But I really think it's because a lot of singing-voices can get in the way of a good song.
In the past 20 years or so, in the post-vinyl, CD-cum-MP3 era of recording technology, engineers have been able to push recorded music louder and louder, because of the lack of any sort of physical constraint (i.e. needle in record groove). This is called the loudness war, and it's awful; I've written about it before, I'm sure.
A consequence of this is that, well, let's say there's a part of a song where there's only an acoustic guitar or a piano, and someone's singing on top of it. Because of ProTools and all other sorts of digital wizardry, that part of the song can be cranked-up so that its maximum volume reaches the same heights as the song's crescendo, which (a.) makes the vocals at the start crazy-loud, and (b.) detracts from the overall emotional response of the entire song, as studies have shown.
Two songs come to mind, both of which have female singers. I don't think this is a coincidence.
After a torturous search through YouTube, I found the Katy Perry song I was looking for. It's called "Firework," and the pre-chorus (e.g. starting around the 46-second mark) is the part I'm talking about here. I mean, the rest of the song is shit as well -- and, after listening to a half-dozen other song-snippets from her, sounds exactly like every other fucking song she's ever done -- but this is the part that, if the office-rock station is playing in our school's office, makes me want to run out of the place screaming.
It's so. god. damn. loud. And it forces you to stop whatever you're doing and listen to her inane musings. (Actually, it took five fucking people to write that song.)
The second -- oh, you're gonna hate me for this -- is "Rolling In The Deep" by Adele.
Adele's stock-in-trade is her voice. And I'll say this, it's actually a pretty good one, as far as voices go; somewhat soulful, pretty clear, all that jazz. (Hard to say how much of that is studio wizardry; if I cared more I could look up a live performance, but I don't.) But at the very start, that voice just pierces through the fog like a laser beam, the bass drum comes in and starts mashing-away, and since everything's loud in the chorus, the thing that should stand out -- namely, the crack of a snare drum -- is just entirely lost in the mix. The whole thing's a mess.
But hey, she sold a ton of records, so apparently I'm the one who's messed-up.
Just so you don't get the impression I hate everything about chick singers...
...yes Yes YES. This is how it should be done. I mean... wow. Just wow.
I think in pictures, so I went and made some. Here's how Adele's song is put together, sonically:
The so-called quiet parts (i.e. during the verses) are already really loud. When you get to the parts that are supposed to be loud (e.g. the chorus), where can you go? Nowhere, I say. So the dynamics -- the loud-soft interplay that bands like Nirvana had down to a science -- get entirely washed-out, and the whole thing sounds like bleh.
In contrast, here's how Aretha's song is mixed:
When it's supposed to be loud, it definitely is. But when it's not, it's not; there's room to breathe. And because that part is quiet, you know there's a loud part coming up, and that builds tension... What's the loud part going to sound like? How's it going to be different? Lyrically, how's she going to sum it all up in a chorus which is clearly the most important part of the song? It's this back-and-forth, this dynamism, that makes the song sound interesting, even if you don't pay attention to the lyrics at all (which, as has been mentioned before, I usually don't).
Also, "I Never Loved A Man" was written by one person; a guy, oddly enough.
In conclusion, the baseball game's starting, time to go watch the Tigers meekly bow-out of the playoffs.
No comments:
Post a Comment