But they'll hurt their voices

"But they'll hurt their voices"

"I'm rocking the suburbs/Just like Michael Jackson (sic: Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi) did/ I'm rocking the suburbs/ Except that they were talented/ I'm rocking the suburbs/ I take the checks and face the facts/ That some producer with computers/ Fixes all my shitty tracks"

Ben Folds -Rocking The Suburbs

I am sick to DEATH of people defending groups like The Millionaires using a backing track while on stage with the lamest phrase in the world:

One: What voices? I mean really, lets be honest about this, they don't sing they talk in valley girl voices over music.

More importantly two: No.they.won't.

Funny story: There is this thing called Broadway. See, on Broadway people do these things called musicals, and they sing, live, for way more than 30 min set, upwards of eight to ten times a week, more like 15 for a really popular show. Right? Without backing tracks. Don't believe me? Here:

Alright sure, I'll give you, she's a trained vocalist, she has spent years learning how to sing, but other women spend their time rocking out with out lots of vocal training, P!nk

and before anyone even THINKS about telling me "but they're dancing too!"

They are jumping around looking stupid, P!nk? She is dancing.

Anyhow my point? People need to stop being a talentless hack, someone who's so dependant on re-mixing that their voices are nigh unrecognizable live from their recordings as being something which is in the best interest of the artists, its not. Its far from. Because when you're a musician, you should be musical in some way.

The example I use ALOT is Amy Lee and James Hetfield. Hetfield went in and did operatic training so that when they toured the Black Album (their self titled) he wouldn't blow out his voice. Amy Lee, has operatic training as well. And you can tell, for both of them, as much as I don't like Metalica, Hetfield has training, you can hear it, and the same with Amy Lee. They don't use backing tracks.

Listen, when I buy a concert ticket I don't want to watch someone playing rock band, which is exactly what using a backing track is. So stop excusing lazy vocalizing and a dependence on a producer to fix things as being ok, its not. Where has Rock'n'Roll gone? I mean who remembers when ZZtop was on the MTV music awards and they were faking it and the uproar it caused? Who remembers when Nirvana freaked out the MTV people by starting "Rape Me" instead of "Lithium" at the VMA's one year? That is rock and roll. That is live music.

So in conclusion: Learn to sing, learn to play, or get the fuck off my stage.

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Comments (94)

	Em is for ily: 07/25/2009 3:23 PM I love that quote/lyric at the beginning. I may not remember Nirvana playing at the VMAs, as I was a mere toddler, but I have heard about the moment and its awesomeness. I think this journal makes it very fitting that tonight I'm going to see No Doubt. Maja Ivarsson, Hayley Williams, and Gwen Stefani are all good examples of women who actually sing live, and move around while doing so. Hell, Gwen does push-ups on stage, and Maja does it all in heels. But yeah seriously, what voices? What dancing?
	Queen Of Cydonia: 07/26/2009 1:06 AM Thank you for writing this. I don't have words for how much I love this, so I'll say it with a lolcat:
	Gwen Artax: 07/26/2009 8:41 AM emisforily said: I love that quote/lyric at the beginning. I may not remember Nirvana playing at the VMAs, as I was a mere toddler, but I have heard about the moment and its awesomeness. I think this journal makes it very fitting that tonight I'm going to see No Doubt. Maja Ivarsson, Hayley Williams, and Gwen Stefani are all good examples of women who actually sing live, and move around while doing so. Hell, Gwen does push-ups on stage, and Maja does it all in heels. But yeah seriously, what voices? What dancing? I heard Hayley sucked live until she got some breath control, and Gwen did too (back in their day). Both of them had to have some bad shows to learn how to do it better, and did not resort to backing tracks.
	Gwen Artax: 07/26/2009 8:41 AM crash13 said: Thank you for writing this. I don't have words for how much I love this, so I'll say it with a lolcat: YYYAAAYYY
	xxxpsxxx: 07/27/2009 12:19 PM Yeah I agree with you, we need some real music today...The Millionaires are lame excuse for lack of ideas don't you think?
	xcollapsingcities: 07/27/2009 12:20 PM You rule. The End.
	Jolene Tangerine: 07/27/2009 12:29 PM "isten, when I buy a concert ticket I don't want to watch someone playing rock band, which is exactly what using a backing track is." You're amazing. I couldn't have said it better myself :]
	The Absent-Minded Professor.: 07/27/2009 12:31 PM Dude, that part on Broadway was epic. Because I'm in theatre, and if I asked my director if we could get a backing track, she'd probably kick me out of the show. :D
	Blair Waldorf: 07/27/2009 12:34 PM Oh, like they're going to hurt their voices? I take voice lessons, and my teacher EXPECTS me to sing without a microphone. And the only thing that hurts after voice lessons is my feet. And they don't even sing. They just say "I just got paid, let's laid" in a like, total valley girl accent.
	Gabriel's Gonna Rollerblade: 07/27/2009 12:41 PM UR A HATER
	thisheartbeats4u: 07/27/2009 12:45 PM well. said.
	BadgerBadgerBadger...: 07/27/2009 12:52 PM AMEN. And im amazed that P!nk can sing that well while dancing.
	surreptitiouspanic: 07/27/2009 12:58 PM THANK YOU! i use the theatre examples all the time, i mean geeze even going back to britney spears...she lipsank (is that the past tence? well, she sank alright) & danced, but i watched N*SYNC live at maddison square garden way back in the day on HBO & they danced & sang for real. cheesy as hell, but also legit.
	manwo36: 07/27/2009 1:04 PM THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUUUU this is pure perfection...especially the theatre part
	nocoherentthought: 07/27/2009 1:12 PM Using Idina Menzel as an example ALWAYS RESULTS IN A WIN!
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