Re: [OT] Vivi, the Virtual Violinist, plays LilyPond music

[Graham Percival]

On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 11:26:40AM -0400, Kieren MacMillan wrote:

> Rather, I'm railing against the following [possibly inevitable, but still 
> disheartening] reality:
>
> In the 1940s, a barometer of popular taste was Frank Sinatra
...
> In the 1960s, the barometer was Bob Dylan (who can write great
...
> Today, the barometer is people who can do none of the above,
> doing *all* of the above -- heavily "assisted" by AutoTune™,
> AutoCorrect™, and all the other AutoCrutches™ "creators" have
> come to rely on, and (more unfortunately) consumers have come to
> accept (or even prefer).

I don't find this disheartening -- I consider this a triumph of
science.  Leaving aside the effects of marketing (which are
substantial, and defrays my "popular = good" claim from a few days
ago), we've (apparently) reached the point where the combined
efforts of a singer, sound engineers, computer programmers,
composers, arrangers, sound sample recordings, and the generic
term "producers", produces more popular music than a single singer
(or a single singer/piano/guitar player / poet/composer).

Granted, in many (most?) ways, a "produced" musical recording is
*not* the same art form as a live music concert.  I somewhat
consider "produced music recordings" to be in a category like
theatre or movies -- they might involve live music at some point
(as background), but the final product involves a huge number of
components (and people) other than live musicians playing music.

*shrug*
Perhaps in a few years, the "live music recordings vs. produced
music" division will be more clear in people's minds.

Cheers,
- Graham