Well this is my first contribution to this blog I guess I gotta make a start sometime right may as well be now. Ok here goes nothing....
It occurred to me a couple days ago after the lecture about authenticity that I believe we have essentially come full circle on the issue. With performances of bands and musicians being questioned if they in fact lip sync rather than perform live in "live performances" to artists that perform a song on films which are dubbed or digitally corrected later. How then I ask can we trust that anything that is provided to us by performers at concerts or concert DVDs. Ashlee Simpson was caught lip syncing on Saturday night live in 2004, this event was publicized in the media incessantly. Just a simple search on Google reveals that a large number of musicians and performers either use digital technology to enhance their live performances or to make their performance sound more similar to what is presented in their albums which are highly stylized.
I think the term authentic has become a very loose term, because when we go and see a live performance for example seeing U2 in concert at Mount Smart Stadium how do we know that it is in fact Bono’s voice that we're hearing, for most audiences they are unable to see the performer’s face clearly so how are they expected to believe that it is the performer’s voice that is coming out of the speakers. Even if the voice that comes from the sound system is in fact the real performer it may have already been enhanced to provide a better quality of performance or quality of experience for the audience. A number of high profile performers have admitted to using voice enhancing technology from U2 to Oasis. I believe that if we were to see the James Blunt or Kelly Clarkson perform without the use of audio enhancing techniques I think I would most probably want to walk out after 20 minutes. So.. I think that we have come to a point where we can’t really live with pure authentic uncut performances without audio enhancement that we would enjoy it as much. So I ask what is the difference between listening to CD than to going to a live performance. Well I guess its just for the atmosphere maybe… So that’s my opinion on the subject. Any thoughts
1 comment:
Interesting post. I think the same.
Its lame to think an artist is using a rack mount auto-tune. You feel ripped off that the artist is, as I would put it, not a true artist. They should be able to pull off the singing live as well as in the studio (with all the vocal production).
Some artists do however pull this off, if only for a single tour haha. A good example is Marilyn Manson's 1996/7 Antichrist Superstar tour; he actually took the producer and engineer of that album on tour with the roles of live producer/engineer! So naturally coming straight from the studio with amazing engineer (Sean Beavan) his vocals sounded killer for that tour, however subsequent tours without Sean weren't as hot (especially today in 07', ouch he sux!).
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