Lady Gag-me and Justin Logfloater on SNL

[howeird]

I usually do not watch Saturday Night Live, because my channel surfing occasionally brings me there, the skits are lame and the musical guests less than musical. I tuned in tonight to see what use they would make of Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga. Justin because one of my Hollywood theater friends said he was worth watching when he was allowed to cut loose, and Lady Gaga because I caught a glimpse of the end of one of her routines on some awards show, and what I saw contradicted the impression I previously had of her being all about glitz and bling and not about talent.

The skits they were in were pretty good. I especially got a kick out of the threesomes song. Lady Gaga's music/dance numbers were a bit of a WTF for me. Call me old fashioned, but IMHO when a person has a great voice (and knows how to use it) there's no need to don a black vinyl leotard with fishnets and a headdress which looks like it can pick up 986 satellite channels just to sing a ballad. And black vinyl is not a good enough look for Gaga for her to have done all her song & dance numbers in it. Silver and/or lamé would have given some variety. Or even white vinyl.

I think SNL's audio staff is going to hear it from her, because her hand mike and her head mike cut out a lot during two of the numbers.

Bottom line is I liked them both more than I expected to.  And I like Lady G's voice enough to look up some of her tunes. I'll skip the videos, though. :-)

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I was actually surprised a while back to discover that Lady Gaga actually has some talent behind all the hype and the stupid name, which initially repelled me. I'm not tempted to buy any CDs, but if she happens to be on a talk show, I might not change the channel unless there's something better on. I'm also biased against singers named Justin, but his initial song on SNL was mildly humorous and enjoyably self-deprecating. I watched the first half hour today and the rest is stored for later viewing.

[howeird]

I'm not tempted to buy any CDs, but if she happens to be on a talk show, I might not change the channel
Interesting. My choice for a CD over anything else is it's my guess that it is my best chance of hearing actual singing from her.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I should clarify. I find that at or above a certain level of commerciality, CDs tend to be so packaged and overproduced that they can actually make me react negatively to performers I like. To me, the ideal is one or two musicians with instruments and maybe one or both singing. Once it gets up to about 5 or 6 things going on at once, my unconscious mind gets so confused trying to follow everything - let me put it this way - in a way, I can understand autism. Perhaps that's why I gravitate toward folk music, and mostly solo artists and duos. And why the classical music I like is mostly soloists.

Drums drive me wacky. It's like when I'm playing in a circle and someone's calling out I, IV and V chords. They're an annoying distraction. My brain and music theory are not connected. If I have to stop to think about which chord is the IV, I might as well connect myself to an I.V. for all the good it will do me. Drums tend to have the opposite of the intended effect as well. They make me want to play loud and drown out the noise, and tend to throw me off rhythm more than keeping me on.

And don't get me started on harmonicas.

[howeird]

Maybe she has an "unplugged" CD. Those are usually solo, or minimum accompaniment.

Interesting stuff, I am the opposite, what with having played in concert bands since 3rd grade and all the musicals I've done singing with a live orchestra. How I react to drums depends on the situation. If it's a drum which is simply keeping the beat and blending in, I'm fine. But Celtic drums annoy me, Taiko gives me a headache.