1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die

Moon Talks AutoTune on Studio Q

It's one of those subjects that won't go away: Is the ubiquitous software used to correct (and alter) a singer's pitch simply another technological marvel that renders cool effects? Is it a crutch? A scourge?

Last week I talked AutoTune with Jian Ghomeshi, host of the terrific CBC program Studio Q, about Auto-Tune.

Here's the link: http://www.cbc.ca/q/pastepisodes.html

look for the show for Thursday, June 25 2009.

And, as always, please share thoughts on AutoTune here!

 

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Michael Jackson: Thoughts on the Passing of a Legend

Watching coverage of the astonishing news about the death of Michael Jackson, I was brought back to the long, long ordeal of writing the entry for Thriller.

The pundits and news anchors (at least CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann) appeared trapped in that reflexive celebrity-appreciation loop – dude was an amazing talent! dude was very very creepy!

That was familiar. Normally I’m of the “trust the art, not the artist” mindset, but when my first draft had nothing about his foibles – those lapses in judgement, the physical transformations, the odd behavior – it seemed myopic, a willful whitewash that didn’t equip the uninitiated to understand Michael Jackson. As great as Thriller is, and it is as near-perfect a pop music experience as is available to us, what happened in its aftermath is a sordid, painful, arguably preventable tragedy, with a few brilliant tracks interspersed along the way. (See playlist below.)

So I rewrote the thing; this time there was too much emphasis on the troubles. I realize now that striking a balance was difficult because Jackson, whom Olbermann irritatingly kept calling a “man-child,” so completely owned the extremes. He was the brilliant inventor of a vocabulary of gestures and dances and accompanying sounds that revolutionized popular music. And he was also the willfully weird, endlessly media-aware recluse of Neverland.

Then there was the not-small problem of finding something new to say about Thriller and the other records Jackson made with Quincy Jones: As soon as that still-blazing first track from Off The Wall (“Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”) caught on, Jackson attained a rare ubiquity: His ideas spread everywhere, like a delicious contagion. We heard the electroshock sounds all the time, and somehow didn’t mind hearing them again. And it wasn’t just the sounds, but the feeling Jackson sent along with them – a giddy, not-to-be-contained exuberance that said, in not many words or no discernable words at all, what a rush it is to be alive.

 

VERY ABBREVIATED DREAM MICHAEL JACKSON PLAYLIST

“Wanna Be Starting Something”

The Jackson 5: “I Want You Back.”

“Rockin’ Robin” “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough”

“Man in the Mirror”

“Billie Jean”

“Butterflies”

The Jacksons: “Enjoy Yourself”

“Rock With You”

“Human Nature”

“Smooth Criminal”

“Thriller”

Recordings of Interest, from The List

• "I Want You Back" - Jackson Five, The | Buy

• Thriller - Jackson, Michael | Buy

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