Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/15/watch-perfect-impression-of-the-archetypal-social-media-singer-with-that-strange-slurry-wannabe-pop-star-voice.html
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So a mashup of Christina Aguilera & Britney Spears’ voices?
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Why I couldn’t watch American Idol anymore - every audition looked like they were having something painfully pulled from their rectums… and the floating hand to tell you their pitch was changing … like their voice was a Theremin.
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Now for the next meta layer, take these vocals, remix with autotune and the right background track, and create a new pop sensation.
Then create parodies of that song ad infinitum…
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Prisencoleninsinainciusol … Ol Rait!
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I had to look up what you were referencing, it was worth it.
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I’m just glad that I spelled it well enough to enable your search.
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Oh my. That was difficult to watch.
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It’s like mocking the right wing-nuts. It’s increasingly difficult to distinguish between the serious and the parody.
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The impression seems a little off, as I was able to listen to it for almost eight seconds.
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And then they wind up “singing” at someone’s wedding.
Sometimes during the ceremony.
I’m old AF and have been to a lot of weddings. When people have their cousin/friend sing, it’s always bad.
I have been to exactly ONE WEDDING that had singing during the ceremony that was good. They hired two professionals.
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The snap track is a delightful bonus
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Pretty accurate.
We’ve reached an interesting inflection point in the acoustics of the uncanny valley:
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As recorded music became popular, it was common to see people cover songs they liked, singing them in their own way.
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Next, a layer was added --beginning about the time of the genesis of FM Radio-- where vocal habits and peculiarities started to influence subsequent generations of artists. Not a direct imitation, but songs where it was easy to hear similarities in the “oh wow, they must have listened to ‘group/person x’ when they were younger”. Studio recording techniques were mostly straightforward, but the advent of improved capture techniques (mics, tape formulations, multi-track recording and editing) and more immersive sound reproduction (stereo, quad) made it possible to virtually “be in the moment/event/studio” for the listener.
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Then, we moved into the cassette & CD era where the portability of recordings increased our saturation level even more and the younger generation began straight-up mimicking their favorite artists and groups. This bled easily into the beginnings of shows such as “American Idol”, and accounted for much of their popularity as viewers saw their own desire to mimic their favorite artists reflected in shows where the most talented mimics were rewarded for this same behavior. Studio capabilities and techniques were increasing, leading the recordings to become more creative and complex, but were largely out of reach for the individual consumer.
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Now we’re into the digital era, where not only can we record whenever we wish with minimal or no cost (no more studio time and magnetic tape or hard drives to purchase), we can also use effects with the same lack of limitations. And now that these options and capabilities are so prevalent, we’re seeing a trend that exceeds simple mimicry. Now we’re seeing the mimicry of the effects-included production. Auto-tuning and electronic effects have become so predominant that when someone wants to mimic their favorite artist or group, they’re actually mimicking the finished sound at the post-production level. We’re going to see some people get progressively better at emulating the auto-tuner (and a few other popular DSP effects) vocally. Eventually (ironically?) we’ll see some people come full circle and end up learning perfect-pitch quite by accident. This won’t save everyone (there are enough commercial artists that wouldn’t be listenable without auto-tune, for example, and that won’t change), but it will add additional variety into the mix, for sure.
We live in fascinating times.
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A long time ago I saw a video that was basically this exact joke, except it was a guy in a wig, possibly singing about a banana.
I can’t find it now and that makes me sad…
EDIT: Apparently I made up the wig part. Thanks to @Spodzilla for finding it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SU0gFPMwP8
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Well… now I feel like I’ve completely lost my ability to comprehend; thanks, I hate it.
(Yes, I get it that the song is not supposed to make any sense. That did not stop my often too-literal brain from trying, though.)
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I was singing to myself in the kitchen the other night, only I do a not-really-words thing like this, but it just sounds like every Pearl Jam song.
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You reminded me of this one:
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See? We need a button for that! @orenwolf, is that possible or is the “like” feature hard-built-in to Discourse?
EDIT: @Melizmatic pointed out I might be asking the wrong person about that, oops. Sorry Orenwolf
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Well put. This covers things I’ve been thinking about for years about how newer “old” music doesn’t as old as “older” old music relative to the current music of the time. The feedback loop and global reach reinforces existing forms. Change in popular music is broadening rather than accelerating.
The Clash released London Calling just over 40 years ago.
Forty years before that was the big band era.
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