This Week - a dinner we posted here last September:
"Grilled Salmon with Crunchy Sweet Mustard Vinaigrette"
I am waiting for some interview requests to be returned, so we will hold off today, on new music. It could show up any other day this week...stay posted.
In the last week, I have been on other sites and been involved in discussions on the music industry and recording technologies, and specifically two certain aspects.
My friend TRAVIS from "Trav's Thoughts" also sent me a link to an article which I thought made some excellent points regarding the first technology.
The article is by Tony Sclafani, msnbc.com contributor, and can be found HERE, discusses the frequent use of AUTO-TUNE.
Some of the tuneage at the top of the charts today would not exist without Auto-Tune.
“Blame It” by Jamie Foxx and T-Pain, “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga and “Right Now (Na Na Na)” by Akon - all Auto-Tune Tuneage.
You American Idol fans...remember the night your ears bled when Paula Abdul sang her new song? Well, the recording you listened to as Paula lip-synced her way through a bevy of young nubile men, was all Auto-Tune.
How much of the music we, the consumers, purchase today can be recreated in a concert environment? Well, that presumes you are not watching a recording-aided concert anyway. What happened to the days when singers sang, using their own voice?
Did it all really begin back in 1988 when that evil villian Frank Farian duped the world into the fantasy of Milli Vanilli?
Or should we go all the way back to the year 1976 when one Peter Frampton used the sinister Talk Box to hypnotize the rock world with the song "Do You Feel Like We Do"?
Is this just the progression that is inevitable in the music industry with technology taking the 'artistry' out of writing and recording music? Or does it take the artistry out of the music?
That depends upon the listener I suspect. I can tell you that I was one of those mesmerized by Frampton's use of the talk box. Would we have the hits of the 50's and early 60's without the over-dubbing being done in the studio?
Les Paul was a pioneer in the art of layering guitar parts, one on top of another, in the studio And his introduction of the 8-track recorder in 1958 shot the music industry ahead. Now, it was possible to record each instrument independently (Up to 7 of course - one for the vocals), allowing the drummer to 'fix' that run they missed on the first take.
So from the days of over-dubbing, we are now buying music that just might be totally 'mechanized'.
In so many ways this new technology is a tremendous bonus for the music industry, or rather for the music-buying public. The ability for an artist to record their own music, edit it, burn it to disc and market it, has put us all smack-dab in the middle of the renaissance age of music.
Do a Google search for music recording software and the number of hits is over 22-million. Now, I will not tell you there are that many different programs you can use, but there just may be half that amount!
Audacity, Acoustica, GarageBand, n-track...take your choice...those are just four...become a recording star...
Or will you? In the end, I would like to think that the music lovers of the world will ensure those who are trying to get famous will only do so if they have talent.
The second subject was the demise of the 'album'. You know...a collection of music that relates; something the artist thought about before releasing.
OK, before I get, HEY, U2 sequence their CDs...I am talking in general here, ot specifically. And I understand why it does not really matter what song follows the one before it for most artists today.
They feel that their music will be bought on i-Tunes or Rhapsody or downloaded illegally and in 80% of those cases, the buyer will be purchasing one or two songs form the CD.
Those of you closer to my age will remember when you would pluck your money down for that new album - vinyl, large, came in a cardboard wrapper with pictures and sometimes that cardboard opened and there was even more magic inside with words from your 'heroes' or more pictures to see - and running home to tear off the cellophane, putting the disc on the turntable, gently lowering the needle to hear that initial scratch, the the stylus fed into the groove and the first strains of music would fill your room.
As you listened, you looked at the album...read the liner notes...and listened. When the sdie ended, you flipped it over and listened.
Start to finish. An artist could tell you an entire story. Could let you escape into a world they created for a little over an hour.
The most known of those would be The Beatles ground-breaking SGT PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND and TOMMY, The Who's historic rock-opera...but albums like King Crimson's COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING and Led Zeppelin's first three albums are all creations made to be heard start to finish.
I am sure you can add to that abbreviated list and will do so in comments, and I encourage you to do so.
This is not so much "I miss the old days" as much as "I miss when they did it for real"...
What do you think?
