Tune has founds its way into the hands of any number of artists, with rapper T-Pain being the most visible example.
Will Hodge, a Marietta-based producer/engineer/songwriter who has been in the business for 20 years, doesn’t see any harm in using Auto-Tune.
“Background vocals need to be more in tune because they’re more a part of the instrumentation,” said Hodge, who also uses the program quite extensively in bass recordings. “The only way to get a real bass track is to play it on a keyboard.”
While the Auto-Tune controversy has become a trend, it comes on the heels of the sampling debate.
Artists initially relied on the instruments in their hands and the voices in their throats, but computers have made it possible for artists to cut and paste certain vocals, instruments and melodies into another, entirely unrelated song. The process has drawn criticism for its perceived lack of originality.
“They’re just taking existing pieces of existing media and making something,” said Hodge, who likened the sampling process to a collage. “As long as [the writer] is getting paid, it’s not a big deal.”
Unfortunately, not every sample is properly attributed, which has sparked a handful of highly publicized lawsuits. One of the most notable cases arose in the late 80s, when rapper Vanilla Ice sampled the bassline of “Under Pressure,” a Queen-Davie Bowie collaboration.
“It’s an inevitable thing,” Hodge said of the changes sweeping the industry. “It’s insane what I can do with an iPhone… I’m a purist. I think the people that will advance in the industry are the people associated with the pure songwriter. It all starts with the song.”
With the history of music stretching back so far and the recording industry being as young as it is, it’s anyone guess as to where the industry will go in the future.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of change,” said Stetson.
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Patrick's take on the revolutionizing recording industry was very interesting. He got good sources, quotes, and information. I also like his diction and the way he structures his sentences. The article is a bit unfocused though, and jumps around, confusing the reader on what the article is actually about. As soon as he adds some transitions and explains what each part (sampling,auto-tune, and american idol) have to do with each other, I think this article will be good to go. The best way probably would be to move paragraphs around with new transitions.
ReplyDeleteA new source for this article that would be valuable would be a student that isn't into the music scene, or doesn't know too much about the music industry to see how they feel about the topic. All of Patrick's sources have a music background, so of course they are going to have a different opinion than someone who maybe really loves music like Britney Spears that musicians find terrible.
An alternative lead could be somewhere along the lines of:
"The days of 'musicians relying on the instruments in their hands and the voices in their throats' are changing with the increasing popularity in the digital age of sampling and Auto-Tune." I don't know how to add American Idol in though.
We were talking about how to tie together some of the central ideas of the article, like American Idol and Autotunes. I think a good point to make would be how many people may have a negative view of American Idol, but the fact is people have to have real talent to get on the show. Talents like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood (who really do have amazing voices) may not ever have been discovered otherwise. Their voices could stand up to singers like Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan any day because of all the vocal enhancement those artists use on their albums. However, another angle to discuss is artists like T-Pain who have created another genre out of using Autotunes. I don't think T-Pain is tryin to make up for the fact that he can't sing by using Autotunes, I think he used it as a way to channel creativity.
ReplyDeleteI think the article is thoughtful and well-written overall. I just think there's a better way to tie the diversity of the article together.
Alternative Lead: This is no longer an age in music based solely on the talent of individual performers and bands. The music industry has also become a place for personality and image in addition to talent, sometimes with the former overtaking the latter.