Article in The Tennessean
Everyone and anyone is liable and likely to be challenged with endemic obstacles in any live performance arena, be it musical or otherwise. I'm concerned that the younger generations are coming up not only to accept remedial technology as part of the process, but to expect it as a safety net, even in a live situation.
Ms.Swift certainly appeared to not have a firm foundation on which to stand in the face of what may have been an in-ear (a relatively new technology) monitor discrepancy. If she were more experienced, and indeed experiencing a malfunction, we might have seen her take one of the plugs out, to enable herself to hear the live room. There are many variables minded by numerous operators that may have been askew.
If one views and listens to video of early Rock-n-Roll/Soul performances, you'll see that many of those fine singers had NO monitors whatsoever--in-ear, speaker wedge, anything. They were in the moment, on the stage, nothing but a microphone between they and the audience. In other words, delivering the truth--on their own. Every now and then, you'll see a finger in an ear, the original tactic to hear one's own pitch. They knew what the score was, and they were players, even on a rough night. Ms. Swift was relying on an external.
Today's technology has enabled singers with noticeably limited skills (and, hey--it's only Rock-n-Roll, its a widely forgiving genre) to make commercially successful products. Nothing new, but every now and then the clueless and helpless factor seems embarrassingly in evidence.
To blame the audience and indict them for being discerning is absurd, insulting, really. No technology can mask this empty and baseless defense.
This is why Taylor should study with a voice teacher (though a a musician I cannot stand Taylor and refuse to call her a musician!), but her intonation was all over the place! It's as if she'd never rehearsed the number, and her record company tried to defend her saying she's "not a technical singer." Put-leeze! She's a hack!
ReplyDeleteThough, what shocks me is when some brilliant singer who's clearly taken voice lessons for years denies having done so! I heard a singer with diction so perfect and polished that no living human could naturally produce such pure vowels and crisp consonants, and in an interview they claim never to have studied with a voice teacher, which I seriously doubt! Even special pronunciations that most Americans do not know until taught by their voice teacher.
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