Changed my wordpress password over the weekend, which threw off my semi-automatic delicious blogging (aka, linkthink). So here’s a semi-manual collection of yesterday’s links —
- LRB · Slavoj Žižek: Use Your Illusions
looks like zizek caught the hope (kinda); here is a sneeze: “Nothing was decided with Obama’s victory, but it widens our freedom and thereby the scope of our decisions. No matter what happens, it will remain a sign of hope in our otherwise dark times, a sign that the last word does not belong to realistic cynics, from the left or the right.” - McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Noted Post-Marxist Sociologist, Philosopher, and Cultural Critic Slavoj Žižek Welcomes You to the Gym.
‘ Exercise allows us to engage in these repetitive motions without having to question why. The superego asks the id, “What are you doing? Don’t make me look stupid,” and then the ego and id respond, “Go to bed, old man. I am working out like Olivia Newton-John!” ‘
- Soul Jazz Records — Dancehall – Album — The Rise Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture
this looks great, as does the beth lesser book it accompanies — can’t wait to page through that with these chunes banging in the background
- hawgblawg: kufiya note #7078 (plus turban and hijab chic)
ted swedenburg stays on his kufiya-spotting grind, here noting a profusion of related fashion trends, including the rise/return of the turban, hijab, and pashmina
- Twankle & Glisten: Slap
kid slizzard rounds up a few bmore/youtube edits :: these are really quite entertaining, definitely some next level remixing :: i like what he sez — “these straight-chop video interpretations of Baltimore club tracks are the only way I’ve seen an unadulterated sample being ..uh.. sampled. Such great rap synthesthesia …” :: and, oh yeah, that chappelle shit is hilarious
- The Elephants Child: When theres Arab Money……
rachel runs down some riffs around “arab money,” from the narcicyst’s biting response to busta’s own defense (i hate that talk of different “cultures” — isn’t the point that this all falls under global capitalism?!), to an ‘unrelated’ video featuring “al qaeda jada”?!?! weirdnessesesses
- MUSIC WORLD – BUCHAMAN – Part 1 of 5 – VBS.TV
VBS.TV does it again, this time with a fascinating look at a dancehall crew in uganda, dabbling in local governance?!
- T-Pain and the Rise of the Singing Robots – AOL Music Canada
nice lil piece on the rise of autotune as the new reverb, w/ a kicker quotation from sñr /rupture: ‘But in Rupture’s view, autotuning is a means of augmenting, not stealing soul. “There’s something very humanizing about Auto-Tune. I see it as a duet between the electronics and the personal. It’s not like it’s making a voice sound computer-y, it’s a third, more interesting cyborg possibility—a reconciliation with technology. It’s a duet. I live in a world saturated by electronics and we’re finding a way to make that sing.” ‘
videyoga ::
Too right. If Autotune was actually able to turn a bad singer into a good one, maybe Kanye’s new material wouldn’t be so gutwrenchingly mediocre.
ny times article i thought you might find some intrest in.
this guys books are great, if you’ve never come across them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/magazine/16hyde-t.html?ex=1384405200&en=1b7e2873cb17dd47&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook
Fascinating stuff, Dominic. Pretty germane to lots I’ve been thinking about lately. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve been thinking. Wasn’t the use of Autotune in hip-hop prefigured by a use of a somewhat similar effect in dancehall, circa 2001-2002? I’m thinking of TOK’s cover of “Somebody’s Watching Me” (which was a bonus track on “My Crew, My Dawgs”) and Tanto Metro & Devonte’s huge hit “Give It To Her”. Is there possibly a connection?
Dancehall was definitely one of the first genres to really embrace autotune — and did so significantly before the more recent ubiquity in hip-hop/r&b. Beenie Man’s “Dude” (2004) stands out as a prominent example where it was used in a playful/interesting rather than corrective fashion (esp on his vocals; Ms.Thing, who sings the chorus, sounds like she really needed it). Of course, that’s later than the dates you’re mentioning — those are pretty early examples and, I think, were seen, like Cher, more as a novelty effect than as a new standard in the producer’s toolkit. In part, it has to do with the availability of the tech as well as its desirability. By 2004 I recall talking to a producer who complained that every other vocalist he worked with was asking for the “computer voice”!
I think another popular/influential pre-US use, although more subtle, is Kevin Lyttle’s “Turn Me On.”
Good point. That’s potentially before the other two as well, although it didn’t break internationally until three years later. I remember really liking the tune, which I bought circa summer 2002 on one of the D’Soca Zone comps, and pushing it onto several of my rockist friends in mixtapes, who all hated it. They were much annoyed when two years later it made #2 in the UK.
Perhaps soca should receive more credit for popularizing autotune as the new reverb in r&b, etc. I’m reminded that Rupee’s “Tempted to Touch,” which followed on the heels of Lyttle’s success, also employed the effect in a subtle-but-audible manner.
I think in terms of dancehall, soca, it seems part of a larger early rise in Caribbean musics b/c its also been used for a long time in zouk, at least since the early 2000s.