I miss albums like "Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison. The corny yet charming love songs written by a 23 year old Morrison will strangely always have a place in my heart. The flaws in that album were heard ever so vividly, yet so unabashed in execution. The raw flavor of Morrison's voice, the improvised instrumentation, and the imperfections that pervade this album make it an incredibly vulnerable experience for the listener. The profound sense of melancholy I feel when I listen to the title track never seems to cease, regardless of the miles strode on the vinyl.
But an album like "Astral Weeks" won't ever be recorded again. The loose feel, or the air of wonder and spontaneity that made "Astral Weeks" such an essential album, unfortunately, hasn't graced the charts for years. This is a terribly sad realization, and it leaves me with a sense of bitterness. Bitterness because I know many intelligent people who fight for the preservation of record stores. Bitterness not because there isn't any genuine music being released today, but bitterness because many of us don't think or care to think about the bearing an excessive reliance on technology has on music today or the music of the future.
We deviate from human error in modern music as we engage in a heavy reliance on technology. The music of the future has arrived, and we become less forgiving of flaws. Our ears have been trained to wince at the rawness of these albums the more we listen to pristine studio albums that dominate the music scene. We have become obsessed with a flawed modern ideal of art, something that cannot be created in a live setting; the strive for perfection. Yes, "Astral Weeks" was very rushed and it was heavily mixed, but the raw integrity of the performances remained. However, if Van Morrison would have recorded "Astral Weeks" today, the recording engineer would manipulate the waveforms and turn it into a flawless studio album, because he knows that an album that honest cannot survive today.
When we become less forgiving of these flaws, we begin to shun humanity itself. We cower and throw our shameful flaws underneath the rug so that others perceive an ideal facade. Musicians dismiss the notion that an album is supposed to capture a moment in time, and not flaunt a photoshopped snapshot of the ideal you. Hollywood loves the allure of the vacant vocalists who compromise their soul for fame. They who showcase vocal acrobatics yet lack artistry, these are the fleeting voices who merely exist as an image of someone else. They are the photoshopped puppets of North America's music scene, and we seem to cover the elephant in the room with no hesitation.
Even though technology has the potential to strip away the soul of music itself, there are modern artists that utilize these innovations in an artful manner. New software and recording techniques enables studio artists to attain soundscapes that was once thought unimaginable. Although the criticisms of the vocalist's inability polished by the use of Auto-Tune are utterly tiresome, some artists that use pitch correction do so to achieve new musical heights. Frank Ocean, The Weekend, and other artists use Auto-Tune to compliment their voice which adds a tasteful dimension to their music. However, most singers use Auto-Tune and escape criticism because the Auto-Tune effect they use is so subtle, it has the ability to manipulate the vocalist's pitch allowing them to sound naturally proficient. These aforementioned artists use programs like Auto-Tune and Melodyne for pitch correction and not for the robotic vocal effect that T-Pain and Kanye achieve with their music.
It is an inhuman architectural endeavor to build a Trump-like wall because it promotes xenophobia, just as it is equally inhuman to be an architect of modern art that dehumanizes and promotes a homogenized society. We become afraid of ourselves and our own mistakes when all we see on social media are picture perfect yoga bodies just as artists hold ourselves to an impossible standard when they compare themselves to pristine works. The pursuit for perfection corrupts and cuts across all aspects of life. This could potentially be the music of the future if we allow it to happen: a pill that makes us more complacent while neutralizing our identities. Rest assured, there are still artists that create music that combat the status-quo. I just hope that there will continue to be artists that fight to preserve the essential element in music: humanity.
