Tag Archives: Music

August 15, 2013 · 8:47 am

Karaoke

I suspect by this time you’ve probably sung some karaoke, even if you don’t exactly know what the word means. Translating from the Japanese, it means
empty orchestra, meaning that the lead vocal has been stripped way from a popular song.

Cover art

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The instrumental track is there but the thing that gives many songs their passion and meaning has been left to you to supply.  That would be the lead vocal – the main thing that puts the words to the music.

I’ve done karaoke, and despite having sung lead in rock bands for many years, I can’t do justice to most of the songs I undertake.  Oh sure, I can hit most, if not all, of the notes.  But it’s not the same, and I  suspect it doesn’t matter how well amateurs such as me try to sing the songs; they’re just not getting it done.

What does this have to do with your business?  If what you’re doing is trying to sing the lead vocal to some other business’ song, you’re probably going to come up as short as  do when I’m  trying to be Bruce Springsteen or Roger Daltrey.   It’s not just about hitting the notes.  It’s about lending meaning to the lyric and bringing passion to the verse.  Think about how many great singers have done wonderful interpretations of someone else’s song.  That’s far different from karaoke.

The business point is that too often we’re thinking about doing karaoke and not about providing our own interpretations.  It’s not so much about hitting the note or the raw material.  It’s about how we bring our own meaning to the lyric.  You can’t run a business as a karaoke exercise.  You have to bring your own passion and perspective.  Otherwise, you’re just some person pretending to be something they’re not, and your customers will see through that in a heartbeat.

You agree?

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August 6, 2013 · 8:41 am

Soundboards

This TunesDay, let’s talk about recordings. Specifically, concert recordings.

English: A shot of the control surfaces of the...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now, we’ve all heard live albums – your favorite band recorded in concert. What you might not realize is that many “live”albums are as carefully mixed and “sweetened” as a studio album.  They can often capture the energy of a band live but they can also hide some fundamental flaws – a flat vocal tuned up, a missed solo punched in and the bad one removed.  It’s sort of audio Photoshop.

I prefer soundboard recordings, the black coffee of music.  These are recordings right off the mixer used at the show.  Many have circulated as bootleg tapes or discs for years.  They are generally of high quality and they can be thrilling.  Yes, there are some “audience tapes (recordings made with good equipment by a member of the audience) that can capture the raw performance but I think soundboards have a leg up since every mike is accounted for in the mixer.  I have an Eagles soundboard of a live show that shows how brilliant they were as a vocal band (oh, and Joe Walsh can flat-out play…).   I have many others – some of which unmasked  the bands as studio creatures; others of which (pick any good Dead show!) put anything the band ever did in a studio to shame.  Soundboards are the ultimate test of a band to me.

I was listening to a soundboard yesterday (a Talking Heads show from the mid-1980’s – boy they were good live!) and a business thought hit me.  While marketing used to be studio music – sweetened, totally controlled – it’s become soundboards.  Customer comments, social media, review sites – they’re raw messaging about your company or brand.  That’s why we need to get it right as we play it live – there won’t be any chance to fix it later.  A Tweet to a customer that sets the wrong tone, a questionable Instagram photo, or just heavy-handed censorship of comment boards will all be heard as those actions get played back over and over through the digital echo chamber.

If you can’t play live, don’t try to fake it.  Inevitably someone will make the soundboard public and you’ll look foolish.  It’s why The Beatles felt they should stop touring (even thought the soundboards of the rooftop concerts filmed for Let It Be are spectacular) – their sound had become so complex that they didn’t think they could do it justice live.  Be at least that smart and err on the side of caution.   The soundboards won’t go away if you’re wrong.

What’s your thinking?

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July 30, 2013 · 8:46 am

Goosebumps

Today for our TunesDay song, let’s consider an entire genre of them.  The unfortunate thing is that no two people would agree as to which songs qualify for this classification so I’m going to talk about one which does for me.  You can take it from there with a song of your own choosing.

I was driving back from a meeting yesterday afternoon when Tom Waits‘ Jersey Girl came on.  Of course, it was the live version by The Boss which I’ve loved from the moment I saw it live in 1981 as Bruce opened the new arena in the Meadowlands.   Danny Federici‘s organ sounds like the calliope on the boardwalk – the carnival referred to in the lyrics – and the  backing vocals sound like a great doo-wop group singing on some corner as their sound drifts up into the night air.  The song gives me goosebumps every single time I hear it – every hair on my arm stands up.  It’s a strange and wonderful physical reaction brought on by the power of the music.  Which is, of course, the business point.

We should all be trying to achieve that reaction in what we do.  In many ways, goosebumps – piloerection for you scientific types – is a reflex left over from our animal pasts.  It’s something that happens in response to strong emotions such as those music inspires that touch us deeply.   It’s an obvious goal for any of the arts – film, culinary, or otherwise – but why not, say, industrial design?  I imagine some people had that response the first time they handed the first iPhone or saw a high-def plasma TV for the first time.

Maybe shoes move you.  Maybe it’s a brilliantly written analysis of last month’s sales.  Whatever we produce, I think I’m putting the goosebump standard up there with the Dylan standard I use when discussing musical acts (will my grandchildren listen to and discuss this artist and if not, are they really worth the time?).  Sure it’s a lofty goal – but why not set the bar high?

Touching people’s emotions in ways of which they’re maybe not even conscious is a guarantee to success in business and life.  How are you going to do that today?

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