I think a lot of the hit songs from 2014 were really great, but as a musician I have noticed that many of them sound the same, or at least alike. This was the year that Taylor Swifts voice got auto tuned (or melodyned) to the point of sounding like Katy Perrys on a couple of her songs, maroon five produced an album that still smacked of the same song structure and overall texture as their album from The early 2000s. pitch perfect tuned their vocals and harmonies so precisely that the title of their film actually gave me a chuckle. Now that I have sheet music for many of the songs of 2014, thanks to my mom, I can also see that some vocals were tuned so viciously that they actually lost their blue note and their flat note was either tuned down or up according to the key signature. The problem is that the technology used to tune the voices isnt back by actual music theory knowledge, so most of the programs have you enter a key signature, and then they tune to stay diatonic to that key. I hear this in the song youre going to miss me when Im gone, among many others. And some songs had melodic content that was so similar to other artists songs that I wondered how they were getting away with not falling into many lawsuits. Some artists and bands had original hit songs that were successful, and then all of the songs on their next album sounded similar to the hit song. Im not talking about texture or vocal qualities, as those should be the same. But I am talking about intervallic structure, rhythm, and sometimes even lyrics that are recycled and reused. I get it. You want people to listen and immediately know what band you are. But your first objective should be to entertain those people, not just make them aware that you are on the radio again. Why would I buy 12 songs that all sound the same? Especially when theyre all about the same theme.... So many vocal tracks have been mixed and mastered and condensed and pitch corrected that many of the female vocalists sound alike. Not all. There are some female vocalists, even in pop music, that have refused to compromise their original sound. Im looking forward to 2015 and hearing what new music it brings. I hope listeners can find entertainment and joy in listening to voices that still hold some of their original qualities.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 22:13:30 +0000
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