Earlier this year we marked the 50th anniversary of The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, perhaps the seminal moment in pop culture ever. There are two types of people on the planet – those who recognize the genius of The Beatles, and the criminally insane.
The state of music today, and I’m going to have a “GET OFF MY LAWN!!!” moment, is a joke.
Auto-Tune makes crap vocals slightly less crappy, if only by a nearly unnoticeable degree. Dubbing, backing vocalists carrying the weight in live shows (when not done by recordings), and countless studio tricks exist to hide the rotten center of the so-called “talent” nougat.
Honestly, do you really think Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, or Ariana Grande could carry a tune if it came with a handle?
At least talentless “musicians” like Iggy Azalea know they can’t sing, so they sort of talk-rap. But they do it over music that sounds like it was drunkenly recorded over what their kid brother created on his first acid trip while screwing around with an old Casio keyboard.
Take away any of the above elements and the whole house of cards collapses under the weight of gigantic suckage.
That brings us back to The Beatles.
You wanna talk talent – they wrote their songs, they played the instruments, created sounds and techniques, and were able to reproduce it live, without tricks – they had it all. Take away any of the elements and the house still stands.
I stumbled across this, a recording of the isolated vocals of the medley side of Abbey Road. (Many consider it their best work, I prefer Revolver.) When you listen to it you hear talent. Even if your mind doesn’t know it well enough to add the music in your head, you hear the ability and skill that went into creating it. No tricks, no “We’ll fix it in post,” no gimmicks, just talent earned through hard work.
None of that exists in music today, or Washington, for that matter.