Yes, I have decided to stop being lazy and actually get back to my blog.  Now that school is over and going out on weeknights has ceased I don’t have homework, I have absolutely no excuse not to be working on this site.  Unfortunately, the first thing that inspired me to get this going again wasn’t a good thing.

While driving the other day, listening to the radio (yes, I still listen to the radio–my ipod isn’t hooked up to my car 24/7.  Guess what else.  I still buy CDs.  I’ll wait for you to grasp that since I know it’s a foreign concept…) and the DJ was talking about Miley Cyrus’ new controversial music video for “Who Owns My Heart.”  Now, I’ve never been a huge Miley fan, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t shriek from excitement each time I heard “Party in the USA” last year.  I went ahead and looked up the video and it was everything I thought it would be: Miley draped in revealing clothing, dancing twitching in that awkward way that she does, trying to be older than she is.  OLD NEWS.  Been there done that.

As annoyed as I was with that video, I can’t say that I was the least bit surprised.  The video itself is not what made me mad.  The lack of human music in the video made me mad.  Sadly, the formula of digitalization + Auto-tune has resulted in over 2,500,000 views on YouTube.  Is digitalization honestly what this era of music is going to be remembered for? What talent does that take?  It takes a tech-savvy individual and the right program.  Not talent, not musical intuition, not…anything to do with…music.

I don’t hate everything digitalized in the music world.  Take Lady Gaga for example.  She uses vocal manipulations in a ton of her songs and it allows her to showcase her individuality.  What is the difference between her and artists like Miley?  Lady Gaga can actually sing.  She writes her own music, and has the impeccable ability to stay on pitch.  She is a musician, not just a performer.  My dad could talk his way through the lyrics to “Who Owns My Heart,” hire an Auto-tune expert, and sound the same way as Miley.  (No offense, Dad.  I mean, you’d probably sound better but I’m trying to prove a point here.)

Think about what the 1970s are musically remembered for….  The Lennon/McCartney songwriting duo, the continued celebration of Motown and well, you get the idea.  What is 2010 remembered for?  Auto-tune?  Editing?  Digitalized vocals?  Yeah…impressive.

**I realize many other artists also use and abuse Auto-tune and computerized sound effects.  I only focused on Miley Cyrus because I was inspired to write about it after watching her video.