* * * * *
                                        
                         “But it's about the dancing!”
                                        
For months now Bunny and I have been going back and forth on things like
Microsoft songsmith [1], Auto-Tune [2] which has been, basically, an argument
about tools vs. crutches. [1] [3] That topic surfaced once more today when
Bunny mentioned that some Aussies are rather upset at Britney for lip syncing
[4] (and here I thought that was common knowledge [5]—guess not down under).

Here is one Australian's take on it:

> That being so, it makes sense that when it comes to touring she should
> mime. After all, it allows the projection of voice perfection, or at least
> as perfect as it sounds on CD. What sort of a show would it be if she were
> heard to miss a note or sing offkey. If you had spent a couple of hundred
> dollars or more, you'd probably walk out and/or demand your money back.
> 
> Still, if this is a comeback tour (with the somewhat rapidly turning ironic
> title of Circus) then surely wouldn't a singer want to reacquaint her voice
> to her fans? Then again maybe her singing voice ain't what it used to be.
> 
> The truth, for the punters, is you'd never know anyway unless you heard her
> singing in the shower. This is the age of musical perfection where every
> singer can have perfect pitch, where any imperfection can be erased, where
> the human can be deleted from the process of recording. It's in the
> technology. In the digital age, sound can be manipulated. Voices can be
> modulated, on stage and in the studio. You would never know unless you had
> something with which to compare it.
> 
> Miming, however, is not new. Bands and solo singers were doing it on
> television pop shows decades ago. Indeed, wasn't it strange that those
> guitars sounded just like they did on the record, yet they weren't plugged
> in, and wait a minute where are the amps?
> 
> Concerts, however, are another thing. There's a transaction involved
> between fan and artist. Which leads to one of the most notorious cases in
> popular music of things not being as they seem. Milli Vanilli won a Grammy
> Award. Yet the duo of Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus, whom everyone thought
> were Milli Vanilli were, in fact, just the pretty faces, the image music
> entrepreneur Frank Farian wanted to project to the public. The voices were
> actually those of studio singers. The whole thing came crashing down when
> Morvan and Pilatus were found to be lipsynching at one of their concerts.
> 

“Britney Spears | lip synching | Warwick McFadyen [6]”

Hmm … tool … crutch … this is appearing to be the Month of the Tool … 

[  1] I view such things as tools, Bunny views them as crutches, but she's had
     musical training and I haven't. I view such things as IDE (Integrated
     Development Environment)s and PHP as crutches, whereas I think Bunny
     would view them as tools, but I have a background in programming. I'll
     have to ponder on this some more. [Back] [7]


[1] http://research.microsoft.com/en-
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2009/11/09.1
[4] http://www.detnews.com/article/20091110/ENT09/911100344/1402/ENT09/Grap
[5] http://perezhilton.com/2009-11-09-britney-upset-by-australian-
[6] http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/i-synch-therefore
[7] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2009/11/09.1

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

.