Basics - Genres - Pop 4

Blogger's Notes

Been concentrating on studies. Exams on Tuesday. Haha actually I wrote all the old Stacey Kent posts through the period of time I was having my EOPT for Orthopaedics. Haha. But yeah those things require constant practice, which thankfully I did.

Final installment of Pop, for this mini series. Will definitely have to revisit with Pop 5 and etc, but for this week this series would be over. Got a request to do Michael Bolton. I also recently checked out this group which is making a hit on YouTube called Pomplamoose. Interesting topics to write about.

Anyway I'm wondering what's my next series. Any suggestions? If not I'll have to pick one on Tuesday anyway. Haha. But suggestions will be good. I can't go too advanced yet because I'm still trying to do the basics. =)

Anyway, again, most of these things are opinions and comments. I will mainly keep to telling you objective things. I might think that those things are bad, or good, in my opinion, but you make the decision. More importantly you should hear it for yourself and judge for yourself. I might affect you, but the decision is based purely upon you. =)

Michael Bolton

Michael Bolton - How am I supposed to live without you

Funny. It's really interesting how a rock ballad from the late 80's early 90's kinda sound has this power to stick with people throughout their lives. It's a beautiful song.

I'd like to dissect it a bit. For me, it's really interesting, because the moment that I heard the first few notes, I had a feeling this was not the typical pop sound that I've been identifying for the last few posts. Notice that if you were to clap time with the music, you're probably realise that it's hard to really follow one instrument and expect all the rest of the instruments fall on the same beat. It virtually doesn't happen. There's a lot of laying back throughout this rock ballad.

There is no true rhythm setter other than probably Michael Bolton himself. But he's constantly ahead, giving the push for the song and keeping the music forward. At the same time, from the moment the keyboards came in, it was ahead of the bass, which was ahead of the drums. It's very minute differences, except for that between the bass and drums. The time keeper is probably the keyboard in this circumstance, but he (or she) tends to lay back. And best part is that even when Michael Bolton plays the guitar, it's quite a bit far back from the beat. It's quite a sweet effect.

Why do we tend to think that early 90's pop (not bubblegum) and a whole host of other music that seem so heartfelt are better? Because they are. They sound more heartfelt and feel a lot more organic. Even grooves sound right rather than rigid. Michael Bolton's voice is a sweet rock voice (though mostly destroyed with his husky tone) and the way he phrases the notes.

Issues regarding production of this? Well, this is an "early" pop record which has not so good sampling for keyboards, not so natural (though uber obvious) reverb for the voice, and this whole trying to sound-like-you're-in-an-echo-y-hall are all there. I'd have to say that the production side is actually really great. Placements of instruments, arrangements. Compression is obviously used, I think more so considering that this is a YouTube video, so the ups and downs are not so drastic. In case you don't know what compression is, it's an effect which helps to keep the softer and louder closer to each other (in some sense) such that people don't have to turn up and down the volume.

I have to say that I love the chorus whenever he holds the note for many words which always brings up the energy of the music. And arrangement side, the obvious starting with piano first then introducing bass and vocals, then drums, are obvious ways of building up the song. I have to say overall quite refreshing to realise that there is so much to learn from this track.

=)

Pomplamoose

Pomplamoose channel on YouTube

YouTube phenomenon was a brilliant thing. Even after Google bought it over, it's still a wondrous place. So many people were found and brought up because of YouTube. The good comes with the bad. For every truly great musician/singer that comes up from YouTube and gets noticed, a thousand others are more popular and get noticed with less of everything.

Then here comes Pomplamoose. A pseu-psychadelic group with childish instruments, a weird cracked "unique" voice for a female singer, and a super hard working sound-engineer cum producer.

All the instruments are played by the guy except for the bass and some auxiliary sounds by the girl. I have to say that there are many smart arrangements and instrumentation and sounds that they're producing, and in my opinion their best songs are their originals. Why?

Notice the way she sings Another Day, vs all the rest of the covers. Notice the kind of arrangements that they're doing when it comes to all the pop songs. As for the fact that production side the person who's doing it probably just quantises all the instruments and therefore it sounds amazingly static (though there are interesting timbre usage in this), but the vocalist sings it with much better phrasing than anything else she does. Another problem is the fact that her voice is "unique" but she's actually singing in a way that would eventually destroy her voice (keep changing the timbre through years of daily singing). So that's also one thing to note.

Overall a smart idea. More gimmicky than smart. Using video to make the music more fun, having own commentaries at the end, giving this amazingly indie look and having this uber quantised sound which can fit everybody's ears. And a voice somewhere near Rachel Yamagata and some indie singers which really fits the image. However, other than their own music, I'd have to say they're just another regular cover band trying to create a sound without genuinely adding feelings. Yes it's a judgment. No rhythmic shifts, everything quantised. Yes cute harmonies, which are quite nicely crafted but honestly means nothing. It wants to be whimsical without actually being whimsical. And it's not meant to be serious...

That's what the world seems to like nowadays.

Anyway, on the side note, I'd like to show you a clip of Pixie Lott, who has a fantastic production team and has impeccable phrasing, and is still very much pop. So far I'd have to say that her production and singing are some of the best stuff I've seen come out of pop in recent years. Meryl introduced her to me.

Pixie Lott tries to have different sound throughout her album and sometimes in a song itself she'll have multiple sounds. What's more? Her band might be completely digital meaning almost all the drum beats are looped and the keyboard is either of super low quality or is looped. But the way it is done is superb. Listen to the details. Not so quantised, but still on time!

You should have to listen for yourself.

Pixie Lott - Cry Me Out

With that, I conclude this series on Pop. =)