Meanspeed® Music Review

Tonight on Idol, Simon Cowell, who I agree with most of the time, made the assertion early on that the tempo change in “She Works Hard For The Money” [did not really have an effect.

I agree.  The effect the contestant was going for was missed - therefore, his slowing the song down was ineffective.  I agree with Simon.

However, Adam Lambert, who *blatantly ripped off the arrangement* of Mad World from Gary Jules' version, NOT the Tears For Fears version.  The man the judges seemed to have already placed in the final two never indicated that.  Adam must have taken some heat for his disingenuous presentation, as tonight he admitted that he stole the arrangement from someone else.  I  know this because I measure the tempos or speeds and use iTunes® information - no doubt Gary Jules deserves a nod tomorrow night.

As far as speed and Simon, no particular speed is better than any other in regard to who is the next American Idol.  However, one of the reasons Adam Lambert is doing so well is because, in musicial lingo, "he is experienced at singing on a click."  That means: he has the regular sound of a metronome so embedded in his head from so much practice that he knows better than some of the amateurs still in the competition where the *beat is* at all times.  How important is that?  Well, it is music, and as such both an art and a science, and asking how much "better" a song sounds is an art compared to the science of determining what the tempo is, if a song is playing along to a regular machine and 100s of things that Randy jackson himself could teach a course on.

You simply cannot master your timing or phrasing as a singer without learning to ride the speed.  In fact, the best singers and drummers are these: those who can play with an ability to make the most static drum track *sound* as though there is acceleration and deceleration.  Pat Metheny, Dave Matthews and Carter Beauford are three people who are phenomenal with this element.

Who else have they had on this season who is a phenomenal talent in regard to music's tempo?  Michael Joe Jackson's greatest hits "Billie Jean,"  "Thriller," and "Man IN The Mirror" are among his hits that have no tempo change in them at all.  Is there rhythm change?  Of course - 1000s of rhythm changes.  Such changes in rhythm are permitted, guess why: because the tempo is steady, an engineer can open up 256 tracks and have them all magically blend together despite the 44 percussion tracks were played by 7 different drummers on 11 different days and none of them even met Mr. Jackson.  That is simply the way songs are recorded.
However, as Simon has noted, American Idol is a *singing* competition.  Is tempo the most important element of a song?  No!  Is the way a singer uses tempo with the more important elements: melody, tone and timbre, the way a singer can use a pedal note to effect a stunning harmonic effect and others are surely more important.  The thing is: a singer cannot be focused on the melody and the tone if they are stuck WORRYING ABOUT SPEED AND TEMPO.  As it is written in the Japanese Art of War: Master tempo so that in a fight *you will not have to think about tempo and thereby get stuck thinking about tempo.*

Great performances tonight and a pleasure to watch.  I voted for the man I think has had the best arrangements and the best coaching since he entered the contest.  Moreover, this contestant is completely at home with himself when it com to the speed and tempo of a song, and he gets better every week.  You can feel him *slide* into the one of a song in common time, which is called "4/4" time as four quarter notes make up one measure of the song.  In pop music, as James Brown pointed out every change he had: it's all about the ONE.  Do you own the Beatles' 'Revolver' album?  Listen to She Said She Said by John Lennon and Sir Paul McCartney.  John's opening riff in that sing establishes an era in pop music that is thankfully still as strong as ever as he *eases* into the note Bb with the riff Bb, C, D, Eb, F slides into Bb where?  At the measure change - on the One, but a slick One.  That kind of timing and natural phrasing is why I voted for - well, I should not say, so I'll hint that he or she had some pink clothes featured.

/Ian Andrew Schneider/

April 21, 2009