Friday, March 12, 2010

Suspending Disbelief: Inauthenticity in Modern Popular Music

"Suspending Disbelief" approaches pop music with a critical eye, focusing on the production tool known as auto-tune, as well as the practice of lip-synching. While these may be the most obvious techniques which flag popular music as inauthentic, this podcast argues that criticizing artists for utilizing auto-tune is moot; pop music is and always has been inauthentic since the beginning. Although we're normally able to ignore the fabricated nature of popular music, auto-tune and lip-syncing are simply too overt for us to suspend disbelief. These ideas and more are explored through interviews and excerpts of popular songs ranging from Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" to T-Pain's "Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin')".

Download the "Suspending Disbelief" podcast (14:16).

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