So....I finally saw the clip of Ashlee Simpsons train wreck of a performance on SNL a couple of weeks ago. Okay, well this is a bit after the fact and I know everyone has already probably stopped talking (or caring) about this subject I'm going to address, but since I only just saw it and everything, I really have to throw in my two cents. Bear with me, lol....
I had heard about the performance and the mishap with the pre-recorded track. It didn't surprise me any because frankly, if anyone who ever bothered to watch her awful reality show on MTV could plainly see, the girl's "talent" is limited at best. I had also heard about her off key singing live at the awards show, which again just showed that while she might have the drive to want to be famous, she is not ready to be out there being hailed and praised alongside other singers, musicians, and artists who have spent many years honing their craft.
Now, many artists, even legitimate ones, have gone onto television and mimed to a recording of their own song, it's been done for years. Many shows prefer it this way because it's simpler to control volume problems and such. SNL, however, has always been a source of live music from its weekly guests. Even some of the rap artists have performed on SNL, they've brought along a live band of musicians to back them up rather than just rap along to a pre-recorded backing track. Sometimes also, backing tracks are used on television as well as live concerts, in order to "fill out" some sections that are difficult or near impossible to recreat with a live band, such as orchestra parts, multiple layered harmonies, sound effects, etc. When this is done, I don't really have a problem with it at all, I can understand its necessity.
When a backing track is used to basically fake out an audience into believing that the singer onstage is really singing when they're merely just mouthing words, that's when I think it's wrong. Ashlee obviously is guilty of this, and like I said, the fact that she can't go on tv and sing her song completely live for fear of her weak talent showing through, just proves that she doesn't belong where she is, at least not yet. Had she waited a while longer, really trained herself and "paid her dues", then she might've eventually been a good singer who could stand on her own two feet. But no, as per usual with the pop star making machinery, they had to push her out there right now, and cash in while she was still young, which of course is a big marketing ploy, and also while her homely dumb-as-a-sack-of-horsheshit, googly eyed sister was still "hot" on the charts and on television. This stuff is just typical for the industry nowadays, really, and it comes as no surprise.
I guess what irked me the most and made me want to go off on this rant though, is the fact that at the end of the SNL episode, she blames her band for "playing the wrong song". Fucking unbelieveable. First of all, it's plain to see that the problem was not that of the band, but of the person in the control room who played the vocal tape for the wrong song, which shouldn't have been an issue had she BEEN A GOOD FUCKING VOCALIST AND NOT NEEDED A PRE-RECORDED VOCAL TRACK. Had she at the least come out and apologised later and said anything else, even if she said "My throat gave out on me that afternoon and it was too late to cancel so we resorted to me using a recorded tape for vocals" then I could at least say it was possibly a feasable excuse. But in typical bullshit music biz style, they blame it on the poor backing musicians who are just trying to work a decent paying gig in an overcrowded industy. It just blew me away. "No, don't hate me please! I'm a cute popstar! It's someone else's fault, blame them! They're just faceless hired musicians noone cares about! They can take the fall for me! Oh dear god, how are my Soundscan numbers going to look after all this?" Ri-goddamn-diculous.
I am thankful that I am in a scene where crap like this wouldn't be accepted, and where record labels like ours would never force any kind of crap like this down anyone's throats. Meanwhile the huge corporate companies are just walking corruption. I'm no Milli Vanilli fan, and I think they deserved to be ridiculed for what they did, but isn't it ironic that the man who masterminded the entire MV scam, some German pop producer, is still working in the business today and continues to make records? Why wasn't he ridiculed and blacklisted along with the two assclowns in MV? lol Because he was a powerful industry person, and he knew how to manipulate the situation. When people started to catch onto the fact that perhaps those guys werent really singing those songs, it was the producer who went public and pulled the rug out from under them, so as to make himself look like the "good guy" for coming forward with it.....even though it was his total fucking idea to do the whole scam in the first place, and even threatened the Milli Vanilli guys with lawsuits, bankruptcy, and disgrace when they tried to back out of the deal or ask that they be given the chance to come clean first. Anyhow, my point is, it really angers me when I see the industry pull some fucking bullshit like Ashlee Simpson or any of these other fabricated pop acts, and then when things go wrong, they find someone else to blame for it, some "insignificant" person(s) that aren't media darlings of the moment.
Okay, I'm done. It just bugged me and I felt like going off about it. Nothing better going on around here right now anyhow lol:hotjump:
I had heard about the performance and the mishap with the pre-recorded track. It didn't surprise me any because frankly, if anyone who ever bothered to watch her awful reality show on MTV could plainly see, the girl's "talent" is limited at best. I had also heard about her off key singing live at the awards show, which again just showed that while she might have the drive to want to be famous, she is not ready to be out there being hailed and praised alongside other singers, musicians, and artists who have spent many years honing their craft.
Now, many artists, even legitimate ones, have gone onto television and mimed to a recording of their own song, it's been done for years. Many shows prefer it this way because it's simpler to control volume problems and such. SNL, however, has always been a source of live music from its weekly guests. Even some of the rap artists have performed on SNL, they've brought along a live band of musicians to back them up rather than just rap along to a pre-recorded backing track. Sometimes also, backing tracks are used on television as well as live concerts, in order to "fill out" some sections that are difficult or near impossible to recreat with a live band, such as orchestra parts, multiple layered harmonies, sound effects, etc. When this is done, I don't really have a problem with it at all, I can understand its necessity.
When a backing track is used to basically fake out an audience into believing that the singer onstage is really singing when they're merely just mouthing words, that's when I think it's wrong. Ashlee obviously is guilty of this, and like I said, the fact that she can't go on tv and sing her song completely live for fear of her weak talent showing through, just proves that she doesn't belong where she is, at least not yet. Had she waited a while longer, really trained herself and "paid her dues", then she might've eventually been a good singer who could stand on her own two feet. But no, as per usual with the pop star making machinery, they had to push her out there right now, and cash in while she was still young, which of course is a big marketing ploy, and also while her homely dumb-as-a-sack-of-horsheshit, googly eyed sister was still "hot" on the charts and on television. This stuff is just typical for the industry nowadays, really, and it comes as no surprise.
I guess what irked me the most and made me want to go off on this rant though, is the fact that at the end of the SNL episode, she blames her band for "playing the wrong song". Fucking unbelieveable. First of all, it's plain to see that the problem was not that of the band, but of the person in the control room who played the vocal tape for the wrong song, which shouldn't have been an issue had she BEEN A GOOD FUCKING VOCALIST AND NOT NEEDED A PRE-RECORDED VOCAL TRACK. Had she at the least come out and apologised later and said anything else, even if she said "My throat gave out on me that afternoon and it was too late to cancel so we resorted to me using a recorded tape for vocals" then I could at least say it was possibly a feasable excuse. But in typical bullshit music biz style, they blame it on the poor backing musicians who are just trying to work a decent paying gig in an overcrowded industy. It just blew me away. "No, don't hate me please! I'm a cute popstar! It's someone else's fault, blame them! They're just faceless hired musicians noone cares about! They can take the fall for me! Oh dear god, how are my Soundscan numbers going to look after all this?" Ri-goddamn-diculous.
I am thankful that I am in a scene where crap like this wouldn't be accepted, and where record labels like ours would never force any kind of crap like this down anyone's throats. Meanwhile the huge corporate companies are just walking corruption. I'm no Milli Vanilli fan, and I think they deserved to be ridiculed for what they did, but isn't it ironic that the man who masterminded the entire MV scam, some German pop producer, is still working in the business today and continues to make records? Why wasn't he ridiculed and blacklisted along with the two assclowns in MV? lol Because he was a powerful industry person, and he knew how to manipulate the situation. When people started to catch onto the fact that perhaps those guys werent really singing those songs, it was the producer who went public and pulled the rug out from under them, so as to make himself look like the "good guy" for coming forward with it.....even though it was his total fucking idea to do the whole scam in the first place, and even threatened the Milli Vanilli guys with lawsuits, bankruptcy, and disgrace when they tried to back out of the deal or ask that they be given the chance to come clean first. Anyhow, my point is, it really angers me when I see the industry pull some fucking bullshit like Ashlee Simpson or any of these other fabricated pop acts, and then when things go wrong, they find someone else to blame for it, some "insignificant" person(s) that aren't media darlings of the moment.
Okay, I'm done. It just bugged me and I felt like going off about it. Nothing better going on around here right now anyhow lol:hotjump:
