Parody account or rich parents naively supporting?

[Newfoundfreedom]

I disagree. It smacks of parody / social experiment or some kind of marketing to me. 

 

It's too well produced to be so wrong. Even the actual singing is too wrong, to the point where it seems rehearsed. 

Edited July 29, 2021 by Newfoundfreedom

[Cato]

What it mainly reminded me of was one of those Les Dawson piano skits.

 

It's not just randomly bad, it feels like it's been meticulously arranged to be as jarring as possible.

 

I'm not certain but I think some bits sound like they've been pitch 'corrected' to be further out of tune than they already were.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Cato

[Cato]

For the young 'uns (i think there's one or two BCers under 45)

 

 

[uk_lefty]

4 minutes ago, Cato said:

It's not just randomly bad, it feels like it's been meticulously arranged to be as jarring as possible.

Fair point. When will be the big reveal,  I wonder... Might be a follow up to the lad who booked his fake band on a fake tour and went "haha, fooled you all!" to global media attention, though nobody (except the venues who lost money) gave a shiny shite. 

[Eldon Tyrell]

10 hours ago, uk_lefty said:

But even that was not a rescue... If its a uni experiment then the production value in the recorded tracks and videos must have cost a lot, so I'm not entirely convinced on that theory. There's easier ways to see how fast and how far a message travels on social media etc. I can believe its real. I once answered an ad for a country band where the singer claimed he'd recorded 12 albums, 10 of which in Nashville. He also had videos, none as glossy as that, but the songs and vocals were utterly utterly dreadful. 

 

Could be that her MSc dissertation supervisor got funding for it from a research council (e.g., ESRC or AHRC). 

[Cato]

My guess would be that it was a joint project with a couple of students from her uni's media/perfomance arts departments.

 

She does her experiment, they get to show off their skills putting together a glossy video, maybe there's a music production department that got involved as well.

 

Costs are kept down. Everybody hands in a fairly impressive bit of coursework that ticks the right boxes for their respective studies and, as a bonus, gets to put creating a viral video on their CVs.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Cato

[Beedster]

2 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I disagree. It smacks of parody / social experiment or some kind of marketing to me. 

 

It's too well produced to be so wrong. Even the actual singing is too wrong, to the point where it seems rehearsed. 

Absolutely, she has a well-trained and well rehearsed voice, it takes skill to be so consistently out of tune. To quote Withnail and I (badly), even a broken clock is right two times a day

[MacDaddy]

21 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Absolutely, she has a well-trained and well rehearsed voice, it takes skill to be so consistently out of tune. To quote Withnail and I (badly), even a broken clock is right two times a day

 

not if it's broken because the hands have fallen off 

[Nicko]

On 27/07/2021 at 16:13, paul_5 said:

If it genuinely IS a sociological experiment, then can I opt out?

 

Too late, not only have you watched it you've also commented here on it.

 

As an experiment it's clearly working - 400k hits on youtube but more importantly mentioned in one thread  and the actual factual topic in another thread right here on BC.  Surely BC is not unique in how this has invaded our forum.

 

Should the mods block the thread to prevent the experiment continuing?

Edited July 29, 2021 by Nicko

[ubit]

On 28/07/2021 at 08:04, gjones said:

I liked her song 'Smelly Cat'.

She makes Phoebie sound absolutely great. Central Perk is waiting!

[ubit]

3 hours ago, Cato said:

My guess would be that it was a joint project with a couple of students from her uni's media/perfomance arts departments.

 

She does her experiment, they get to show off their skills putting together a glossy video, maybe there's music production and drama departments that got involved as well.

 

Costs are kept down. Everybody hands in a fairly impressive bit of coursework that ticks the right boxes for their respective studies and, as a bonus, gets to put creating a viral video on their CVs.

If that was a joint experiment between a bunch of students to make a video then I'm sure they could find one who could hold a tune.

[Dad3353]

27 minutes ago, ubit said:

If that was a joint experiment between a bunch of students to make a video then I'm sure they could find one who could hold a tune.

 

But that seems to be the whole point: can anyone, even a duff singer, get enough plays just by sheer force of presence in the media..? Is it singing talent that makes folk play the clips, or some other factor..? If it's an experiment of the sort, a 'duff' singer would be required, not a good one. Maybe. 

[Nicko]

35 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

But that seems to be the whole point: can anyone, even a duff singer, get enough plays just by sheer force of presence in the media..? Is it singing talent that makes folk play the clips, or some other factor..? If it's an experiment of the sort, a 'duff' singer would be required, not a good one. Maybe. 

Doesn't work for my BC composition entries 😃

[bass_dinger]

6 hours ago, Cato said:

 

It's not just randomly bad, it feels like it's been meticulously arranged to be as jarring as possible.

 

Yes - that is why I wondered about a musical analysis of the song, and the singing.  It sounds "precisely" bad - a deliberate half-sharp here, a glissando though the note there, and some exactly flat singing elsewhere.  Each verse seems to have the same repeated errors.  Like Les Dawson, someone would need a deep understanding of music theory to produce something as unmusical as what we are hearing.     

Add to that a competent arrangement, some choreographed dance moves, and a well-edited video with a story, and it is beginning to feel like an exercise in marketing bad music.
   

[Eldon Tyrell]

51 minutes ago, bass_dinger said:

Yes - that is why I wondered about a musical analysis of the song, and the singing.  It sounds "precisely" bad - a deliberate half-sharp here, a glissando though the note there, and some exactly flat singing elsewhere.  Each verse seems to have the same repeated errors.  Like Les Dawson, someone would need a deep understanding of music theory to produce something as unmusical as what we are hearing.     

Add to that a competent arrangement, some choreographed dance moves, and a well-edited video with a story, and it is beginning to feel like an exercise in marketing bad music.
   

Agree, maybe someone should ask Rick Beato to analyse the song as part of a new series: "What makes this song awful?" 😉 

[musicbassman]

1 hour ago, Eldon Tyrell said:

Agree, maybe someone should ask Rick Beato to analyse the song as part of a new series: "What makes this song awful?"

- That's a brilliant idea ! - I'd certainly watch Rick doing a series on that theme. Let the pain begin................

[Count Bassy]

6 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

not if it's broken because the hands have fallen off 

Ah, but then, can it ever be wrong?

[ubit]

I'm sorry guys but I just cannot believe that someone is so musically talented that they can deliberately sing like this as an experiment to see how many dislikes they can get. Have you ever heard of anything so absurd? To be so slightly out of tune but not on the money takes someone who is tone deaf. A real singer just can't do this consistently.

[nilebodgers]

9 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

I disagree. It smacks of parody / social experiment or some kind of marketing to me. 

 

It's too well produced to be so wrong. Even the actual singing is too wrong, to the point where it seems rehearsed. 

I agree, the production is too good for it to be genuinely bad. The muted quality of the backing track also reminds me of how a comedy song is mixed to make the vocals extra-prominent.

[Eldon Tyrell]

16 minutes ago, ubit said:

I'm sorry guys but I just cannot believe that someone is so musically talented that they can deliberately sing like this as an experiment to see how many dislikes they can get. Have you ever heard of anything so absurd? To be so slightly out of tune but not on the money takes someone who is tone deaf. A real singer just can't do this consistently.

I still the like the idea of this being a social experiment (or part of a series of experiments) more than the idea of her spending too much time, energy and money on writing songs and shooting videos without, politely said, being a good singer. 

[geoham]

Surely if this was a genuinely deluded singer, even a bedroom sound engineer would have auto-tune all over this?

As has already been pointed out, it's difficult to sing this out of tune... so it's got to be deliberate as far as I'm concerned. Someone signing it normally, then pitch-shifting a quarter tone for example.

Edited July 29, 2021 by geoham

[Dad3353]

10 minutes ago, geoham said:

Surely if this was a genuinely deluded singer, even a bedroom sound engineer would have auto-tune all over this?

As has already been pointed out, it's difficult to sing this out of tune... so it's got to be deliberate as far as I'm concerned. Someone signing it normally, then pitch-shifting a quarter tone for example.

 

It would be more interesting to know about the experiment, if experiment it is, than anything else the videos offer. Will we ever know..? Hmm... 

[lowdown]

1 hour ago, geoham said:

Surely if this was a genuinely deluded singer, even a bedroom sound engineer would have auto-tune all over this?

As has already been pointed out, it's difficult to sing this out of tune... so it's got to be deliberate as far as I'm concerned. Someone signing it normally, then pitch-shifting a quarter tone for example.

 

This crossed my mind and maybe there could be a bit of mischievous, skulduggery at work here. Of course, it could just as well be a terrible, deluded vocalist at work.

Using Variaudio, in Cubase, you can fine tune pitchy notes and play with the vibrato speeds and slides. The results are very good with few artefacts (if any) if used sparingly.

Although, I haven't tried it in anger. you can also do some reverse engineering and turn an excellent vocal performance into a train crash, sounding very much like the OP video.

 

Experiment, or not. To me, with an over the top vocal fail and terrible, amateur, student acting from all involved, including nods to Kate Bush and Sharon Stone from the top turn, it's all one big Urine take.

Quite frankly, I can't believe I listened to it all the way through.

 

 

 

 

 

[Beedster]

2 hours ago, ubit said:

I'm sorry guys but I just cannot believe that someone is so musically talented that they can deliberately sing like this as an experiment to see how many dislikes they can get. Have you ever heard of anything so absurd? To be so slightly out of tune but not on the money takes someone who is tone deaf. A real singer just can't do this consistently.

She’s been detuned

[Nicko]

23 minutes ago, lowdown said:

 

This crossed my mind and maybe there could be a bit of mischievous, skulduggery at work here. Of course, it could just as well be a terrible, deluded vocalist at work.

Using Variaudio, in Cubase, you can fine tune pitchy notes and play with the vibrato speeds and slides. The results are very good with few artefacts (if any) if used sparingly.

Although, I haven't tried it in anger. you can also do some reverse engineering and turn an excellent vocal performance into a train crash, sounding very much like the OP video.

 

Experiment, or not. To me, with an over the top vocal fail and terrible, amateur, student acting from all involved, including nods to Kate Bush and Sharon Stone from the top turn, it's all one big Urine take.

Quite frankly, I can't believe I listened to it all the way through.

 

 

 

 

 

Did you check out the video of her singing live in a bar?  Can't see how you could do that with auto(de)tune.