This isn’t a blog post about how autotune is ruining music (it’s not). It’s a post about how much higher the bar is, and how that bar is not human.
Above is Ricky Martin’s amazing Grammy performance from 1999. If you read the video comments you’ll notice some people feel that it’s horrible when compared to today’s performances.
And in some ways, it is. It’s not in 4K, 60 frames per second, autotuned, bright clothes, choreographed with 200 dancers, or uses every strobe light imaginable.
But back then, when I watched it as a 15 year old, it was the best. It was just so authentic and human.
And once again, the bar is raised incredibly high on Youtube when compared to the Youtube of 2007.
In the ultra hi-speed race that we’re all entering, let’s not forget that we’re all bad artists and singers, even the best ones. In fact, bad singing and playing is what makes us sound human. Perfection is actually the uncanny valley.
What I don’t want is to go to another indie concert and overhear someone say the singer was horrible. The singer was amazing – it’s your bar that was unrealistic. Meanwhile, that Youtube video or live performance you watched was all smoke and mirrors re-edited 100 times until every note was perfect.
Which is perfectly fine for the entertaining factor, but completely loses the emotion we’re all yearning for in the first place…
to be human.
(Source: http://fororchestra.com/)