Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/01/21/an-opera-singer-analyzes-the-vocal-performance-on-nins-terrible-lie.html
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I don’t usually like reaction videos, but she does them right. She actually comments extensively on the vocals, using her expertise, and stops and rewinds the songs frequently. If you wanted to just listen to the song, it would be a really annoying way to do it, so she’s clearly not stealing views from the original. It’s a textbook example of how to do a reaction video. I really enjoyed this one from a few days ago:
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Zharoff is a really fun commenter, and I appreciate her enthusiasm. She’s got an open mind about how the voice can be expressive. When I’ve done NIN-style vocals, I always pushed the mic preamp over the top a bit. I wonder if some of the things she’s hearing are an interaction between voice and electronics? Really great performance.
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Her analysis of Freak on a Leash was also all kinds of brilliant.
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I feel this way whenever anybody says Kurt Cobain was a bad singer. Sure, from a strictly technical sense he wasn’t a “good” singer but he had so much intensity and emotion in his singing voice it was incredibly evocative and interesting. I’d pick flawed Nine Inch Nails or Nirvana vocals over perfectly produced, flawless, and auto-tuned vocals any day.
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See, I don’t think of hers as reaction videos so much as expert analysis. I absolutely detest reaction vids, but I like folks like Rick Beato and 12 Tone that actually provide some real insight into the subject.
My favorite videos she’s done were the ones with Will Ramos from Lorna Shore. He’s doing some pretty groundbreaking stuff on the screaming/growling front, and she was just like HOW IS HE NOT WRECKING HIMSELF WITH THIS? She ended up bringing him in for an endoscopy to figure it out, and it’s kind of fascinating:
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Not coincidentally, she also reacted to Nirvana’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night, and gets into the emotion in Cobain’s voice a lot.
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autotune. Must. DIE.
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Her Maiden videos are great where she’s getting blown away by Dickinson putting the operatic techniques she’s familiar with into a context she’s not. Love her recent-ish Wicked Game one too, where she’s half drunk and losing it to the smoothness of Isaak’s delivery.
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Honestly I’m indifferent to it.
People who turn all the knobs up to 11 are making a very specific aesthetic choice and I can take it or leave it. (I do find it kind of ironic that T-Pain really popularized modern extreme autotune use and he’s actually a really decent singer without it.)
Outside of those extreme usages, these days just about everybody uses it. It’s normalized to be a thing you have to opt out of as it’s such a standard part of a typical producer’s arsenal. A common criticism is that it sterilizes vocals to the point where it strips any emotion that could come through with those imperfections that it smooths out. I’m guessing most people don’t really care.
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I really listen to and analyze music, and find it impossible to ahem tune it out stuff I dislike. There are notes and styles of playing that set my teeth a-grindin,’ and some songs even chase me out of stores when they are played. 
I know this is atypical, but it’s the OS I’m stuck with 
Cheers!
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Nothing wrong with that. Some people are more analytical listeners while others are more emotional listeners. I definitely lean toward the former so I get it.
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Makes me emotional, too, and I emotionally respond. Great music and great art make me weep just b/c beauty.
ETA:
Damn. I sure sound like a mess 
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It’s interesting to me how a Youtube series suddenly has a moment. I re-discovered her videos last week and have been watching a ton of them, now she shows up here. Algorithms sometimes deliver us all something really great.
I find her analysis interesting and effective and she often helps me reappreciate some artist I’ve enjoyed but in a very different way. Her recent look at Blues Traveler being a prime example of this and why I like her so much (also, her voice is very soothing, and her enunciation is lovely to listen to… all that vocal training has served her well, clearly). Oh, and she’s wonderfully open minded about all kinds of music, which is great.
Loved her break down of all the emotion Sinead brought to her singing.
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YT must know i’m a Rush fan because this woman’s evaluation of Geddy’s singing is constantly being offered up to me. I haven’t gone there yet, but will some day.
Thing is, her YT thumbnails always look like she’s hearing fingernails on chalkboard, like she’s gonna be negatively critical to everything. Sounds like that’s not the case, good to know.
I’m a sucker for Aurora, and this was a really fun analysis:
She was very kind to Geddy. Check out her Tom Sawyer reaction.
Thanks for bringing her to my attention. I spent two evenings with her videos, and it’s fun. Blind Guardian at WOA left me giggling.
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