It's sad that the music industry has gotten to a point where a listener starts questioning the ability of an artists or bands whether or not it's their actual voice in tune. I am glad that I grew up in a time period where imperfection was considered normal. and technology hadn't gotten to technical for our own good.
I also think audiences/media are so judgmental that artists feel obligated to use backtracks with live performances. I would like imperfection and acceptance of how the body changes the voice with aging to be a regular thing. Thank you for your comment.
I don’t think this is really true. “Listeners” hear something and they like it or they don’t. Few visitors to art museums analyze or process brush strokes and symmetry in their heads. As far as music the obsession over these things..for a while it was compression, now it’s pitch correction and auto tune sometimes goes too far. An analysis of a joke or any comedy invariably renders it unfunny. I think Fil is walking a fine line here. So far he’s not toppled over. Selecting POP or hip hop or rap is low hanging fruit for these “is it real or is it memorex” moments. That acceptable imperfection is still present in most genres snd niches. Indie, Americana, hard rock, metal, blues, jazz etc. Finally, if you do not notice pitch correction without putting a meter on it, for all intents and purposes it isn’t there. You don’t know for example if a vocal (or any music passage) was one take or comped. EQ’d etc etc etc unless the technique is intrusive and too noticeable.
@@tcconnection Yes this expectation is not new it goes back to early to mid Twentieth Century. At the point when music production crafted sound that was more "perfect" than live music. People began to expect the Artist to sound the same live as on their Albums.
I bailed out half way through (I have to go out in a minute but I might watch the rest later). I get the gist. Today's formulaic pop music does nothing for me but in all fairness I felt the same during other eras: '80s synth and '80s/'90s rave spring to mind. I remember hearing Kingmaker and Suede in the early '90s and feeling like I'd been emancipated from the tyranny of rave. I'd also say a lot more soulful techno music emerged through the mid-to-late '90s. Some sweet vocal tracks and (I don't know if this was a 'movement' or isolated instances) some techno tracks which emulated a raw r 'n' b sound. I hear kids on the streets listening to tedious, self-pitying 'rap' artists bleating about what they want to do. I suppose that's why they appeal to twelve-year-olds. It's this cloying sentimentality, at least as much as autotune, which turns me off today's pop music. Cloying sentimentality belted out with conviction is no more appealing to me than cloying sentimentality with hiccups. I'd sooner have the hiccups with a daredevil emotional lexicon. How about a review of a selection of dogs howling along with Luciano Pavarotti? Ha ha! Maybe not appropriate analysis material but an entertaining detour in your downtime, I might suggest.
Having set up mics for a couple of orchestras in my time, I totally understand why most TV shows don't bother. It's just not something you can drop in during a set change and expect to sound right.
Just like fake instagram photos that are highly edited, the music industry thinks it needs to be perfect (auto-tune and more plugins that deviate from the original tone) everything to keep up. So many forget that being individual and unique is the way forward.
I HATE autotune and pitch-correction, it should be BANNED!!!!😠😠😠😠....or at least, why can't they use a label similar to "parental advisory", saying something like "AUTOTUNE & PITCH-CORRECTION FREE" on this record???.....
So much emotional impact is lost when an orchestra doesn't get to actually make those amazing vibrations with their instruments! Thank you for pointing out the hidden problems of canned music and pitch corrected vocals - all the artistry we lose and all the artistry we doubt.
One of my conductors, many years ago, would say each performance was a last performance since it is impossible to replicate a performance exactly. So many factors change with each performance that each one should be considered singular in existence and not just going through the motions of repetition.
That is why a live performance has an own and special value, right? Personally, I like the artist's creative variations in each different performance, according to her/his temporary mood, precisely because it shows versatility and most probably also the creative evolution of the song.
Yes, this is true in classical music too - soloists and conductors sometimes do alter their choices of tempi, dynamics and phrasing from one performance to the next, both out of inspiration and because they're adapting to the strengths of the orchestra they are working with at the moment. A symphony orchestra is not simply a piece of inert rock imprinted by the conductor to perform "what's in the score".
I really don't like this fashionable new way of singing, all the fry going on and the voice always sounds to me like their face is really lazy and floppy. Like they can't be bothered to move or articulate their lips or jaw. It reminds me of Adele, it always sounds like a really lazy, slack jawed way of singing. I really find it unpleasant to listen to. I feel dragged down by it, rather than uplifted by the sound of the voice. Personal taste I guess
Glad to hear that Billie Eilish will sing live and sound just as good as in studio. But, it is a bummer to hear that a full, talented orchestra is having to pretend they are playing their instruments. I agree, Fil, that missing out on hearing the sound of a great orchestra’s live performance is a sad thing.
Yeah, that's a knock against Billie here. She wants the music she knows and doesn't want to follow the orchestra. That's disappointing -- if you're going to go for it, just go for it. Bring it to life completely.
Fil, Though I am not familiar with Billie's work, I appreciate you coving this and stating that she not using auto tune nor pitch control. I never knew what those two terms meant until I began watching you. I've learned so much. God bless to all, Marianne ❤ 19:49
For a while Apple included the full recording sessions of Billie Eilish’s ‘Ocean Eyes” as a sample project bundled with Logic Pro X. It had all the individual instrument tracks and all the vocal tracks and effects, even including all the individual takes that were comped into the final mix. If you listened to a single vocal solo’d you could even hear background sounds that were recorded inadvertently along with the vocals (it always surprises me that pro recordings often are not “perfectly” noiseless). There was clearly no artificial pitch correction being used anywhere.
I remember that, it's so cool when artists share the stems to understand how they do it. Probably because they recorded most songs in Finneas bedroom and not in a studio.
Proving again that the most important parts of recorded music are composition and a performance, not how polished the recording is. It’s easy to get lost in the sauce with new fancy plugins and gear constantly coming out but at the end of the day that stuff doesn’t really even matter
@@xvoodoo9999 Phineas is on record as using auto tune. Also, one of the first things many mixing engineers…Bob Clearmountain does is clean up recordings removing background noise often using software. Vocals with sibilants are “fixed”…how far do you wanna go? There’s a lot more done than auto tuning to make a record “perfect.”
Billie and Finneas have previously said that they just made a personal rule not to use pitch correction - unless it was for deliberate and obvious effect.
You don’t have to pitch correct when it takes 150 comps to get through three minute song. Lots of people can sing very well two or three notes at a time. And that’s what you hear when you listen to a Billie Eilish record But maybe because they don’t autotune, they do save much of the feeling, even though you’re not hearing an actual performance of the song. And I like Billie. no hate here.
Supposing...and I'm not suggesting Billie Eilish did this, I happen to think she is a remarkable talent...but supposing in some cases, just to be sneaky, certain artists were miming live NOT to the regular studio single version, but, say, an alternative studio vocal so that it sounds good and people can't criticise it for being the single version. Does that make sense? x
Hi! I've heard of Billie Eilish before, but I think this is the first time I listen to one of her songs. Interesting singing voice 🤔 Great analysis, Fil. Thank you 🖤🤘🏽
I was immediately enthralled by her voice and style though I am generations removed. Audiences went wild too, then suddenly the plague shut down her concerts. Billie and her brother were home schooled and spent a lot of time on their home studio though Billie did sing in a choir of sorts. Someone taught her well. Plus, they sampled unlikely sounds in some of their recordings. So clever. Thanks for another fascinating “expose”.
Actually she was a member of the prestigious Los Angeles Children’s choir for five years. The sixth year she was devastated when she didn’t make the cut but then they released Angel Eyes on sound cloud that year, so if she had been chosen for the choir, she wouldn’t have become famous… which is a scary thought!
@@kristineteall368 What? she stopped doing chorus the same year Ocean eyes became viral on Sound cloud, she had to stop doing chorus and dance because of the success, there are videos (from this Choir page) of her the same year (2016) she became famous was still singing in this chorus .. what are you spreading and where did you get this info?
I believe she also talks about it from her interview with David Letterman she did last year? She talked about trying out and not making it. She also said that had she been chosen for the choir she would not have had the time to tour.
@@hoy68290 she also became injured and could no liver dance, but I believe that was after the song was released because they posted for her dance class.
I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but Finneas and Billie have said in interviews that they comp her vocals for days. There are shed loads of edits in every track. A much more diligent, authentic and time consuming method of perfection. And of course comping acts as a deep grain rehearsal for the singer, to really imprint every nuance of the recording into their live performance
OR - They can just brute force talent.. Taking the 'good' cuts from 10000 takes and throw em together so they actually sound somewhat reasonable. Turns out if you polish a turd hard enough, you can make a diamond.
@@tvlkn9130 Okay, I’ll try not to get too hot about this. When writing a song, one of the ways to explore the melodic line, the phrasing, the dynamics, is thru multiple takes, and then comping those takes into what the artist wants. In the end, there are actual live performances, wherein the artist has learned her own comps. The tours, the TV appearances are live, with no autotune there, either. You are complaining about the Writing Process. Go watch her sing Peggy Lee’s Fever with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, and you’ll hear a real singer with control, who is in the pocket. Look at the bassist - he is digging playing behind that woman. Billie Eillish is the Real Deal. You wanna complain? Try Madonna, lip-syncing her songs on tour.
@@stuffnuns You think that was a complaint? it was an observation/comment about someone making copy-paste music. Sure, I get doing different takes/versions during the creative process. That's not uncommon at all. But there is a difference between trying different styles/takes on something - compared to redoing the same thing over and over (because most of it sounds bad) - and then slapping the good bits together like a musical scrap book.
It’s admirable nowadays that she does that, but I find this woozy-sounding diction that has been everywhere for over 10 years now to be affected and wearisome - just sing the words, goddammit!
Trying to reframe lots of time spent compositing as a good thing is like saying lots of time spent correcting misspelled words shows someone must be a good writer. A good singer would just do a 2nd take. It would sound better and require less time. Extensive comping is only considered acceptable when getting a complete take isn’t possible in the allotted recording time.
I'm not very familiar with her music, but she seems like an old hippie soul in a young body. So, I can understand her not using any auto 'corrections' in her singing. Good for her! Keep the faith of the music Billie!
And this is why they shouldn't use backing tracks live. It not only discredits the orchestra musicians who have actually physically turned up to the performance, only to be told to sit there and pretend to play, it also discredits the singer, Billie in this case, because now everyone watching and listening to this performance would never ever believe that the musicians are pretending and so because it sounds SO IDENTICAL to the studio version they are pointing the finger at her implying she has had autotune or pitch correct applied to her voice. Sad times 😩
I always appreciate your videos and knowledge. Thank you. Since Billie credits Aurora as a big reason she wanted to have a career as a singer, try checking out Aurora "Cure for Me" acapella. "The Seed" or "Runaway." Runaway is apparently the song Billie heard from Aurora that made her say "I want to do that." Aurora does not use auto tune.
Love your reaction, Fil. Very sad that people no longer recognize a singer that can actually carry something on their own without auto tune. Not knocking the person who couldn't figure it out - I may not have been able to figure that out either without watching you show us how that is her actual voice. People are just expecting auto tune, pitch correction, all kinds of production of voices so they almost sound like AI. I just watched a video about recording artists lending their voices to AI and then using AI to imitate their voices. Very strange to me - so maybe someday we won't know if it is an actual person singing? I find that quite frightening.
It's not the pitch accuracy that I am taking note of here but, instead, it's the intervals, the timing. The studio and live versions, when played simultaneously, match up about as closely as they possibly could. Sure, you can alter the frequencies sung but it would be an added level of complexity to artificially make sure that the attack and delay times of the individual notes match up as perfectly as they do here. It was simply brilliant to play the two versions simultaneously! If played sequentially I would probably not have been able to catch the match up.
Thank you for analysing Billie’s voice. I personally adore her and Finnias. It’s the rawness for me that you just don’t hear so often these days. What’s interesting is that they do use effects and heavy autotune on the track, NDA. Not to correct her pitch or disguise poor vocals but to add to the effect of the song. Brilliant.
Issue is artists will record a vocal track JUST for live, thus not using the “same vocal from album). Even MJ did this a few times. Example…..If you watch “Elizabeth I Love You” live by Michael Jackson (for Elizabeth Taylor), he had prerecorded JUST the pre chorus and chorus. He sang the verses live, but soon as the pre chorus starts, the pre recorded vocals kick in. So after he says “that’s what they sold you” the recorded vocals kick in “Grace with beauty, charm and talent”, leading to chorus. You can tell by A the muffled sound from the microphone for verses and slight pitch issues…slight….And Then the pre chorus and chorus are flawless, crisp, clear and for an engineer or producer can tell. But both verses are indeed live. He did this for 2 reasons, to make it perfect for his friend, and also not cheat her by giving her live vocals as well. Maybe you can cover that video.
Now that’s unusual!!? But aging worked in tv I do know vocals are usually live to a backing track. It’s not the singer’s fault!! The tv studio just don’t have the space to include all the musicians included in the recorded track.
Billie employs far too much vocal fry in my opinion. Yes, she’s very talented and her songs are catchy, however, I feel she’s too formulaic. (Sadly, I must endure endless hours of her music because a neighbour of mine has her on high rotation most days.😞)
Pitch correction is such a weird phenomenon when you realize that often means adjusting pitches to the 12 common steps in an octave, while the human voice is naturally so capable of producing way more harmonic tones but also anything inbetween that is in potential more interesting. It's really just a quickfix for people who aren't properly skilled in using their instrument. Yet I love how they heavily experiment with effects and production techniques in general that are not just meant to "enhance" the recording.
I don't particularly like this style of song. It reminds me of what one would sing while sitting on the toilet, bored and playing with the room's acoustics while waiting for nature's business to finally finish. I'm not trying to be cruel, BUT...
Thanks Fil. I always appreciate your work. This one is especially interesting and revealing about Billie's talent obviously, but mostly about the honest evaluation you bring every time you bring us through a singer's performance. Concerning Billie's talent, I'm not into that kind of music, but you gave me good insights to respect what she does.
How weird to have to sit there and pretend to play for an audience. I definitely took note of Billie Eilish when I heard Ocean Eyes and Bad Guy. Her talent is real and she has put in the work to shape that talent into her own unique voice. Thanks for breaking it down for us!😬
It does seem weird, but it's not (and hasn't been for quite some time) as uncommon, or as new of a thing as some would like to think it is. It was the norm, even back in the day, for artists appearing on shows such as _Top of the Pops_ and _American Bandstand._
Another great analysis. I really appreciate singers like Billie. The orchestra miming reminds me of the official music video for Don't Stop Me Now where Brian May is 'playing' the entire time.
This is probably a reason I hate “new” music. I’ve never been able to accurately express why I don’t like it until now. As a drummer, I’ve long noticed that older (70s especially) can have tempo variations within the song. It’s not huge like rushes or drags in fills but more an organic natural change depending on the section. It’s completely missing in modern music.
I literally was about to type this comment. Ha ha. I can't stand her whispering. But if she is not pitch correcting something, then perhaps she can be force to be a push back against this horrible synthesizing of human voices. If only she would sing something.
Live or studio this song and her voice is not very impressive. She is talk- singing her way through this. Very lame. You want to hear a great singer go listen to Ella Fitzgerald or Eva Cassidy. Don't waste you're time straining to hear much talent in Billie's voice because it simply isn't there.
BIllie eyelash i heard her for the first time by happen chance on the radio and i said omg there isnt any soul this just screams im high on pills and making terrible music. i know ALOT of people like her music but it literally just feels so empty unoriginal and drugged out, but not in a cool way like the beatles
We are part of the same homeschool community as Billie and Finneas though my kids are much younger. They remember how nice both were to the younger kids and they would play and sing with them at parks. They were both very blessed to be in an environment that encouraged them to develop and strengthen their vision while giving them the skills to be “outsiders” and not feel the pressure to conform to what everyone else is doing.
I wish I had been in the homeschool parenting world. My kids were schooled in decent schools. Two actually in the top 250 nationwide at the time. Very blah experience in my opinion
@@dicanini she is 100% conformist. Neon hair.... just like the trend. Make-up.... just like the tenders wear it. A perfume line.... just like all the other pop starts. The clothing... just like the trends.
A excellent view you Hit it out of the park! A excellent job on Billie Eilish. Absolutely cool work showing us the differences with you emphasizing with your voice. That was a excellent comparison Fil. I honestly thought they used a bit of magic on her Voice. Now listening to it as you shown here I learned something again! Appreciate you Fil Luv&Peace.✌🏼
Blows my mind how much time so many people spend losing their minds over how someone else does their thing. WANTING her to be bad. And probably hating that she isn't. 'Oh I hate her slurs...' 'I hate her fry...' 'I actually hate myself fundamentally...' Your videos are great, I really enjoy your delivery and care. But the fact that so many whiny mood-draggers cared enough to wanna pull her or anyone apart anyway... dunno man... maybe people just aren't as busy as they should be doing their own thing. If they were, they wouldn't have the time, inclination, or resentment to care. Shame.
Billie is such a remarkable artist, and the way she and her brother have maintained control of their product is why she is one of the few modern artists that I will always want to hear. My ears told me what your meter is showing: her voice is real, and she has talent that is always available to hear, live or in the studio. I wish we had more of her quality around.
The only thing I don't understand up to this song why she mostly sang songs that I call as "ASMR songs", which I really hated. If she has this talent, she wasted it for a long time. I don't care about the millions that like her work up to this song. Compare "Bad Guy" to this masterpiece.. I don't really get today's people's musical taste(!) (in general)
I'd rather hear a flat note here and there, a hot mic for a few seconds , and a horn playing a wrong note than this autotune stuff they keep trying to shove at us.
Wasting all that time on Billie Eilish? Come on man! Music has declined to the point where THIS, Billie Eilish, a mediocre by historic standards, artists is the "PINNACLE"? Give me an F'n break! Why isn't there a NEW proper super talent? All generations have had a much higher standard? Answer: There is no proper music industry. Music is on TV now, on talent shows. Or else a link to sell insurance and cars. World is all about "Get those kids off of music early, and into mortgages with banks ASAP".
Sorry, but to me she sounds too much like a depressed Lisa Simpson. All of her songs sound the same, like I'm being forced to watch a boss' kid at the Christmas party. I mean, a lot of Adele's songs (on 21, anyway) used to sound similar, but they were all GOOD! I can't stand being fed marginalized, marketerd crap and told it's something "special", when it's not. (I grew up having to defend artitsts like Kurt Cobsin, and other people with more "simple" vocal styles, but it was better than *this* bloodless, basic music. I'm annoyed that it's a Bond tune, too, lol!) I guess I'm finally an "Old" for this, lol. I usually don't bag on current popular music, I'm excited by new talent, when I actually *hear* it, lol. I like her hair, though! I appreciate BE as a corporate style icon. She makes a lot of people a lot of money. I have to go listen to something else, now. Maybe some Scorpions. Why haven't THEY ever done a Bond theme? Could you IMAGINE?!
I agree. I have listened to several of her songs and don’t get her. Then again, I am spoiled: I grew up listening to Glen Campbell, Karen Carpenter, David Gates, and Gordon Lightfoot.
C’mon, Fil… is this really singing? She croaks, barely above a whisper, and a step away from humming. Maybe she doesn’t use pitch correction… but did you see the David Letterman interview with her, where they said she does 50 takes of the same song and they use a program that basically finds the slices with the correct pitch from those takes and melds them together until they get what they want? Plus they can also use pitch correction live now….
Not exactly a new phenomenon. I was in a choir in the 80s and we were on a German TV show and after our performance (which was live) we were used as a backdrop for a famous singer, but although we had rehearsed her music she insisted on singing to a prerecorded backing track.
While I agree that this pitch correction has gotten out of hand, keep in mind that back in my day (1970s - 1980s), artists would record live albums and then take them to the studio to re-record parts they felt were not up to par.
I'm not that familiar with her music, but, my granddaughter is a fan. Naturally, that piques my interest. Thanks for all you do, Fil...always enjoy and appreciate it! Rosemarie 💖
Gee, Is it possible to re record a new studio vocal track - live in the studio to the backing track, and mime that new vocal track live with that mimed backing track ?? Is that possible ?? There is no doubt Billie and her Brother are damn talented musicians.
I love that you have confirmed what I suspected, that Billie has the artistic integrity AND skill to unabashedly leave her studio vocal alone without processing them with autotune. You are doing the music listening world a tremendous favor. Please do a similar comparison on Larkin Poe, another group I love that has incredible vocals and after seeing them live recently, I am firmly convinced they also do not process their vocals. Pure talent for all to hear.
The disservice that pitch correction does is not just to the listener or tte quality of music in general. It robs the artist of reaching the highest limits of their ability. When you can't fall back on auto tune, you have to be good. Really good. This is what makes Billie and Adele stand out (obviously there are others). The other thing it does is it dehumanizes music to the point where the whole point of the art, to convey some sort of emotion artistically, is pretty much gone. This is why records that came out before the 2000s continue to sell massively. Theres something about hearing someone like Whitney Houston sing at such a level knowing that she used nothing but maybe some reverb. Or any rock band, especially guys like Lou Gramm of Foreigner who influenced many of the 80s rock vocalists. People who could just flat out sing naturally, but got way better because they had too. This made their live performances top notch as well.
It’s sad to see this happening in the music industry especially with a full orchestra. Seeing a full orchestra live is an amazing experience. The audience were robbed of an opportunity to seeing an orchestra play for possibly the first time. I also have to say seeing any bands perform live nowadays is highway robbery. The tickets are not cheap. I remember seeing bands for less than $80 a ticket. Now, we are looking at $1500 a ticket. What a huge price increase! Don’t bands know that most fans are blue collar workers or college students who live paycheck to paycheck? How in the world can fans afford tickets to see bands costing this much? Yes, I understand they are no longer making money off the release of new music. Yet, there are other ways to make money and not charge outrageous prices for concert tickets.
You can hear it in the ESC ... Why did most of the singers in elder contests mostly hit the notes correctly? Around 1996 it started, from then on more and more singers paticipated who didn't sing that good Of corse they are not bad (they are far away from that), but you can hear more "wrong" notes
I like auto tune but when it's used to hide the fact the singer isn't that good then it's wrong. You will never see Billie sing with Christina and Jesse J on Lady Marmalade or join Christina to sing Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody, she's a whispering type singer who doesn't push her voice enough to need auto tune to help her.
This is the absolute accolade, when given this setup and not you (as the singer) is told to mime, but the whole orchestra instead 😂 This would be the ultimate unreasonable life goal.. 😭
I really don't like her voice in the first clip we hear. She sounds like she doesn't open her mouth wider than about 3mm when she sings, it's really annoying. It's like a female vocal version of how Adam Sandler speaks.
I'm old enough that I remember the criticism The Monkees got in the late 1960s when it was made public that the members of the band didn't play any instruments on their albums. They performed their vocals, but members of The Wrecking Crew (Los Angeles' top session musicians) played on all the backing tracks. What wasn't known is that the same members of The Wrecking Crew also played on all of the Beach Boys albums as well as singles and albums by Sonny and Cher, The Association, The Byrds, and many other recording artists. However, these days, it doesn't seem to bother anyone that singers are auto-tuned, and in many cases, through Artificial Intelligence, computers are writing melodies and even lyrics. The point is that in the 1960s and '70s (and onward), most listeners expected that artists maintained a certain degree of integrity: that they had enough virtuosity that they played their instruments and sang on their records. And what those artists were doing was both revolutionary and very, very good. When you grow up listening to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, CSNY, The Who, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, Santana, and Chicago, you were impressed with the quality of what was being produced as well as how fresh and original it sounded. And each artist had their own sound. When you heard The Doors or Crosby Stills and Nash, it simply couldn't be anyone else. The whole point was not to copy someone else; it was to sound like no one else. Now? With A.I. and auto-tune, it seems like the object is for everyone to sound like everyone else. By the way, I really appreciate the fact that you cover music by people who aren't "hip", but are just really good. For example, I didn't listen to The Carpenters very much as a teenager, but I now have an immense appreciation for Karen Carpenter's voice, and how pitch-perfect she was. And even songwriters who were considered "square" at the time, like Burt Bacharach, have stood the test of time, and are now considered masters of songwriting. Anyway, keep up the good work !!!
I don’t like Billie Eillish vocal. Her style is too muffled and lazy for my preference. I can’t tell half the words she mumbles and the wide vibrato is grating on my nerves. I do barbershop singing that needs clear diction and no vibrato to achieve overtone.
Absolutely, I was a performing vocalist much of my life and have been around so many others and singing in pitch soft and low is absolutely as, if not more challenging than belting high. For myself much more of a challenge, but if you ever see live performances of some dynamic "powerhouse" vocalists from Christina Aguilera to Chris Cornell you will see they fall off the pitch the most in their lower range and soft voice. When I first heard Billie Eilish I was floored by her pitch. I could see it was not lip-synched and she was absolutely dead on low. SO very impressive. All that said she's still working on her full-voiced upper power.. that's her "weakness" if you need to call it that, but really I say she just knows her "superpower" and is playing to it. Fantastic.
@@fanatic26nope, she’s only gotten better and more comfortable with her voice watch her recent live performances, her chest and head voice is now being used by her more confidently and with good support. She’s not meh she’s growing and getting better
I can’t stand the mumbling, the breathiness, that weird accent and all the excessive forced vibrato that’s adopted by so many modern/young vocalists. No offence intended to Billie Eilish or any other artist who uses these techniques. I just don’t care for them at all.
Did you say we have a whole orchestra there for show? I didn`t like anything I heard in the whole video. I love Fil`s review of course. Great job. I would be much more harsh on modern music.
That smile on your face when her voice kicked in told me everything I needed to know. That was a look of genuine enjoyment and appreciation for another artist. What little of her music I've heard made it pretty clear that she's a very talented young lady with a LONG career ahead of her. Thanks Fil, that was really enjoyable and informative!
Thank you for making a positive comment! So many people slagging her off here just because she is young and has a slightly unique singing voice. There are too many grumpy people here.
As a metalhead, I obviously detest pop music, but there are people in the mix currently, like Billie or Lewis Capaldi, who I'd go stand on a mountainside and beat up dragons just to let them carry on making tunes. Always defend the poets, whatever genre they choose to play. The world needs bards.
Another excellent video🙏 I remember hearing her early on - she’s always been that natural and good! And yeah, I was wondering during the vocal compare how you got the tempo/rhythm to match so closely😂 Of course live vocals with pre-recorded instrumental tracks isn’t new, but old grandpa me didn’t imagine “finger syncing” a song during a big awards show would be a thing… like it’s the new takeoff on TOTP or something?
Live or studio this song and her voice is not very impressive. She is talk- singing her way through this. Very lame. You want to hear a great singer go listen to Ella Fitzgerald or Eva Cassidy. Don't waste you're time straining to hear much talent in Billie's voice because it simply isn't there.
I'm not too familiar with her music. I have heard "I Miss You, My Love." She has an interesting and distinctive singing voice. She appears to be one of those artists who are instantly recognizable after just one song.
@@cristiep7377 Neither of them have this song out in any platform. Or is an unreleased song or one of those AI made ones. Never heard it before i'm not even sure if it's really her cant find any information about this song and doesn't even sound like something she would do.
The song you are referencing is not Billie. It's an edited song featuring Trainride by Alex Kehm and Post Malone Wasting Angels. Just wanted to let you know :)
Doesn't bother me in the slightest, but then, I grew up listening to grunge. 😂 The only things I give a damn about are a) did you write it? and b) did you sing your goddamn heart out?
I loved hearing her sing Fever and Is That All there Is with Debbie Harry. You can find those performances on RUclips and shows just how good she is. No autotune or pitch correction needed. Just beautiful. She needs to make a jazz album!!!
@@pstanton2445 I'm highly familiar. I own quite a few of her hits. I just really enjoyed Eilish's interpretation of those two songs, and think she has a lot of potential.
yes, she has the perfect voice for jazz, that performance is one of my favorite from her. Also if you haven't seen there's a performance by for for Sally's song Live at Nightmare Before Christmas 202. It's a complete different style but once again she show her singing ability perfectly
Wow...this one had a few things to take away from it, I always learn "something" from your analysis videos, very interesting for sure! Thanks so much Fil!🌷
Thank you for making this video it popped up on my suggestion page. It was really neat to see the studio and live comparison, but also the reveal that the orchestra wasn't really playing during the event, which feels kind of sad but also might explain how in some 'live' orchestra on stage videos I see.. that some are placed in weird locations that might drown out their instruments. Also: And I apologize if this was mentioned within the year that this video has been out.. but the audio of the video goes out around the 24 min 44 second mark and doesn't come back. Transcript / close caption is auto generated so they reveal nothing after that mark. Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing your other videos and benevolent wishes to you and yours in regards to 2024 and your endeavors. : )
Well said, Fil! It seems especially cheesy to me to have a live singer with an orchestra-in-a-tin pretending to perform live. But this also speaks to the unfortunate, apparent, general ignorance of audiences that's being taken advantage of, merely for the sake of appearance. Cheers!
Never felt like rushing out to buy her and her brother's music but I respect her for her individuality and the pair's creativity. The number of clones that quickly, (quicker than ever), popped was a testament to that. Great Bond theme. Nearly up there with Wings' and Chris Cornell's.
Listen before I go, live from the Steve Jobs theatre is beyond incredible. Everything in there is set up for perfection. It's incredible for all time not today x
Ethereal voice to my ears. I like live performances to sound like the recording or close to it. It would be a bit disappointing. I am not familiar w/her but I appreciate your analysis which is an introduction to her music for me.
For me, it was the first time a Bond Theme was sung with frailty and vulnerability. Always been full of big, bold vocals. Obviously, she met her brief according to the storyline here. Her voice is a little affected but I hear a little of Billie Holiday, without the history Billie H lived in and around. Not a fan of this theme, just too brittle and like she is suffering somewhat. Not her fault, as I can imagine she was told that is what they wanted for this new era. Thanks Fil for your analysis.
It's sad that the music industry has gotten to a point where a listener starts questioning the ability of an artists or bands whether or not it's their actual voice in tune. I am glad that I grew up in a time period where imperfection was considered normal. and technology hadn't gotten to technical for our own good.
I also think audiences/media are so judgmental that artists feel obligated to use backtracks with live performances. I would like imperfection and acceptance of how the body changes the voice with aging to be a regular thing. Thank you for your comment.
I don’t think this is really true. “Listeners” hear something and they like it or they don’t. Few visitors to art museums analyze or process brush strokes and symmetry in their heads.
As far as music the obsession over these things..for a while it was compression, now it’s pitch correction and auto tune sometimes goes too far. An analysis of a joke or any comedy invariably renders it unfunny.
I think Fil is walking a fine line here. So far he’s not toppled over. Selecting POP or hip hop or rap is low hanging fruit for these “is it real or is it memorex” moments. That acceptable imperfection is still present in most genres snd niches. Indie, Americana, hard rock, metal, blues, jazz etc.
Finally, if you do not notice pitch correction without putting a meter on it, for all intents and purposes it isn’t there. You don’t know for example if a vocal (or any music passage) was one take or comped. EQ’d etc etc etc unless the technique is intrusive and too noticeable.
@@tcconnection Yes this expectation is not new it goes back to early to mid Twentieth Century. At the point when music production crafted sound that was more "perfect" than live music. People began to expect the Artist to sound the same live as on their Albums.
That's what he said in the video...the exact premise. Did you post this before you watched it or just literally repeating his script?
@@tcconnection so the Moody Blues should have left the Melotron home!
50's > late 90's.. we already had good the good stuff... the last 2 decades have been absolutely dire..
I bailed out half way through (I have to go out in a minute but I might watch the rest later). I get the gist.
Today's formulaic pop music does nothing for me but in all fairness I felt the same during other eras: '80s synth and '80s/'90s rave spring to mind. I remember hearing Kingmaker and Suede in the early '90s and feeling like I'd been emancipated from the tyranny of rave. I'd also say a lot more soulful techno music emerged through the mid-to-late '90s. Some sweet vocal tracks and (I don't know if this was a 'movement' or isolated instances) some techno tracks which emulated a raw r 'n' b sound.
I hear kids on the streets listening to tedious, self-pitying 'rap' artists bleating about what they want to do. I suppose that's why they appeal to twelve-year-olds. It's this cloying sentimentality, at least as much as autotune, which turns me off today's pop music. Cloying sentimentality belted out with conviction is no more appealing to me than cloying sentimentality with hiccups. I'd sooner have the hiccups with a daredevil emotional lexicon.
How about a review of a selection of dogs howling along with Luciano Pavarotti? Ha ha! Maybe not appropriate analysis material but an entertaining detour in your downtime, I might suggest.
Having set up mics for a couple of orchestras in my time, I totally understand why most TV shows don't bother. It's just not something you can drop in during a set change and expect to sound right.
Just like fake instagram photos that are highly edited, the music industry thinks it needs to be perfect (auto-tune and more plugins that deviate from the original tone) everything to keep up. So many forget that being individual and unique is the way forward.
It's happening now with people's holiday snaps! You can eliminate other people and even replace the sky/background. Why bother?
She's a scary muppet version of Snorah Jones.
I HATE autotune and pitch-correction, it should be BANNED!!!!😠😠😠😠....or at least, why can't they use a label similar to "parental advisory", saying something like "AUTOTUNE & PITCH-CORRECTION FREE" on this record???.....
Just like artificial and GMO ingredients in foods.
I believe the old way enhanced the true voice of the singer
So much emotional impact is lost when an orchestra doesn't get to actually make those amazing vibrations with their instruments! Thank you for pointing out the hidden problems of canned music and pitch corrected vocals - all the artistry we lose and all the artistry we doubt.
One of my conductors, many years ago, would say each performance was a last performance since it is impossible to replicate a performance exactly. So many factors change with each performance that each one should be considered singular in existence and not just going through the motions of repetition.
Totally right
That is why a live performance has an own and special value, right? Personally, I like the artist's creative variations in each different performance, according to her/his temporary mood, precisely because it shows versatility and most probably also the creative evolution of the song.
beautiful!
Yes, this is true in classical music too - soloists and conductors sometimes do alter their choices of tempi, dynamics and phrasing from one performance to the next, both out of inspiration and because they're adapting to the strengths of the orchestra they are working with at the moment. A symphony orchestra is not simply a piece of inert rock imprinted by the conductor to perform "what's in the score".
@@vanoshka_f a recording is not a live performance.
As a musician, I really appreciate your analysis work. I learn a lot from you.
I really don't like this fashionable new way of singing, all the fry going on and the voice always sounds to me like their face is really lazy and floppy.
Like they can't be bothered to move or articulate their lips or jaw.
It reminds me of Adele, it always sounds like a really lazy, slack jawed way of singing.
I really find it unpleasant to listen to. I feel dragged down by it, rather than uplifted by the sound of the voice.
Personal taste I guess
Glad to hear that Billie Eilish will sing live and sound just as good as in studio. But, it is a bummer to hear that a full, talented orchestra is having to pretend they are playing their instruments. I agree, Fil, that missing out on hearing the sound of a great orchestra’s live performance is a sad thing.
Yeah, that's a knock against Billie here. She wants the music she knows and doesn't want to follow the orchestra. That's disappointing -- if you're going to go for it, just go for it. Bring it to life completely.
“…sound just as good…”
That’s relative and extremely subjective.
"sing"???? It's mediocre crooning.
Fil,
Though I am not familiar with Billie's work, I appreciate you coving this and stating that she not using auto tune nor pitch control. I never knew what those two terms meant until I began watching you. I've learned so much.
God bless to all, Marianne ❤ 19:49
For a while Apple included the full recording sessions of Billie Eilish’s ‘Ocean Eyes” as a sample project bundled with Logic Pro X. It had all the individual instrument tracks and all the vocal tracks and effects, even including all the individual takes that were comped into the final mix. If you listened to a single vocal solo’d you could even hear background sounds that were recorded inadvertently along with the vocals (it always surprises me that pro recordings often are not “perfectly” noiseless). There was clearly no artificial pitch correction being used anywhere.
I remember that, it's so cool when artists share the stems to understand how they do it. Probably because they recorded most songs in Finneas bedroom and not in a studio.
Proving again that the most important parts of recorded music are composition and a performance, not how polished the recording is. It’s easy to get lost in the sauce with new fancy plugins and gear constantly coming out but at the end of the day that stuff doesn’t really even matter
@@hittnau5 Phineas uses auto tune.
@@xvoodoo9999 Phineas is on record as using auto tune. Also, one of the first things many mixing engineers…Bob Clearmountain does is clean up recordings removing background noise often using software.
Vocals with sibilants are “fixed”…how far do you wanna go? There’s a lot more done than auto tuning to make a record “perfect.”
@@JohnLnyc I did not say anything about auto tune... You don't even know how to write his name...
Billie and Finneas have previously said that they just made a personal rule not to use pitch correction - unless it was for deliberate and obvious effect.
like making money on crappy songs ?
@@Ebolter1 the hell are you trying to make in point?
nice name dweeb , try replying in a language that is grammatically correct
deliberate and obvious effect? what?!
You don’t have to pitch correct when it takes 150 comps to get through three minute song. Lots of people can sing very well two or three notes at a time. And that’s what you hear when you listen to a Billie Eilish record
But maybe because they don’t autotune, they do save much of the feeling, even though you’re not hearing an actual performance of the song.
And I like Billie. no hate here.
Supposing...and I'm not suggesting Billie Eilish did this, I happen to think she is a remarkable talent...but supposing in some cases, just to be sneaky, certain artists were miming live NOT to the regular studio single version, but, say, an alternative studio vocal so that it sounds good and people can't criticise it for being the single version. Does that make sense? x
Yes, that actually happens. Even re-record the vocals to the live performance in the studio. This is not the case though
She doesn’t draw me in at all, lol. Good analysis, though.
Hi!
I've heard of Billie Eilish before, but I think this is the first time I listen to one of her songs. Interesting singing voice 🤔
Great analysis, Fil. Thank you 🖤🤘🏽
I was immediately enthralled by her voice and style though I am generations removed. Audiences went wild too, then suddenly the plague shut down her concerts.
Billie and her brother were home schooled and spent a lot of time on their home studio though Billie did sing in a choir of sorts. Someone taught her well.
Plus, they sampled unlikely sounds in some of their recordings. So clever.
Thanks for another fascinating “expose”.
plague...LMAO!
Actually she was a member of the prestigious Los Angeles Children’s choir for five years. The sixth year she was devastated when she didn’t make the cut but then they released Angel Eyes on sound cloud that year, so if she had been chosen for the choir, she wouldn’t have become famous… which is a scary thought!
@@kristineteall368 What? she stopped doing chorus the same year Ocean eyes became viral on Sound cloud, she had to stop doing chorus and dance because of the success, there are videos (from this Choir page) of her the same year (2016) she became famous was still singing in this chorus .. what are you spreading and where did you get this info?
I believe she also talks about it from her interview with David Letterman she did last year? She talked about trying out and not making it. She also said that had she been chosen for the choir she would not have had the time to tour.
@@hoy68290 she also became injured and could no liver dance, but I believe that was after the song was released because they posted for her dance class.
I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but Finneas and Billie have said in interviews that they comp her vocals for days. There are shed loads of edits in every track. A much more diligent, authentic and time consuming method of perfection. And of course comping acts as a deep grain rehearsal for the singer, to really imprint every nuance of the recording into their live performance
OR - They can just brute force talent.. Taking the 'good' cuts from 10000 takes and throw em together so they actually sound somewhat reasonable. Turns out if you polish a turd hard enough, you can make a diamond.
@@tvlkn9130 Okay, I’ll try not to get too hot about this. When writing a song, one of the ways to explore the melodic line, the phrasing, the dynamics, is thru multiple takes, and then comping those takes into what the artist wants.
In the end, there are actual live performances, wherein the artist has learned her own comps. The tours, the TV appearances are live, with no autotune there, either. You are complaining about the Writing Process. Go watch her sing Peggy Lee’s Fever with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, and you’ll hear a real singer with control, who is in the pocket. Look at the bassist - he is digging playing behind that woman. Billie Eillish is the Real Deal.
You wanna complain? Try Madonna, lip-syncing her songs on tour.
@@stuffnuns You think that was a complaint? it was an observation/comment about someone making copy-paste music.
Sure, I get doing different takes/versions during the creative process. That's not uncommon at all. But there is a difference between trying different styles/takes on something - compared to redoing the same thing over and over (because most of it sounds bad) - and then slapping the good bits together like a musical scrap book.
It’s admirable nowadays that she does that, but I find this woozy-sounding diction that has been everywhere for over 10 years now to be affected and wearisome - just sing the words, goddammit!
Trying to reframe lots of time spent compositing as a good thing is like saying lots of time spent correcting misspelled words shows someone must be a good writer. A good singer would just do a 2nd take. It would sound better and require less time. Extensive comping is only considered acceptable when getting a complete take isn’t possible in the allotted recording time.
I'm not very familiar with her music, but she seems like an old hippie soul in a young body. So, I can understand her not using any auto 'corrections' in her singing. Good for her! Keep the faith of the music Billie!
Fil, thank you for being here "for the talent." This analysis is fascinating, very informative about the orchestra.
I agree.
And this is why they shouldn't use backing tracks live. It not only discredits the orchestra musicians who have actually physically turned up to the performance, only to be told to sit there and pretend to play, it also discredits the singer, Billie in this case, because now everyone watching and listening to this performance would never ever believe that the musicians are pretending and so because it sounds SO IDENTICAL to the studio version they are pointing the finger at her implying she has had autotune or pitch correct applied to her voice. Sad times 😩
Vocal fry is awful. Always reminds me of Enrique Iglesias.
God bless her live engineer for getting that whisper vocal out front of a band..
Singers these days tend to have no voice :-/
Yeah. She can hit the pitches well enough, but the style just sounds like mumbling to me.
I always appreciate your videos and knowledge. Thank you. Since Billie credits Aurora as a big reason she wanted to have a career as a singer, try checking out Aurora "Cure for Me" acapella. "The Seed" or "Runaway." Runaway is apparently the song Billie heard from Aurora that made her say "I want to do that." Aurora does not use auto tune.
Maybe Fil should do a comparison between the official audio of Runaway and the 'Nobel Peace Prize' version.
Love your reaction, Fil. Very sad that people no longer recognize a singer that can actually carry something on their own without auto tune. Not knocking the person who couldn't figure it out - I may not have been able to figure that out either without watching you show us how that is her actual voice. People are just expecting auto tune, pitch correction, all kinds of production of voices so they almost sound like AI. I just watched a video about recording artists lending their voices to AI and then using AI to imitate their voices. Very strange to me - so maybe someday we won't know if it is an actual person singing? I find that quite frightening.
AI in general is absolutely terrifying. Yet for some strange reason we persist down this crazy path.
@@29memyselfandi ai may help us find answers we would never find otherwise, but it's extremely dangerous anyway; I can't deny that
@29memyselfandi Because certain powers are pushing for its development, not the general public so much I don't think.
It's not the pitch accuracy that I am taking note of here but, instead, it's the intervals, the timing. The studio and live versions, when played simultaneously, match up about as closely as they possibly could. Sure, you can alter the frequencies sung but it would be an added level of complexity to artificially make sure that the attack and delay times of the individual notes match up as perfectly as they do here. It was simply brilliant to play the two versions simultaneously! If played sequentially I would probably not have been able to catch the match up.
Thank you for analysing Billie’s voice.
I personally adore her and Finnias. It’s the rawness for me that you just don’t hear so often these days.
What’s interesting is that they do use effects and heavy autotune on the track, NDA.
Not to correct her pitch or disguise poor vocals but to add to the effect of the song.
Brilliant.
Issue is artists will record a vocal track JUST for live, thus not using the “same vocal from album). Even MJ did this a few times. Example…..If you watch “Elizabeth I Love You” live by Michael Jackson (for Elizabeth Taylor), he had prerecorded JUST the pre chorus and chorus. He sang the verses live, but soon as the pre chorus starts, the pre recorded vocals kick in. So after he says “that’s what they sold you” the recorded vocals kick in “Grace with beauty, charm and talent”, leading to chorus. You can tell by A the muffled sound from the microphone for verses and slight pitch issues…slight….And Then the pre chorus and chorus are flawless, crisp, clear and for an engineer or producer can tell. But both verses are indeed live. He did this for 2 reasons, to make it perfect for his friend, and also not cheat her by giving her live vocals as well. Maybe you can cover that video.
Fascinating! Especially the last bit where Fil shows that the singer is live but the backing musicians are miming! Wow!
Now that’s unusual!!? But aging worked in tv I do know vocals are usually live to a backing track. It’s not the singer’s fault!! The tv studio just don’t have the space to include all the musicians included in the recorded track.
Nah,Barbra Streisand and Shirley Bassey were much better.I don't like the way the girls squeak sing these days.
Billie employs far too much vocal fry in my opinion. Yes, she’s very talented and her songs are catchy, however, I feel she’s too formulaic. (Sadly, I must endure endless hours of her music because a neighbour of mine has her on high rotation most days.😞)
Pitch correction is such a weird phenomenon when you realize that often means adjusting pitches to the 12 common steps in an octave, while the human voice is naturally so capable of producing way more harmonic tones but also anything inbetween that is in potential more interesting. It's really just a quickfix for people who aren't properly skilled in using their instrument.
Yet I love how they heavily experiment with effects and production techniques in general that are not just meant to "enhance" the recording.
I don't particularly like this style of song. It reminds me of what one would sing while sitting on the toilet, bored and playing with the room's acoustics while waiting for nature's business to finally finish. I'm not trying to be cruel, BUT...
@Einer Reklov... Thanks for painting a picture in my head that wasn't there before.🤨
Watching this was so cringe knowing that the orchestra was just there to cosplay
Thanks Fil. I always appreciate your work. This one is especially interesting and revealing about Billie's talent obviously, but mostly about the honest evaluation you bring every time you bring us through a singer's performance. Concerning Billie's talent, I'm not into that kind of music, but you gave me good insights to respect what she does.
How weird to have to sit there and pretend to play for an audience. I definitely took note of Billie Eilish when I heard Ocean Eyes and Bad Guy. Her talent is real and she has put in the work to shape that talent into her own unique voice. Thanks for breaking it down for us!😬
It does seem weird, but it's not (and hasn't been for quite some time) as uncommon, or as new of a thing as some would like to think it is. It was the norm, even back in the day, for artists appearing on shows such as _Top of the Pops_ and _American Bandstand._
Another great analysis. I really appreciate singers like Billie. The orchestra miming reminds me of the official music video for Don't Stop Me Now where Brian May is 'playing' the entire time.
This is probably a reason I hate “new” music. I’ve never been able to accurately express why I don’t like it until now. As a drummer, I’ve long noticed that older (70s especially) can have tempo variations within the song. It’s not huge like rushes or drags in fills but more an organic natural change depending on the section. It’s completely missing in modern music.
there are no dynamics whatsoever.
I don't like Billie's singing style (whispering)... But knowing that she doesn't use pitch correction (at least here...don't know) makes me happy.
even punk bands use pitch correction now dude no one is untuned unless they are self produced and cant figure out the software
I'm with you on that!
What would happen if back in the day someone tried to auto tune David Byrne?
@@TommyWashow Autotune is garbage. Another reason music is garbage today.
I literally was about to type this comment. Ha ha. I can't stand her whispering. But if she is not pitch correcting something, then perhaps she can be force to be a push back against this horrible synthesizing of human voices.
If only she would sing something.
Live or studio this song and her voice is not very impressive. She is talk- singing her way through this. Very lame. You want to hear a great singer go listen to Ella Fitzgerald or Eva Cassidy. Don't waste you're time straining to hear much talent in Billie's voice because it simply isn't there.
BIllie eyelash i heard her for the first time by happen chance on the radio and i said omg there isnt any soul this just screams im high on pills and making terrible music. i know ALOT of people like her music but it literally just feels so empty unoriginal and drugged out, but not in a cool way like the beatles
zombie mumble pop
We are part of the same homeschool community as Billie and Finneas though my kids are much younger. They remember how nice both were to the younger kids and they would play and sing with them at parks. They were both very blessed to be in an environment that encouraged them to develop and strengthen their vision while giving them the skills to be “outsiders” and not feel the pressure to conform to what everyone else is doing.
I wish I had been in the homeschool parenting world. My kids were schooled in decent schools. Two actually in the top 250 nationwide at the time. Very blah experience in my opinion
But she sure seems to be a conformist now.
@@katiejon17no she doesn’t
@@katiejon17 nothing conformist about her.
@@dicanini she is 100% conformist. Neon hair.... just like the trend. Make-up.... just like the tenders wear it. A perfume line.... just like all the other pop starts. The clothing... just like the trends.
I dislike her.overly affected voice. The track is less than stellar.
Thank you for this video. Anyone who eschews the Autotune/Pitchcorrected crap gets my nod of appreciation.
A excellent view you Hit it out of the park! A excellent job on Billie Eilish. Absolutely cool work showing us the differences with you emphasizing with your voice. That was a excellent comparison Fil. I honestly thought they used a bit of magic on her Voice. Now listening to it as you shown here I learned something again! Appreciate you Fil Luv&Peace.✌🏼
Blows my mind how much time so many people spend losing their minds over how someone else does their thing. WANTING her to be bad. And probably hating that she isn't. 'Oh I hate her slurs...' 'I hate her fry...' 'I actually hate myself fundamentally...'
Your videos are great, I really enjoy your delivery and care.
But the fact that so many whiny mood-draggers cared enough to wanna pull her or anyone apart anyway... dunno man... maybe people just aren't as busy as they should be doing their own thing. If they were, they wouldn't have the time, inclination, or resentment to care. Shame.
I guess I am too old. I can't make out any words.
Me either but I don't want to
Is that because everything was better when everything were nowt but trees, you weird little twit?
Did you cry about j Maschis? I bet you didn't.
It is an odd style but reminiscent of something quite old -- Billie Holiday
@@chrisf5828 Slightly, but Billie Holiday could still enunciate and project.
Shame on you, making that comparison.
Billie is such a remarkable artist, and the way she and her brother have maintained control of their product is why she is one of the few modern artists that I will always want to hear. My ears told me what your meter is showing: her voice is real, and she has talent that is always available to hear, live or in the studio. I wish we had more of her quality around.
Lololol are you on crack??!!
you mean the two songs they have ?
The only thing I don't understand up to this song why she mostly sang songs that I call as "ASMR songs", which I really hated. If she has this talent, she wasted it for a long time. I don't care about the millions that like her work up to this song. Compare "Bad Guy" to this masterpiece.. I don't really get today's people's musical taste(!) (in general)
@@sahinbergyou mean the brain washed younger generation?
I do like Billie Eilish she's a very talented young woman
I'd rather hear a flat note here and there, a hot mic for a few seconds , and a horn playing a wrong note than this autotune stuff they keep trying to shove at us.
There are singers (well known) who would be painful to hear without it. I am ok with that. If one needs it, use it.
Wasting all that time on Billie Eilish? Come on man! Music has declined to the point where THIS, Billie Eilish, a mediocre by historic standards, artists is the "PINNACLE"? Give me an F'n break! Why isn't there a NEW proper super talent? All generations have had a much higher standard? Answer: There is no proper music industry. Music is on TV now, on talent shows. Or else a link to sell insurance and cars. World is all about "Get those kids off of music early, and into mortgages with banks ASAP".
Sorry, but to me she sounds too much like a depressed Lisa Simpson. All of her songs sound the same, like I'm being forced to watch a boss' kid at the Christmas party.
I mean, a lot of Adele's songs (on 21, anyway) used to sound similar, but they were all GOOD! I can't stand being fed marginalized, marketerd crap and told it's something "special", when it's not.
(I grew up having to defend artitsts like Kurt Cobsin, and other people with more "simple" vocal styles, but it was better than *this* bloodless, basic music. I'm annoyed that it's a Bond tune, too, lol!)
I guess I'm finally an "Old" for this, lol. I usually don't bag on current popular music, I'm excited by new talent, when I actually *hear* it, lol. I like her hair, though! I appreciate BE as a corporate style icon. She makes a lot of people a lot of money.
I have to go listen to something else, now. Maybe some Scorpions. Why haven't THEY ever done a Bond theme? Could you IMAGINE?!
I agree. I have listened to several of her songs and don’t get her. Then again, I am spoiled: I grew up listening to Glen Campbell, Karen Carpenter, David Gates, and Gordon Lightfoot.
I don't get it myself and think what you will, but she looks trashy as hell, imo.
C’mon, Fil… is this really singing? She croaks, barely above a whisper, and a step away from humming.
Maybe she doesn’t use pitch correction… but did you see the David Letterman interview with her, where they said she does 50 takes of the same song and they use a program that basically finds the slices with the correct pitch from those takes and melds them together until they get what they want?
Plus they can also use pitch correction live now….
we have gone from lip syncing at home into a brush...to doing karaoke with a support cast...
Not exactly a new phenomenon. I was in a choir in the 80s and we were on a German TV show and after our performance (which was live) we were used as a backdrop for a famous singer, but although we had rehearsed her music she insisted on singing to a prerecorded backing track.
Fil, this gives me hope. I think I can finally achieve my dream of being a rockstar! To me, she sounds terrible.
I wonder why she even bothered to sing if the orchestra wasn't allowed to play. WHY BOTHER?
Because she's the act! Not many people care or notice what is on playback.
While I agree that this pitch correction has gotten out of hand, keep in mind that back in my day (1970s - 1980s), artists would record live albums and then take them to the studio to re-record parts they felt were not up to par.
I'm not that familiar with her music, but, my granddaughter is a fan. Naturally, that piques my interest. Thanks for all you do, Fil...always enjoy and appreciate it! Rosemarie 💖
Gee, Is it possible to re record a new studio vocal track - live in the studio to the backing track, and mime that new vocal track live with that mimed backing track ?? Is that possible ?? There is no doubt Billie and her Brother are damn talented musicians.
I love that you have confirmed what I suspected, that Billie has the artistic integrity AND skill to unabashedly leave her studio vocal alone without processing them with autotune. You are doing the music listening world a tremendous favor. Please do a similar comparison on Larkin Poe, another group I love that has incredible vocals and after seeing them live recently, I am firmly convinced they also do not process their vocals. Pure talent for all to hear.
does it matter if something is melodyned when it sounds good? that should be the only metric imo
The disservice that pitch correction does is not just to the listener or tte quality of music in general. It robs the artist of reaching the highest limits of their ability. When you can't fall back on auto tune, you have to be good. Really good. This is what makes Billie and Adele stand out (obviously there are others). The other thing it does is it dehumanizes music to the point where the whole point of the art, to convey some sort of emotion artistically, is pretty much gone. This is why records that came out before the 2000s continue to sell massively. Theres something about hearing someone like Whitney Houston sing at such a level knowing that she used nothing but maybe some reverb. Or any rock band, especially guys like Lou Gramm of Foreigner who influenced many of the 80s rock vocalists. People who could just flat out sing naturally, but got way better because they had too. This made their live performances top notch as well.
It’s sad to see this happening in the music industry especially with a full orchestra. Seeing a full orchestra live is an amazing experience. The audience were robbed of an opportunity to seeing an orchestra play for possibly the first time.
I also have to say seeing any bands perform live nowadays is highway robbery. The tickets are not cheap. I remember seeing bands for less than $80 a ticket. Now, we are looking at $1500 a ticket. What a huge price increase! Don’t bands know that most fans are blue collar workers or college students who live paycheck to paycheck? How in the world can fans afford tickets to see bands costing this much? Yes, I understand they are no longer making money off the release of new music. Yet, there are other ways to make money and not charge outrageous prices for concert tickets.
I come on this thinking you’re gonna tear up Billie Eilish, and am completely wrong. But it is unfortunate about the music industry.
I am such a big fan, Karen Carpenter was my 1st❤ I enjoy watching the pure love and enthusiasm you bring to music. Thx for sharing
You can hear it in the ESC ... Why did most of the singers in elder contests mostly hit the notes correctly?
Around 1996 it started, from then on more and more singers paticipated who didn't sing that good
Of corse they are not bad (they are far away from that), but you can hear more "wrong" notes
I like auto tune but when it's used to hide the fact the singer isn't that good then it's wrong. You will never see Billie sing with Christina and Jesse J on Lady Marmalade or join Christina to sing Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody, she's a whispering type singer who doesn't push her voice enough to need auto tune to help her.
Can’t stand it, brother… and I ain’t talking Clapton.
If you need me I’ll be back in the 60’s through mid 80’s.
Cheers!
This is the absolute accolade, when given this setup and not you (as the singer) is told to mime, but the whole orchestra instead 😂
This would be the ultimate unreasonable life goal.. 😭
I really don't like her voice in the first clip we hear. She sounds like she doesn't open her mouth wider than about 3mm when she sings, it's really annoying. It's like a female vocal version of how Adam Sandler speaks.
I'm old enough that I remember the criticism The Monkees got in the late 1960s when it was made public that the members of the band didn't play any instruments on their albums. They performed their vocals, but members of The Wrecking Crew (Los Angeles' top session musicians) played on all the backing tracks. What wasn't known is that the same members of The Wrecking Crew also played on all of the Beach Boys albums as well as singles and albums by Sonny and Cher, The Association, The Byrds, and many other recording artists. However, these days, it doesn't seem to bother anyone that singers are auto-tuned, and in many cases, through Artificial Intelligence, computers are writing melodies and even lyrics. The point is that in the 1960s and '70s (and onward), most listeners expected that artists maintained a certain degree of integrity: that they had enough virtuosity that they played their instruments and sang on their records. And what those artists were doing was both revolutionary and very, very good. When you grow up listening to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, CSNY, The Who, The Doors, Simon & Garfunkel, Santana, and Chicago, you were impressed with the quality of what was being produced as well as how fresh and original it sounded. And each artist had their own sound. When you heard The Doors or Crosby Stills and Nash, it simply couldn't be anyone else. The whole point was not to copy someone else; it was to sound like no one else. Now? With A.I. and auto-tune, it seems like the object is for everyone to sound like everyone else. By the way, I really appreciate the fact that you cover music by people who aren't "hip", but are just really good. For example, I didn't listen to The Carpenters very much as a teenager, but I now have an immense appreciation for Karen Carpenter's voice, and how pitch-perfect she was. And even songwriters who were considered "square" at the time, like Burt Bacharach, have stood the test of time, and are now considered masters of songwriting. Anyway, keep up the good work !!!
Word salad 🥗
Troll
@Bambino_60 that's not what word salad is!! 😂
@@Bambino_60 You know salad is actually very healthy for body sooooooo... World salad is healthy for the mind.
I don’t like Billie Eillish vocal. Her style is too muffled and lazy for my preference. I can’t tell half the words she mumbles and the wide vibrato is grating on my nerves. I do barbershop singing that needs clear diction and no vibrato to achieve overtone.
I want to add praise to her talent too: singing softly and breathy like she do (very much jazz) is not easy as it may seam
Absolutely, I was a performing vocalist much of my life and have been around so many others and singing in pitch soft and low is absolutely as, if not more challenging than belting high. For myself much more of a challenge, but if you ever see live performances of some dynamic "powerhouse" vocalists from Christina Aguilera to Chris Cornell you will see they fall off the pitch the most in their lower range and soft voice. When I first heard Billie Eilish I was floored by her pitch. I could see it was not lip-synched and she was absolutely dead on low. SO very impressive. All that said she's still working on her full-voiced upper power.. that's her "weakness" if you need to call it that, but really I say she just knows her "superpower" and is playing to it. Fantastic.
@@johndavidhoward It is a weakness for sure. She has a very narrow lane with her style and is kind of stuck there. Shes just meh.
actually it is irritating...
@@fanatic26 She's very, very meh - I agree.
@@fanatic26nope, she’s only gotten better and more comfortable with her voice watch her recent live performances, her chest and head voice is now being used by her more confidently and with good support. She’s not meh she’s growing and getting better
Today's music is pure garbage!!! The best music was the 60s, 70s, and early 80s.
I can’t stand the mumbling, the breathiness, that weird accent and all the excessive forced vibrato that’s adopted by so many modern/young vocalists. No offence intended to Billie Eilish or any other artist who uses these techniques. I just don’t care for them at all.
I dunno. When you hear professionally trained operatic singers and then you hear this it's just not at all impressive.
Did you say we have a whole orchestra there for show? I didn`t like anything I heard in the whole video. I love Fil`s review of course. Great job. I would be much more harsh on modern music.
That smile on your face when her voice kicked in told me everything I needed to know. That was a look of genuine enjoyment and appreciation for another artist. What little of her music I've heard made it pretty clear that she's a very talented young lady with a LONG career ahead of her.
Thanks Fil, that was really enjoyable and informative!
Thank you for making a positive comment! So many people slagging her off here just because she is young and has a slightly unique singing voice. There are too many grumpy people here.
As a metalhead, I obviously detest pop music, but there are people in the mix currently, like Billie or Lewis Capaldi, who I'd go stand on a mountainside and beat up dragons just to let them carry on making tunes.
Always defend the poets, whatever genre they choose to play. The world needs bards.
Another excellent video🙏
I remember hearing her early on - she’s always been that natural and good!
And yeah, I was wondering during the vocal compare how you got the tempo/rhythm to match so closely😂
Of course live vocals with pre-recorded instrumental tracks isn’t new, but old grandpa me didn’t imagine “finger syncing” a song during a big awards show would be a thing… like it’s the new takeoff on TOTP or something?
Live or studio this song and her voice is not very impressive. She is talk- singing her way through this. Very lame. You want to hear a great singer go listen to Ella Fitzgerald or Eva Cassidy. Don't waste you're time straining to hear much talent in Billie's voice because it simply isn't there.
The only thing more boring than a Billie Elish song is a episode of Club Random
I'm not too familiar with her music. I have heard "I Miss You, My Love." She has an interesting and distinctive singing voice. She appears to be one of those artists who are instantly recognizable after just one song.
She doesn't have a music called "I Miss You, My Love." Maybe you are mistaking her with someone else?
Post Malone featuring Billie Eilish, she indeed does have a song she sings by this name, it may not be hers but she definitely does the song
@@cristiep7377 Neither of them have this song out in any platform. Or is an unreleased song or one of those AI made ones. Never heard it before i'm not even sure if it's really her cant find any information about this song and doesn't even sound like something she would do.
The song you are referencing is not Billie. It's an edited song featuring Trainride by Alex Kehm and Post Malone Wasting Angels. Just wanted to let you know :)
Adele's song was a Bond song, BE, was lame and had zero energy. I almost fell asleep before the movie started.
Does it not bother anyone else that she slurs her words and her enunciation is so lax that it is often impossible to understand the lyrics?
Doesn't bother me in the slightest, but then, I grew up listening to grunge. 😂
The only things I give a damn about are a) did you write it? and b) did you sing your goddamn heart out?
No. That, specifically, doesn't bother anyone.
I loved hearing her sing Fever and Is That All there Is with Debbie Harry. You can find those performances on RUclips and shows just how good she is. No autotune or pitch correction needed. Just beautiful. She needs to make a jazz album!!!
I totally agree
Try the original artist on both songs - Peggy Lee. Much better.
@@pstanton2445 I'm highly familiar. I own quite a few of her hits. I just really enjoyed Eilish's interpretation of those two songs, and think she has a lot of potential.
That's fair. 🙂
yes, she has the perfect voice for jazz, that performance is one of my favorite from her. Also if you haven't seen there's a performance by for for Sally's song Live at Nightmare Before Christmas 202. It's a complete different style but once again she show her singing ability perfectly
What a rare stand-out talent of today. I thinks she works at her craft, too.
Wow...this one had a few things to take away from it, I always learn "something" from your analysis videos, very interesting for sure!
Thanks so much Fil!🌷
Thank you for making this video it popped up on my suggestion page. It was really neat to see the studio and live comparison, but also the reveal that the orchestra wasn't really playing during the event, which feels kind of sad but also might explain how in some 'live' orchestra on stage videos I see.. that some are placed in weird locations that might drown out their instruments. Also: And I apologize if this was mentioned within the year that this video has been out.. but the audio of the video goes out around the 24 min 44 second mark and doesn't come back. Transcript / close caption is auto generated so they reveal nothing after that mark. Anyway I'm looking forward to seeing your other videos and benevolent wishes to you and yours in regards to 2024 and your endeavors. : )
Well said, Fil! It seems especially cheesy to me to have a live singer with an orchestra-in-a-tin pretending to perform live. But this also speaks to the unfortunate, apparent, general ignorance of audiences that's being taken advantage of, merely for the sake of appearance. Cheers!
Thanks for the review Phil but one thing for sure..she must produce a hell of a lot of nitric acid with all that humming.
Never felt like rushing out to buy her and her brother's music but I respect her for her individuality and the pair's creativity. The number of clones that quickly, (quicker than ever), popped was a testament to that.
Great Bond theme. Nearly up there with Wings' and Chris Cornell's.
Fkg Joke fil!! We need to go back to Foreigner Boston or even 🌈 and Sabbath this is BS!!
Listen before I go, live from the Steve Jobs theatre is beyond incredible. Everything in there is set up for perfection. It's incredible for all time not today x
Really not a big fan of her voice. Please don't put her vocal abilities in the same league as Adele's.
Ethereal voice to my ears. I like live performances to sound like the recording or close to it. It would be a bit disappointing. I am not familiar w/her but I appreciate your analysis which is an introduction to her music for me.
The problem with today's music is that it isn't music. It's software, and lip synching. We are all Milli Vannilli now. .. Girl, you know it's true.
Just great stuff. Thank you for pointing all this out about past artists, as well as the few current artists who really can do it.
For me, it was the first time a Bond Theme was sung with frailty and vulnerability. Always been full of big, bold vocals. Obviously, she met her brief according to the storyline here. Her voice is a little affected but I hear a little of Billie Holiday, without the history Billie H lived in and around. Not a fan of this theme, just too brittle and like she is suffering somewhat. Not her fault, as I can imagine she was told that is what they wanted for this new era. Thanks Fil for your analysis.