The reason the Black Eyed Peas are repeatedly bashed for their increasingly unintelligent dance music stretches back to their history as a group. Indeed, they were originally an indie hip hop trio. As they've pursued and then achieved success, they've become increasingly trendy and poppy in terms of style. Daft Punk on the other hand set out to be a house band from the get go, regardless of whatever success they might achieve. I can't speak for the Black Eyed Peas, but artists like Sufjan Stevens and Kanye West tend to do whatever they want musically without much regard to whether mainstream audiences are going to eat it up and even if it means pissing off some fans. Black Eyed Peas on the other hand, regardless of how much talent they actually have, seem to want to do whatever it is that's popular at the time.
And that is in itself the problem with Autotune. It's not Autotune that's bad; it just depends on how it's used. Sufjan and Kanye weren't using Autotune because other people were, they were using it to advance their own creative projects for their own artistic satisfaction. But regardless of how talented the members of Nickelback are as musicians (and believe it or not, they are talented), they're still sellouts, and they still suck.
It seems that you are saying when artists follow a path that is fashioned by others as a road map to "success" instead of forging their own path, that is when they tread dangerous territory. So are you saying Justin Bieber will never be critically acclaimed?
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily never. I don't personally enjoy Justin Bieber's music, but I love to play devil's advocate, and one can easily compare the current Justin Bieber to a young Michael Jackson. Jackson originally used his boyish charm as a gimmick and covered R&B staples before he did anything critically noteworthy. He went on to break molds and is now regarded as a legend, even though he started as a generic cover artist. Same goes for the Beatles; they originally performed rock 'n' roll covers and even their originals were rather generic. It wasn't until later in their careers that they started to take risks and do things then unheard of in music.
ReplyDeleteBieber will never be critically acclaimed in his current state because he does come across as a gimmick, but as he matures there's no saying what he will do. He definitely seems driven and maybe someday he'll surprise everyone and release something truly noteworthy. It seems laughable now, but I hate to rule anyone out because I recognize the value in all kinds of art.
I really like how you didn't just bash autotune in this as a lot of people tend to do. Last year in my Theory of Knowledge class we came across the whole autotune debate. There were a few kids in my class who were heavily involved in music, whether it be instrumental or vocal, who were VERY against autotune, saying that it has no place in music and is unfair to artists who rely on their natural abilities. While I can appreciate that, I always had to be that person who disagreed with the majority, so I argued in favor of it. Who is to say what we can or cannot use to make music? To convey the full effect of the song, maybe the artist finds it necessary to use as a tool to create it. However, I do think a lot of artists use it to enhance their so-so music capabilities because they are more famous for their image than their actual talent. I don't know if this made any sense or is really relevant at all, your post just reminded me of that discussion we had.
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