Something Is missing
You may or may not know that I awaken every morning with a different song in my head. Typically, I try to figure out what the message in the music is for the day… or something I should focus on for the day.
This morning was a bit confusing because the song I woke up with was "Talking To The Moon"... that Bruno Mars cut. It's confusing because I have never heard the entire song before; only the chorus… and that is because of those TikTok videos. I was like "hmmm... that's interesting... let's check it out...”
I found the original and finally listened to it... I have to say that the song does not captivate me. I feel like it's over-produced... there is too much going on. The song is WAY more simple than we are getting. Let the vocals shine! He has a powerful voice that is full of emotion, let that come through... let that be the focus. The instrumentation should SUPPORT the vocals, not compete with them. Strip it all the way down to just the vocals and maybe just an acoustic guitar. Build from there but not too much. So I started looking for an arrangement that might be simple and clean... Yeah, that was an exercise in futility. All of the covers are people showing off their vocal abilities with no clue of what the song is about. Who is teaching these people about music interpretation?! There is no emotional connection or invocation... no one "feels" the song so how can they adequately perform it?! They are doing the affected faking of emotions. Afraid to be vulnerable. And it makes me realize that these people have never seen Purple Rain. The Kid is basically at the end of his career because he is mostly just showing off what he can do. So when he comes face to face with the possible end of his career, he says forget it and gives the most vulnerable performance of his life! Everyone can feel everything he put into Purple Rain. They FELT the song. That's why they were stunned. With singers now? You can tell all they want to do is show off their riffs and runs…
In my opinion, vocalists are missing this vulnerability that brings the audience in. They replace the emotions with vocal gymnastics. Yeah, your voice is really agile, but I feel nothing when I hear you sing. I am not saying that this is what Bruno Mars does… you know, just in case you thought I was talking about him.
The music industry is turning into a machine that churns out these “hits” bereft of any emotion or connection. And we are sucking it up like a drowning person reaching for a life preserver. There are programs out now where Artificial Intelligence is creating songs on it’s own. FN Meka anyone?
“Carol and Tuesday” is an anime directed by (one of my favorite anime directors) Shinichiro Watanabe that came out in 2019. It takes place in this relatable future on Mars. The music is primarily written by Artificial Intelligence. And, while the songs a good, they are missing something. They are all really formulaic. Then along come Carol and Tuesday and they write this song that is FULL of emotion and everyone connects to it! I love this Anime, the Music is brilliant. I bring it up because even in a futuristic Anime set on another planet, people want to connect emotionally to the music!
As music educators, vocal coaches, singing teachers et cetera, what we need to do is get back to the meaning of the poetry in the lyrics and sing those emotions. What was the lyricist thinking? What did they want to express from within themselves? What did they want their audience to feel? Once we get there, music will become beautiful and will be able to connect us a lot easier.
