CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Music and Recordings => Topic started by: Marvey on December 30, 2012, 06:06:50 PM
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I some of you may know, I'm a big sucker for pop tunes (probably a result of too much intense study of classical at university).
(http://www.changstar.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=697.0;attach=2703;image)
I'm curious how many of you have been watching The Voice on TV. Normally I dismiss these shows (I hate American Idol, I don't care for any of the Idol winners, nor I do like any of the Idol music, and I hate the freakshow element - this includes the judges).
So my wife's been watching The Voice for a while now, and I have finally caught on. I absolutely loved this year's winner Cassadee Pope her renditions of these not so necessarily well known pop songs, i.e. what I would call hidden gems of pop, (They really know how the pick great songs on the The Voice.)
Anyways, lots of talent on the show, great contestants, great judges (who are very good singers in their own right), and no freakshow BS.
Some covers from Cassadee Pope:
Faith Hill / Cry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUoWJRBEfak (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUoWJRBEfak)
N.I. / Torn (her blind audition): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjUo0_RBAZY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjUo0_RBAZY)
Avril Lavigne / I'm With You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KPophGtFbM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KPophGtFbM)
P.S. I am so sick of Gungnam Style. I wish Psy would fall into an open manhole. There is much better K-pop around.
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If it weren't for Psy, tens of millions of people would know nothing of K-Pop. If even three percent of them decide to explore more deeply, it's all good.
You hating on Psy is no more rational than if I hated on Esperanza Spaulding for being hot and playing accessible quasi-jazz. They're the gateway drugs.
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Dr Dre Beats are awesome.
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My sister showed me a few people per week, but I didn't like that girl at all really. The hippie looking, white soul singer guy was awesome though.
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You mean Nicholas David. He made the top three. The final had a double elimination where they got rid of him and the Scottish rocker Hobbit. Here is Nicolas with Smokey Robinson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQYN-JL-K0g (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQYN-JL-K0g)
LOL, I didn't know Smokey's still around. He seems much weaker in the Force these days.
Here's Nicohlas again (You Are So Beautiful): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Cjdb6lYK8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Cjdb6lYK8)
The top five were all really good, with the exception of Melanie Martinez (who had obvious pitch issues).
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Another was Amanda Brown: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CenCMTJT_M (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CenCMTJT_M) (Grace Potter and the Nocturnals "Stars")
I think she could have won, but her downfall came because she wanted to do too many covers from various rock acts: Aerosmith, Whitesnake, etc. She performed these rock songs well, but they were not especially suited to her.
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Severe off-topic detour here: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,702.msg15871.html#msg15871 (http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,702.msg15871.html#msg15871)
In the future, I would prefer that we not dissect threads to such absurd levels given the context of the original post and forum topic (Music and Recordings). It's a fun show about pop music anyways. I think banging the hammer, not once, but twice, on social commentary of the ills of such a show giving older adolescents unrealistic or dampened expectations is a bit too much.
If an off-topic opinion is so important that it should be known by the readers here, the proper practice would have been to start a new topic an appropriate forum section and provide a link from here to it.
This is not HF and I would prefer that threads here not look like HF with such a low signal to noise ratio.
Continue on...
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This show as a guilty pleasure, but now I'm an unabashed fan of this show. I got hooked in Season 2 when these clever bastards ran the season premiere right after the Super Bowl. Surprised how much I'm hooked on this show given that I avoid American Idol at all costs.
I didn't like Cassadee Pope at all the first few weeks, but really warmed up to her by the end. She has one of those squeaky voices that covers a very narrow band of frequency that doesn't leave a lot of room for error. It'd be very obvious if she's off-pitch, but she is so effortlessly spot-on in all of her performances. Can't be mad at her taking it all in the end.
If you close your eyes, her voice sounds like a song interlude in a Disney movie.
I was personally pulling for Amanda Brown or Nicholas David. Amanda was amazing when she was on (like when she did Dream On: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPY6QL2Q5C4), but she was too inconsistent. Nicholas didn't have the vocal dexterity of some of the other singers, but dude sang with so much soul and conviction. He'd probably be the only person on the show I'd actually buy an album from.
And yes, I hated Melanie Martinez and did not understand why she got so far. They praised her for being "unique" and "different", but she sounds like every other boring emo hipster song reinterpreter out there. Trevin was heads and shoulders above everyone else in the competition for the first few weeks, until everyone realized that he can only do ballads.
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A share your sentiments. I too thought Cassadee was ho-hum in the beginning, but warmed up to her. I think her performance of Avril Lavigne's I'm With You turned the tide for me. I was surprised Amanda got kicked as early as she did, you as you mention, she was inconsistent.
I kind of felt Cassadee would win it all when it was down to 4-5. She's the most marketable, and I my pop sensibilities felt that way.