It’s an intentional disconnect with the material. You have an older performer singing a song about dreaming of being a big star on Broadway when her career is already over. She flirts with the audience and approaches the material in a way that worked when she was 40 years younger, but not now. Houdyshell really played this up to great effect in the production.

A cast recording of the Follies revival has been available for a while. However, “Broadway Baby” is preserved in the same format as the show. Reprises of “Ah, Paris” and “Rain on the Roof” pop up at the end.

This did not serve the needs of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The museum is compiling a collection of showtunes set in NYC and wanted Houdyshell’s “Broadway Baby” without the other songs. So, Jane Houdyshell graciously went into the studio and recorded a new version of “Broadway Baby.” It’s sensational.

It is available to download for free right now. Thank Playbill for letting us all know about it.

Today, another 18 countries compete for their chance at Eurovision glory. It’s a very different mix from the gimmick-heavy first group. There are a lot of ballads and dance pop songs from established pop/rock stars competing today. So what acts will move on to the finale?

I narrowed it down to three this time: Estonia, Ukraine, and Sweden.

First, Ott Lepland is representing Estonia with an absolutely stunning ballad called “Kuula (Listen).” This guy can sing. I have no clue what the song is about but his performance almost brought me to tears.

Is it too somber for Eurovision? I don’t know. Ballads have been doing very well recently. The whole contest is in Baki, Azerbaijan because Edward & Nigar won in 2011 with a sweet little pop ballad. Full disclosure: they were surely helped by having a song in English. Ott Lepland is singing in Estonian. This is the choice I feel the least confident about.

Second has to be Gaitana representing Ukraine with “Be My Guest.” It’s the kind of bouncy Europop song that gets to the finale every year but rarely wins. Gaitana’s voice and stage presence is huge, which should help the crowd go crazy and elevate opinions of her performance.

The one downside is how scratchy it is at first. It’s less music driven than beat driven. If you stick with “Be My Guest” until the bridge, everything comes together in a really catchy package. Will Gaitana’s presence be enough to carry the audience to the best part of the song?

Third is Loreen from Sweden singing “Euphoria.” If you follow a lot of Eurovision press, she is arguably the favorite to win the whole contest. The song is another Europop dancehall song, but it’s got great build and the choreography Loreen is doing is fascinating.

No notes for Loreen. She has this on lockdown.

So who am I missing? What acts should have moved on after the first Semifinal? Who should win the whole shebang on Saturday night? Sound off below. Love to hear from you.

Here are two countries I hope to see in the finals of Eurovision 2012.

First are the competitors from Russia. The video of their performance of “Party for Everybody” has gone viral. Why? It’s six grandmothers in traditional Russian costuming singing a catchy pop song about dancing while quietly shuffling back and forth on stage.

The song is cute and well-produced. The novelty of the older women singing it will not go unnoticed today. It doesn’t hurt that the chorus is “Party for everybody. Come on and dance. Come on and dance. Come on and dance. Party for everybody…” over and over. It’s been stuck in my head for weeks.

The second country I want in the finals is Ireland. Sketchy Details’ favorite Jedward are back again with a new high energy pop song. “Waterline” might not be as catchy as last year’s “Lipstick,” but Jedward have improved a lot as singers in the past year without ditching their onstage antics.

Jedward is super high energy and they make it hard not to like them. We’ll see how far that gets them with a more traditional pop song.

Actually, judging by this rehearsal photograph, I think they’re a lock for the finals.

Jedward go robotic for Ireland at Eurovision 2012

So who is moving onto the finals in Eurovision 2012? What acts should people pay attention to? Any actual pop stars in the mix this year? Sound off below. I want to know.

I went to a terrible horror convention two weeks ago looking for content. Instead, I came home covered in bruises from a show floor that was way too crowded for the crowd they let in. I couldn’t even spend ten seconds talking to a friend/interviewee/former employer in a booth before someone would try to shove me out of the way.

Midnight Syndicate Carnival Arcane

In case you don’t know, Midnight Syndicate is a music group practically synonymous with Halloween. They create atmospheric soundtracks. Some of their themes include masquerades, cemeteries, and mental asylums. Instead of just linking screams and rattling shains, they compose orchestral music with hints of special effects woven in.

Their latest album is Carnival Arcane and I have to agree with the man at the booth: it probably is their best release yet. The concept is a slightly twisted old-fashioned carnival. They pay a lot of attention to the freak show, the clowns, and the poorly constructed rides. The whole thing works so well as a collected unit that they won the Rondo Award for Best CD. That horror awards group has a refined palette. They nominated a huge collection of horror essays I was featured in a few years ago (Horror 101).

The accolades go beyond the horror and Halloween community. Their song “Freakshow” was nominated for the 2012 Great American Songwriter contest. Though there are other songs on the album that I prefer, it’s easy to see how “Freakshow” had the crossover appeal to breakout in a mainstream competition.

After some moody sound effects at the beginning, a piano begins to play a slow version of what was assuredly a much more upbeat midway march in the past. Now it is but a lilting waltz gliding past the faded midway posters. Even that beauty is fleeting when falling lines of chime and a honky tonk piano invade. It’s all downhill from there. A ghastly choir and an out of tune whistler come in again and again to ruin any chance of recovery.

The result is hypnotic. This is not the song of the freakshow itself. It’s the siren song of the carnival barker begging to you see pay extra for the fiji mermaid and shrunken heads. You want to turn away but you can’t. The repetition and movement have you trapped. It would be so lovely if any number of things happened. Instead, it’s intentionally ugly and all the more worthwhile for going there.

That is why you should add “Freakshow” to your music library.

Thoughts? Love to hear them.

The main content of the latest Flog is a performance of Tom Lenk’s song “Serenade for Carrie Fisher.” Aside from the name, the concept for the song caught my eye. I, too, was the music theory student who didn’t exactly follow the rules on composition assignments. I mean, I transcribed the “I Love You Song” from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for a final assignment in Music Theory III where we could choose any published song that involved phrase modulation (without an actual key change) and analyze it. I also procrastinated so long that the professor still has my one and only handwritten copy of the song. And the actual sheet music came out the day after the assignment was due.

But I digress. I like the idea of a tongue in cheek Puccini-styled dedication to Carrie Fisher, especially in the context of being required to write like Bach. As my first college theory teacher said, “Everyone makes mistakes except for God and Bach.” He is the father of music theory and, unless you really like didactic order and precision, can be a bit dry to channel for assignments.

Just take a look at this…intriguing performance. The fancy embed code isn’t working right now. Just skip ahead to 2:40.

Lenk’s composition is solid. The main theme has a nice, lilting quality to it that I quite enjoy. In the second and third segment, he gets a bit more experimental with the violin part. The melody is left unresolved at key moments. It just builds a really nice sense of tension that feels a bit other worldly. They’re not Star Wars allusions, per se, but they’re informed by the sound of science fiction. You can just picture something unusual showing up at those moments in a TV show.

Let’s get to the real draw here. It’s one thing to put up a video of a lovely little song being played well by two competent musicians. It’s an entirely different thing to make a simple Romantic song (by way of mostly-stringent Baroque progressions) entertaining for a wide audience. From the snap costume changes to the looming invasion of sci-fi imagery, the Flog performance of “Serenade for Carrie Fisher” brings a less popular style of music alive in an entertaining way.

Felicia Day suggests that there might be more musical performances in the future. I can only hope so if this is the musical company she keeps.

Thoughts? Love to hear them.

Last week on The Voice, a singer named Erin Martin landed in the Bottom 3 on Team Cee Lo. She was sent home after a last chance ballad performance that showed off her vocal timbre and unique musical interpretation. She had some pitch problems on the chorus, but at least got to show off why she should have been one of the breakout stars of the season. Erin had perhaps one of the better developed artistic identities in the contest.

The night before, Cee Lo decided the way to showcase her assets was to flash her body and have her sing the ever-gimmicky “Walk Like an Egyptian” by The Bangles. The no-note pop song did nothing for her voice and made the judges all focus on her appearance.

Erin said during her first appearance on the show that she auditioned to be judged on her vocals alone. As soon as she was put up for public voting, she was displayed as a piece of meat to eye and not as a musician. When she stepped back into a song that gave us a glimpse of what she can do, she was sent home. Erin has been critical of her time on the show for this very reason.

Each of the judges on The Voice got to save one singer from their team after the first round of public voting. Blake Shelton was the only one who did not choose the loudest and most melismatic performer to stay in the contest. Unfortunately for Jordis Unga, she, too, was booted last night in favor of more exaggerated singers.

This trend on The Voice is a microcosm of an interesting dichotomy in the Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio market. On the one side, we’re inundated with young singers who are encouraged to oversing every song. Performers like Adele and Kelly Clarkson have faced serious vocal health issues from the popular performance school. Katy Perry is belting all her records and scooping into every high note for style. If it doesn’t sound like you’re struggling to get all the notes out, you’re not really singing. Their music is simpler, driven by small arrangements and a focus on lyrical content.

On the other side, we’re seeing an influx in the number of singers who have an odd tone being pushed to sing over-produced dance music. When I first heard Neon Hitch, I didn’t expect her to be doing a single like “F U Betta.” Sia, who possesses an amazing voice and sense of style, is stuck singing hooks for rappers and DJs in the US market. Neither artist is really getting the chance to show off their tone or range at all. Both are forced into this dubstep/super processed sound that has overtaken pop in the last two years.

There appears to be a bit more leeway with distinctive male artists in this regard. I wouldn’t say Gotye has the best sounding voice in the world, but he’s allowed to release quirky singles like “Somebody That I Used to Know” that show off what he can do as a musician. Adam Levine gets away with his super relaxed jazzy vocal on every Maroon 5 track and Adam Lambert has carte blanche to belt every song he’s on like it’s the 11 o’clock anthem in a new rock musical. Even in those cases, the songs become quite repetitive so the melody gets stuck in your head ASAP.

Is there a way in today’s market for a less than cookie-cutter rock/pop voice to break through in an interesting way? Sure, if they’re willing and able to add riffs to every line of a song and push their tone so hard they suffer vocal damage. But is this melismatic style the best? Does being able to sing all those tricky runs make you a better, more desirable musician? I’m not so sure.

One of the hardest things for a singer to do is stand still and deliver a song. No tricks, no gimmicks, just sing. You become the vessel for the music and are judged by how good the song sounds. For young singers, who have been raised on reality singing competitions like American Idol, you can add on “sing the melody as written” as an extra challenge.

There’s a pervading media message through these shows that straight singing–staying on the melody–is karaoke, bad, or boring. If you have a natural vibrato and vary up a performance with dynamics, you’re labeled “Broadway” with the same tone someone might have used in the past to describe a leper or plague victim. The competitors willing to change up the melody, scream, and not hold a note for longer than a second are the ones praised as true artists. Is this really what we want music to sound like now?

This is not to slag on any competitors on these shows. You do what you have to in order to win. Kelly Clarkson, for example, got dumped with a lot of mediocre pop music before she was allowed to go back into her pop/rock wheelhouse and pull back on the screaming. What I’m saying is that this “power vocal or nothing” approach to packaging artists is troubling.

Why should a musician with a distinctive voice be forced to rely on an image or a producer to succeed? Different is not a four letter word and should not offend the delicate ears of listeners. Having rasp, vibrato, or brightness in the voice is not necessarily a bad thing. It all depends on how the singer uses it. I think it would be nice to turn on the radio and not hear a singer in the Erin Martin-vein disguised by thirty layers of synthesizers and autotune to fit into Top 40/CHR vernacular.

Thoughts? Love to hear them.

What is going on in that crazy beautiful brain to bring us this?

“Roman’s Holiday,” the controversial Grammy performance song, is the strongest track on the album. It’s bizarre in the best way possible. There’s are at least three characters and no shortage of clever allusions to dig through. The reason the song works as the first track on the album is that it lets you know you’re in for a trip. This will not be a straight forward rap album. It will go all over the place as Nicki Minaj guides you through her strange and theatrical Hip Hop style.

This does not mean Pink Friday…Roman Reloaded is a flawless album. Nicki puts so many different styles in to appeal to everyone that you’re bound to be put off by some of it. Song by song, the tracks work. Taken together as a 19 track album? It’s a bit scattered.

Is Nicki’s goal fluffy club tracks? Hard edged boast songs? Stream of consciousness character monologues? Hard edged club tracks? Fluffy character pieces? Nicki’s rap style and lyrical aesthetic create some sense of cohesion. You won’t mistake her for anyone else. The album is just so broad reaching that it doesn’t quite come together as a singular vision.

Maybe the key to the album is closing track “Stupid Hoe.” There’s arguably a literal meaning there (discussed before). Why even include the track just for that reason? Nicki’s sending a message about taking what she does too seriously. Respect her musical skills. Applaud her stage presence and wardrobe. Nod along with her business sense and industry insights during interviews. But don’t ever take every word she says as gospel on her tracks. Even when defending her skills and attacking her haters, her tongue is firmly planted in cheek.

Nicki Minaj has a lot going for her. She can sing and rap. She has a good ear for what production standards should be. She’s charming enough to get guests like Lil Wayne to match her wacky bit for wacky bit on tracks. She has a lot of ideas and she’s not afraid to go for them, even if they can overwhelm the senses when taken all at once.

Pink Friday…Roman Reloaded is just a fun album. It’s not game changing. It doesn’t present a new version of Nicki Minaj to the world. The goal may be just to cement Nicki as a force in the record industry. There, it succeeds. She’ll surely have a good string of hits off the record. I just wish that all the different sides of Nicki could come together in a tighter package.

If you’re not setting out to revolutionize the sounds of a genre or present a giant concept album, then you need to make sure the technical presentation is flawless. Nicki Minaj’s songs do not fall short, only the flow between tracks in a few odd moments. Pink Friday…Roman Reloaded works in spite of some cognitive dissonance.

Rating: 8/10

Thoughts? Love to hear them.

But that’s not entirely true at this point. There’s a reason that the Grammy Awards were able to get away with a huge tribute to dance DJs who don’t sing at their last ceremony. The cache of producer clout is rising fast as more and more labels clamor to jump on the latest trends in digital and dance music.

Two years ago, a DJ/producer like David Guetta getting multiple Top 20 hits off of one album would be unimaginable. A crossover hit from the dance charts was always a possibility. It’s how people like Enur can score a hit every once in a while. However, in those cases, normally the guest artist/singer is the one credited for the song. The vocalist is who we can connect with even if the DJ/producer is the one who put in all the work.

Yet, listening to Top 40/Contemporary Hit Radio stations in recent months, when a David Guetta track is played, it’s credited as “David Guetta featuring [guest],” not “[guest].” You could argue that Usher, Nicki Minaj, or Sia are the real draw. The fact still remains that somehow, the rise of dance/club music into mainstream culture has seen an equal rise in the recognition for DJ/producers.

Skrillex is gaining recognition for his music and his public image.

Then there are the singers who crossover from being well-known and well-credited producers. Ryan Tedder of One Republic was been scoring a lot of hits for other artists like Kelly Clarkson and Beyonce long before his band was given a chance at a record deal. Neon Hitch produced for a bunch of dance acts before a label gave her some promotion.

The difference between these modern acts and an older industry crossover story like Carol King is intention. People like B.o.B. and Bruno Mars may be having successful solo careers right now, but they’re still pursuing work as producers with more press than usual. You’re just as likely to read a print article in Billboard (or like publication) about a new artist as you are to read about a new DJ/producer crossing over with an album or single. Working behind the scenes has never been hotter in recent memory.

The reason the trend sticks out for me is simple: the people making the music are starting to become household names. If the trend continues, who knows how many aspects of the creative industry will suddenly be recognized by the public. Will songwriters get their due without having to judge a reality show? Or will this emergence of DJ/producers stop when the sound of the lubs inevitably shifts in a new direction?

Best to live in the moment and appreciate what we have. The music industry is nothing if not fickle. Embrace the trends that make you happy and hope they become evergreen in the long run.

Thoughts? Love to hear them.

Justin Bieber put out a new single yesterday called “Boyfriend.” It sounds…exactly like what Justin Timberlake was doing eight years ago. It’s homogenized hip-hop/R&B and it once again does not suit the singer performing it.

There is a long history of the mainstream record industry appropriating a specific style of music to package to a wide audience for a quick profit. I just wrote about how major labels are shoving random dubstep breaks into pop songs because club kids like dubstep. It’s a combination of filling holes in the current marketplace and latching onto whatever might be the next big trend.

It goes back much further than that with more cynical intentions. Pat Boone owes most of his career to doing covers of R&B/early rock for a white audience. Labels began digging around for white performers like Elvis Presley and Bill Haley to perform, initially, covers of black artists’ songs for radio. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips famously said, “If I could find a white man who had a Negro sound and a Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars.”

Go back further and you see crooners on bigger labels doing jazz and ragtime covers. At the same time, you would have big name artists doing separate recordings of the big songs from a popular stage or film musical to sell as pop. Get closer to modern times and you see country songs reworked as power pop ballads to sell films and records. There are hundreds of stories of artists who had their singles taken away from them and given to an artist receiving a bigger push. Just ask The Script about that big Kris Allen single that stopped them from getting a third single on their US debut.

Does race play a role in these decisions? It depends on what you’re looking at. The rise of rock-a-billy can easily be attributed to that quest for the shining white knight, but the same does not apply to a Rodgers & Hammerstein song becoming the signature piece of a vocal ensemble. I would argue the bigger issue is making less popular genres feel fresh, relevant, and safe for a wider commercial audience. The original artists might have more authenticity, but the manufactured artists are polished to a safe sheen for mainstream consumption.

Justin Bieber, like Justin Timberlake before him, is the R&B/Hip-Hop artist for the Disney demographic. Throw in a drum machine and some whispered rapping and little boys and girls will want to sing along with the charismatic young performer. His label could have, just as easily, pushed him as country, rock, or blues for a younger demographic. The style of music is not as important as the branding of the artist. Give a thin, conventionally handsome young performer a trendy look and easy to remember/sing along with songs and you’ve set yourself up for success if the branding takes.

In Justin Bieber’s case, whoever saw his YouTube videos of acoustic covers of pop and rock songs decided they could make more money selling him in a hip-hop/R&B vein than in a pop/rock vein. His music is pop, but the basis of the crossover is hip-hop and R&B. Why else would Usher be his mentor and Ludacris appear as a guest on his breakout hit single “Baby?”

The cover image tells the whole story of Justin Bieber's new path.

Remember how Britney Spears had to be a school girl at 17 while Christina Aguilera could go straight to the more seductive “Genie in a Bottle” image at 19 when they came out at the same time? Record labels want fans to fall in love with pop stars, but they don’t want to cross the line from crush to more until the artist is legal in all 50 states.

Will Justin Bieber ever try to branch out? Who can tell? If he’s happy with his calculated career path, he might just stick with it. If he’s not, he might not even get a shot at a mainstream audience with a genuinely different sound. Undoubtedly, this new single will do well on radio and the record charts. Bieber is still a hot property constantly put in the public eye. The more interesting question will be what his team is willing to do with him when the numbers inevitably drop in a few years. After all, the next big thing is only a makeover away from stealing his audience.

Thoughts? Love to hear them.

This is not the case with The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond. Producer T Bone Burnett has pulled together a collection of artists actually writing music inspired by The Hunger Games.

Katniss is from District 12, located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Songs from District 12 and Beyond features 16 brand new songs written about The Hunger Games. Of course there are country/folk artists on the recording. Taylor Swift, The Civil Wars, and Miranda Lambert–among others–bring an authentic voice to the album.

Swift especially impresses with two songs from the perspective of Katniss. “Eyes Open” is about the shift in mindset from being an innocent child hunting in the woods to being the center of a ghastly game that everyone is required to watch on TV. It’s a solid pop/country song that shows off what Taylor Swift can do when she’s not obsessed with her own life.

Can't you hear the anthem playing as Katniss awaits battle?

What becomes interesting is the variety of artists that manage to fit into a folk mold without abandoning their own style. I would never imagine Arcade Fire pulling off anything particularly traditional, but “Abraham’s Daughter” sets just the right tech-influenced folk tone at the top of the album. The Hunger Games is, after all, a dystopian novel turned film. Adam Levine’s voice comfortably slips into a folk tone for the Glen Hansard penned “Come Away to the Water.” Even Kid Cudi manages to find a balance between his rap aesthetic and some more traditional call and response-styled folk music.

What amazes me about Songs from District 12 and Beyond is the level of straight folk allowed on the album. Many of the tracks shift to an alternative mode, but the folk foundation is there. We’re dealing with a YA-targeted series taking a huge risk from a commercial perspective. Folk doesn’t sell very well.

Here, because the style fits the story being told, T Bone Burnett has pulled together a competent and modern collection of folk-colored songs that–stripped down–wouldn’t be out of place in an acoustic concert. It’s a tricky balancing act that mostly comes together. There’s enough variety to please everyone, but the album is a bit too wide-reaching to fully come together beyond the theme of “inspired by The Hunger Games.”

Rating: 7/10

Thoughts? Love to hear them.