Autotune, Formulas & Open Mic Week - The Emperors New Clothes -

Having observed the "music industry" for some years now, what is painfully clear to most all serious musicians is that the vast majority of modern popular music is an artificial creation from start to finish.

Almost all mainstream/pop "artists" now use what is known as pitch correction on their vocals. What this means in essence is that a singer need not actually be genuinely talented or great as a vocalist, because with pitch correction almost anyone can be made to sound like someone who can actually sing in tune...

Singing Robot by AbominableInk

The sad reality is that ultimately music in the modern age is more about good looks and funky attitude than about any kind of genuine musical greatness. Add to this the fact that most of your "hit parade" songs nowadays are written by just a handful of formulaic songwriters AKA Max Martin etc - there is not much room for genuine creativity or talent in terms of songwriting or performance.

Of course there are genuine artists, songwriters and musicians around, but sadly in terms of the mainstream you will hardly ever hear about them. And so they walk a precarious path and more often than not have to abandon the dream of music making for something more likely to actually pay the bills.

So if you are one of the rare souls looking for true music of the heart in the current age, you will need to expand your horizons far beyond the mainstream avenues. You need to dig deep.

This is why I feel that Steemit Open Mic Week has so much potential. It is a rare opportunity for folks to find real people making real music and to make a lasting connection. No longer do we need to be reliant on the mainstream in any way shape or form to find the soundtracks to our lives. But still this platform needs to be protected.

My personal feeling is that for authenticity sake, pitch correction and backtracks should not feature in the Open Mic format. Obviously this is a little difficult to monitor but a trained ear can easily pick PC up (think Cher "Believe" as an extreme example).

Of course this idea may also be a little controversial, considering that many musicians have now become so reliant on these modern musical devices. Still, I would encourage such musicians to leave these temporary crutches behind, and by doing so they will only improve in their art and so be better able to fully express that unspoken longing of the soul that is the ultimate aspiration of genuine musical creation.