Moot

Nearly ALL music (at least so-called ‘popular music’) has become more performance art than the art of music. Just the other night while watching the Grammys, I saw an R&B singer going through wild gyrations with a gaggle of backup dancers while supposedly singing. I told my wife, “You can forget the notion that she’s actually singing while dancing like that. No one can do that.” She hid behind the microphone well, but sure enough, the camera slipped and showed her lips when they didn’t sync with the music. OK, sure, it’s the Grammys. But when they go at it like that onstage for two hours, is that going to be better or worse?

It was all said best in an ad in Variety a few years ago, something like, “Wanted: Three females for an all-female pop vocal group. Must be attractive, have a good stage presence, and look good in a video. Singing ability a plus…” When the video became an integral part of the music package, image and visual impression became everything. The music was something that could be ‘fixed’ as long as the artist looks good.

It started in the studio with digital pitch adjustment and the ‘wall of sound’ from the best session musicians they could find. Stables of songwriters churn out one formulaic work after another, often with a particular artist in mind, so songwriting ability is certainly not essential. Then when artists started getting their workouts from their stage choreography, realizing that the aerobic exercise precluded any idea of singing on key without heavy breathing, lip-syncing onstage became acceptable, at least to The Business.

So-called ‘pop stars’ aren’t musicians anymore. They are prefabricated ‘entertainers’. They don’t have to understand the first thing about music, write their own songs, play an instrument, or even sing well. As long as they look good, all of the above can be ‘fixed’. A friend that’s been a professional musician for twenty years said these days, a musician over 30 starting out can forget making it in the music business. You’re too old for the target demographic. An established musician over 40 will struggle to hang on unless he or she can make themselves look ten years younger. The Business can fix a lack of talent in any area, but they can’t fix ‘old’, ‘old’ is unattractive, and unattractive won’t cut it no matter how talented you are.

It is amazing that people who listen to ‘popular music’ are so shocked when they find out about the scam that is pop music. Isn’t that what they’ve been paying for? Have they not been succumbing to the visual more than the auditory since the Buggles heralded the death of the radio star on MTV? Quaffing the Kool-Aid of musical mediocrity just to be able to watch someone gyrate their posterior in painted-on pants?

Perhaps the shock is merely the manifestation of their embarrassment that when they were buying that person’s music, they were actually being sold a load of bovine scatology, and they either didn’t see the warning signs or ignored them. As long as the public has the ability to pretend that their chain isn’t being jerked, it’s OK. But when they can no longer pretend and look stupid because of it, suddenly they’re ‘shocked’.

“At what point does a musical artist cross from the realm of musical performance into the realm of performance art/theatre?”

when they start lip-syncing, lol. If you at least sing on your record (no matter how bad) you can qualify for the title of musical artist. But once you hit the stage, and you are no longer using your vocal chords to hit notes, and all your doing is dancing while acting like you are singing, then you are no longer a musical artist doing a musical performance. You are now a performance artist, because instead of being occupied with actually making some type of music, you are concentrating on the performance part.

Of course the biggest thing is the shock of this audiance. Moot, I too am “Shocked at the fact that they didn’t see that coming!”. Does that say somthing about Austrailians, or pop fans in general? I dunno. great post.