homemade noize

OK, it is inescapable now. T-Pain was on NRP. NPR! I had now idea how pervasive he was. The NPR story figures he is no something like 1/3 of the tracks on certain radio stations. In the NPR piece they refer to these stations as R & B. The has been almost no “B” for decades. I am not one of those people that hate rap or R & B and totally right it off. I just hate most of whats on the radio. Production wise it is horrible. Compressed to death and muddled beyond belief. In the words of Bob Dylan, “New records have sound all over them.” Artistically it worse. They need a new stronger word for derivative with an extremely negative connotation. I don’t get the appeal of it. So, much of it self aggrandizing garbage. Why the Average Joe would want to listen to how rich and great other people are told the same way by a whole host of rappers is beyond me. I know there are exceptions and know it is true of other genres but generally it is disposable noise. Those produce the music only care about the money not the music. A good chunk of the music is even about the money. But that is a different story.

This is about vocoders kinda. T-Pain signature vocal sound with basic his voice ran through a vocoder. Not auto-tune as a lot of people have though it was. I like vocoders. I think they are cool. But it is a dramatic effect and to me gets annoying after a while. It becomes gimmicky. Maybe a cover for poor or uninteresting vocal work. Especially after more than 2 years. What if the that Cher auto tune effect was on every other song and never went way? Or on every other song? What if Daft Punk was a guest vocalist on every 3rd song on the radio? Or if half the rock songs and Frampton talk box vocals. To me at least that is what it is like. I’m sure people will get sick of it and dispose of it like most pop music but it is amazing it has gone this far. I am not sure its lasting appeal says about the state of popular music but I do not think it is good.

It is nice when people use things a little different like vocoders creatively but sparingly. It really can and some wow without becoming a gimmick. Check the video below about the 5:50 mark. There is an amazing vocoder vocal part. I the song came out in 1975 and is great example of a dramatic adding a touch of brilliance.