That’s right, I’m blogging about American Idol. Deal with it. I watch it in passing (never longer then 30 seconds at a time) with the same fascination that I watch my dog lose a fight with a chain saw or my left foot hacked up for human sashimi. A lot of my pent up anger and frustration with process and seemingly endless praise for mediocre wanna-be B level cocktail lounge crooners stems from the fact that the contestants aren’t very good.
There’s a musical term called Melisma which is singing one syllable on more then one note. There’s a great article in the New York Times (2003) called The State of American Singing As Heard on ‘I-I-I-I-I-I-Idol that compares classic singers (Ray Charles) to every modern wanna be on their use of melisma’s. It’s an interesting take on the comparison between good and god-awful new and old.
Posted by Steve Mynett
Tags: melismas singers vocal idol, Music, We love
