Frankenpop
Normally I completely ignore any sort of celebrity magazine, or gossip television program. I mean, what do I care if Britney Spears was sighted at a Tulsa Wal-Mart buying paper towels? How does it help me, or the world for that matter, to know what cereal Ali Larter likes to eat for breakfast? I have done a decent job in training my mind to tune out any sort of celebrity information source. However, I have broken stride this week when a coworker showed me some footage of Ashlee Simpson's performance on Saturday Night Live this past Saturday. I was not only shocked that Ashlee got caught with her pants down, but that I was actually laughing at something that came from Saturday Night Live.
For those readers who have not heard about what happen on Saturday Night Live during Ashlee's second performance, allow me to briefly recapitulate the event: Earlier in the evening Ashlee performed one of her tunes, and all was well. Later on when Ashlee and her band hit the stage to play song number two, the vocals from the first song they played started up. At this point Ashlee did her "everyone knows I am doing the lip-sync thing and I am embarrassed," dance. As the show closed, Ashlee blamed the slip up on her band. She claimed that they "played the wrong song." Later on she revised her explanation by stating that her drummer started the wrong track, and that she was using the track because of throat problems. Her drummer had this to say on the "official website:"
"Strangely the whole wrong song debaucle seems to be getting lost amongst the speculation that Ashlee was lip-synching. SHE WAS NOT!!! I was there. Ashlee was having problems with her voice/throat
that day. A couple hours before playing SNL... Your voice is almost gone... What do you do? A lot of performers may have gone the lip-synching route. But Ash trucked on through, singing her own songs, but with a backing vocal track for reinforcement. She did not 'FAKE' anything. If you listen to the first performance, you can make out two voices. Hers, and that of the backing track. No, this is not something that she usually does. In fact, this is something that she NEVER does. But this was somewhat of an emergency.
We all laugh about it now. Ash is taking it really well. And I of course am getting (probably LESS than)
my fair share of jokes from the band about it. 'Mother, sister, father, sister, drummer, everything's
cool now.' We've all let it go. So should everybody else.
There are so many rumors flying around started by people who have no clue, and nothing better to do than rip on an innocent performer simply because they don't like her music. It's ridiculous. You people need to grow up.
In conclusion, I'd like to say that I DO agree with you guys on one point. Ashlee should NOT have blamed her band for what happened. Honestly, she should've blamed me, her drummer. It sucks to say, but it's
true. I hope that this message clears things up for everyone."
Ah, a "backing vocal track for reinforcement." I did not hear the first performance of the evening, therefore I cannot confirm or deny that two voices could be heard singing (one "almost gone" voice singing with a perfectly edited voice). If this was what did in fact happen, I am sure it sounded lovely (insert sarcasm). If I were the suit that was pulling Ashlee's strings that evening, and knew that her voice was shot (assuming her "acid reflux" was really the issue), would I let her screech along with a perfectly edited vocal track on Saturday Night Live? Think about that for a minute.
Let us pretend that her voice was bugging her, and she was using a "reinforcement track," and that track backfired. Why did she run off the stage? Ashlee's drummer states in the passage above that she "trucked on through, singing her own songs." If this were the case, why did she not just sing the song without the "reinforcement track?" If her voice was so shot that she could not have sung a shaky version of the song, then a "reinforcement track" would not have made a difference.
Now, I will give Ashlee the benefit of the doubt for a minute and assume that in a live concert situation she does sing. It would not surprise me if she used the edited vocal track on Saturday Night Live, because most suits want their acts to sound "CD perfect" when they perform on television. If this were the case, why not just let that little secret out?
Why not also tell the record buying public that the VAST MAJORITY of pop music (rock, R&B, rap, country, etc.) has been edited to the point where it rarely resembles the original performance? Each take (recorded performance) gets dumped into a computer program where the best bits (and I mean bits) of each performance get spliced together, and altered. After each instrument and vocal have been edited (vocals get pitch corrected as well) and mixed, the end result resembles an audio version of Frankenstein's monster.
For those readers who have not heard about what happen on Saturday Night Live during Ashlee's second performance, allow me to briefly recapitulate the event: Earlier in the evening Ashlee performed one of her tunes, and all was well. Later on when Ashlee and her band hit the stage to play song number two, the vocals from the first song they played started up. At this point Ashlee did her "everyone knows I am doing the lip-sync thing and I am embarrassed," dance. As the show closed, Ashlee blamed the slip up on her band. She claimed that they "played the wrong song." Later on she revised her explanation by stating that her drummer started the wrong track, and that she was using the track because of throat problems. Her drummer had this to say on the "official website:"
"Strangely the whole wrong song debaucle seems to be getting lost amongst the speculation that Ashlee was lip-synching. SHE WAS NOT!!! I was there. Ashlee was having problems with her voice/throat
that day. A couple hours before playing SNL... Your voice is almost gone... What do you do? A lot of performers may have gone the lip-synching route. But Ash trucked on through, singing her own songs, but with a backing vocal track for reinforcement. She did not 'FAKE' anything. If you listen to the first performance, you can make out two voices. Hers, and that of the backing track. No, this is not something that she usually does. In fact, this is something that she NEVER does. But this was somewhat of an emergency.
We all laugh about it now. Ash is taking it really well. And I of course am getting (probably LESS than)
my fair share of jokes from the band about it. 'Mother, sister, father, sister, drummer, everything's
cool now.' We've all let it go. So should everybody else.
There are so many rumors flying around started by people who have no clue, and nothing better to do than rip on an innocent performer simply because they don't like her music. It's ridiculous. You people need to grow up.
In conclusion, I'd like to say that I DO agree with you guys on one point. Ashlee should NOT have blamed her band for what happened. Honestly, she should've blamed me, her drummer. It sucks to say, but it's
true. I hope that this message clears things up for everyone."
Ah, a "backing vocal track for reinforcement." I did not hear the first performance of the evening, therefore I cannot confirm or deny that two voices could be heard singing (one "almost gone" voice singing with a perfectly edited voice). If this was what did in fact happen, I am sure it sounded lovely (insert sarcasm). If I were the suit that was pulling Ashlee's strings that evening, and knew that her voice was shot (assuming her "acid reflux" was really the issue), would I let her screech along with a perfectly edited vocal track on Saturday Night Live? Think about that for a minute.
Let us pretend that her voice was bugging her, and she was using a "reinforcement track," and that track backfired. Why did she run off the stage? Ashlee's drummer states in the passage above that she "trucked on through, singing her own songs." If this were the case, why did she not just sing the song without the "reinforcement track?" If her voice was so shot that she could not have sung a shaky version of the song, then a "reinforcement track" would not have made a difference.
Now, I will give Ashlee the benefit of the doubt for a minute and assume that in a live concert situation she does sing. It would not surprise me if she used the edited vocal track on Saturday Night Live, because most suits want their acts to sound "CD perfect" when they perform on television. If this were the case, why not just let that little secret out?
Why not also tell the record buying public that the VAST MAJORITY of pop music (rock, R&B, rap, country, etc.) has been edited to the point where it rarely resembles the original performance? Each take (recorded performance) gets dumped into a computer program where the best bits (and I mean bits) of each performance get spliced together, and altered. After each instrument and vocal have been edited (vocals get pitch corrected as well) and mixed, the end result resembles an audio version of Frankenstein's monster.