--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Not being a keyboardist, I'd love to hear an expanse
> on this Don...could you be more specific?
I'll try ... but sitting here without my own synths
handy's going to make it a little bit more difficult.
Mark N Travis hit upon it a bit with comparisons to
the 80s incarnations of "bubble-gum."
So I'll try to do this by comparison. Remember the
band A-Ha, and it's one-hit wonder "Take on Me"? You
surely remember the "rotoscoped" cartoon video that
blended pencil-drawn illustrations in with the
live-action footage if nothing else.
Now, think about the repeating keyboard "vamp" from
the opening of the song, and that's used throughout it
as the musical "hook." It basically noodles around
the open triad ... there's nothing in it that creates
"dissonance" or harmonic tension. The result is, if
you were to change the rhythm of the line, you'd end
up with the melody to 'Mary Had A Little Lamb.'
This kind of simple melodic construction was New
Wave's (and certainly synth-pop's) musical answer to
the blues-heavy rock, pop & disco of the 70s. Now,
when you combined that with the technology of the day,
and arranged whole songs using sequencers and drum
machines ... you got something that, I agree, sounds
dated and 'cheezy.' Even singers with chops like
Annie Lennox & Alison Moyet could take that approach
to composing only so far. No offense to two of my
favorite divas! ;-)
Okay, so -- contrast that with say, the way Joni uses
the synths on a song like 'Tax Free.' Sure, she uses
a repeating keyboard figure (that flutey descending
line from the opening.) But compared to 'Take On Me'
... the notes are all *wrong*. Joni uses lots major
7ths ... and "resolves" the line to notes (open 4ths,
I think) that seem in conflict with the next chord in
the progression.
That creates a much more complex harmonic texture that
you find in synth pop. And if you listen carefully,
there are subtle nuances in the phrasing that mean the
lines could only have been "played live." They don't
have that micro-chip perfect rhythmic signature you
find on Human League, Heaven 17 or OMD recordings of
the time.
She further reinforces all those "wrong" notes in the
vocal harmony "Tax free ... save me". In the end,
nearly every song on DED is constructed this way.
Which for me, adds up to a sound uniquely Joni
Mitchell ... every bit as innovative as her alternate
guitar tunings. Sure she used 80s vintage synths, but
in a way only she could have.
I hope I've not simply made the issue more obscure!
Don Rowe
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