Sarah Brand

She needs her own thread.

Too many posts to C&P:
Top 100 moments in Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video

Key points of discussion iirc: the level of intentionality, the quality of the resulting product possibly regardless of intention, cultural norms regarding off-pitch singing in various contexts

whether one should hop on the devil fest or judge in disgust

I am stuck on Sarah® Brand

What's Rebecca Black up to these days then?

thank u Sund4r

Rebecca Black is having a career resurgence

Next up: Rebecca Black vs Sarah Brand, THE POLL.

Whether there is a valid comparison between the two was also a topic of discussion.

Posting on a devoted Sarah Brand thread might require more fortitude than I possess, I have to consider.

it's an extremely lazy comparison

The video is on a Marissa thread

I posted that. it is also on the Rebecca black thread. I see no reason not to have a Sarah Brand standalone thread

It was fun to think about for a day or so, but honestly I'm a little concerned about you guys at this point, lol

I'm not sure why. I guess you just fail to understand that Sarah Brand has shown us the New Way, that her voice is the Key and her song the Door, that playing her video on an endless loop is the only way to avoid hopping on the devil fest along with all of the other Disgust Judges. I feel sorry for you tbrr.

Red Dress (Extended Version) - Sarah Brand (ft Josh Kiszka)

some people need to stop judging in disgust

this video is on the Kanye thread

it was manifestly obvious on the first listen that it was deliberate. she is hitting the same notes over and over again

― imago, Wednesday, July 28, 2021 11:10 AM bookmarkflaglink

doesn't really prove anything tbh - one can be off-key in a consistent way without intentionally doing so. I have a friend who for some reason can never find the correct key for "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" at karaoke night and she consistently sings the same wrong notes, but she's not trying to! and she's a legit singer.

― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), mercredi 28 juillet 2021 12:57 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

what am i doin' heeeeeeeee(*earth tilts off its axis and spins into infinite darkness*)eeeeeeeeeere

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), mercredi 28 juillet 2021 12:59 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

the other thing is she wrote the song, and there are definitely people that can mimic other people's songs, but can't actually tell that what they're writing doesn't fit the key they're in. also people who aren't used to using melisma and don't have a good ear often melisma into Allan Holdsworth territory

― making splashes at Dan Flashes (Neanderthal), mercredi 28 juillet 2021 13:06 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Instead of negging on her we should be thanking her for all of the new notes she invented. A true musical pioneer.

everything else suddenly sounds out of tune now

i swear if you fuckers get her in the top 77

Judging by the other thread, I'm already mentally bracing myself for her #22 placement in the 77. Hopefully by then it'll just require a stifled gag instead of a full throated barfing.

Hey, Grimes got to #1 and all I did was make fun of her Tiktoks.

so she's a sociology grad student at Oxford, hmmm

She went to Cal… Go Bears.

My expectation is still that this has more to her do with her interest in religion and politics than some kind of meta-troll/study but I do think there's something, uh, sociologically interesting about the level of vitriol and condescension in the Youtube comments she's gotten over the last few days, just for singing out of tune - in self-made videos by a previously unknown grad student, done afaict with borrowed equipment. There seems to be a belief that she's wealthy, spoiled, and narcissistic, and needs to be taken down a peg, none of which has been substantiated afaik.

extremely otm

apart from issues of misogyny and the thing we were discussing in the other thread about "off-key" singing being more annoying/noticeable in higher ranges (more associated with female voices) there is really nothing very interesting about this person's work. Like, it doesn't suck badly enough to be impressive, it isn't unique enough to be interesting, and it definitely isn't good or enjoyable, though maybe people think she's hot? idk.

^more or less OTM. Neither song/video is very compelling from any angle (IMO), and the existence of misogyny on the Internet is hardly a newsflash (though I guess it's reminder #26 this week, for anyone who needs it).

It's always weird when one of the millions of randos posting things on the internet suddenly gets the spotlight turned on them for no particular reason. I've certainly seen my share of worse and weirder things that no one seemed to care about.

here is another
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIsX3Fu3VfQ

this one is by a guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VilpAzvSysc

xpost omg u saw the butthole cut of Cats?!!

if anything, this thread is exhibit a for why we should start WeHole-ing it again

(http://www.wehole.tv/)

Go Bears

Cast your slings and arrows but she is serving in that dress

also this song rips the chorus of "Wildest Dreams" more than anything else

I would be extremely impressed if someone was able to fake tone deafness to that degree. I think it would actually take extraordinary musical talent to do. At the same time, the video is uncanny because it's just hard to imagine all these people happily participating in this without dying inside at hearing what the song sounds like.

But that's kind of the only thing that's interesting about it at all to me - the tension between her polished look and polished video production and the abysmal singing. And it's not *that* interesting and I probably wouldn't have even given it another thought if this thread hadn't popped up. TBF, maybe would have cared more if this happened ten years ago. Social media has kind of numbed me to OMGWTF internet bullshit.

Fondly recalling the days when a more innocent nation’s hearts were captured by William Hung (also a Cal student at the time).

I just find the dissonances interesting, especially in context, but I will freely acknowledge that I might be overrating it in reaction to the hate.

chorus gets lodged in my head every time someone bumps this thread

Brand(ed) on the brain?

gonna give myself a lobotomy to get the chorus out of my head

There's a massive clue at the end of the video.

Sarah dancing in the church, congregation look amused, etc. But, no soundtrack. Just the ambient noises and some shoe squeaking.

I reckon the video was made without the music playing....

xp, just put this on repeat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll5aPrf2zE0

the women in the drink rum video definitely put Ms. Brand to shame in the posterior category. Oi mates.

xxp I never thought of it that way. Maybe the singing is so strange because she recorded it after making the video!

SARAH IS TEARING US APART

looks like quite a few more time bombs await on the full album

Album Tracks (...coming soon...)

Red Dress (single & music video: July 7th)
Fantasy (single & music video: June 15th)
How Do I Explain
American Gap Rap
Breaking Down
Cliches
Movie Screen
Cr@zy
The Critics Lie
Anyplace
The Fig Tree
(Rainbow)
EyEs

I can see the storms brewing in your eyes, forks.

American Gap Rap

welp it was fun while it lasted

oh come on, that is by far the most exciting track on that list
milkshakes for everyone

"The Critics Lie (like kites)"

Imagine being the person that has to mix those tracks. Hand on the mouse, hovering over the Melodyne Plug-In as you silently weep.

ok, after listening to the interview I am also now On Team Sarah, however not to the extent of actually wanting to listen to her music.

ILM precovers surely

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-58047513.amp

Basically, they've found her and she answers the question.....

wow what a head-fake!

I note that she does not say if the song was related to her academic work.

if she's singing deliberately poorly as an artistic statement related to the 'outsider' theme of her lyrics then that's really good because of how strange a move it is

There are also the non–Red Dress songs where her singing is just as weird, so…(?)

She doesn't know how to sing and is cleverly making the best of it.

(btw, she has an awesome attitude)

She doesn't know how to sing and is cleverly making the best of it.

Yeah, she's completely upfront. xps:

She admitted to the BBC that she is "no professional singer".

She added: "The style in which I sing the song was important because it reflected the story.
"The vocals don't seem to quite fit, they seem out of place and they make people uncomfortable... and the video is this outsider doing things differently and causing discomfort and eliciting all this judgement."

Unless all of her songs are sung from the point of view of an "outsider doing things differently and causing discomfort", it's an ex post facto justification - but I still love the way she's fronting.

otm

Well I was expecting something unlistenable but this is quite pleasant. I like her voice.

It extent of the kerfuffle really does say something about expectations, in terms of how little pitch deviation is allowed into pop productions, and maybe in how it's been further discovered in the context of being "bad." It might be pushing it slightly but it's not *that* bad and I think it is actually enjoyable. Old man says this is infinitely preferable to excessive autotune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ptQatdjOFM

I mean, whether you like it or not is absolutely a subjective thing but I maintain that "has the ability to match and maintain pitch in the context of a non-dissonant backing track" isn't an unreasonable expectation to have of a pop singer.

Sure, but what remains is the response to that expectation being somewhat confounded.

Unless all of her songs are sung from the point of view of an "outsider doing things differently and causing discomfort", it's an ex post facto justification - but I still love the way she's fronting.

The dissonance can still work that way even when it's not the lyrical theme. I think the way she uses it in "Fantasy" has a surreal quality, which again fits.

Old man says this is infinitely preferable to excessive autotune.

OTM

I mean, DJP is right, of course - I wouldn't want every singer to sound like this - and this only works because there is a norm that this is defying.

She's also only a 'pop singer' in the broad sense of the term that would also include Danielson Famile's singers. These are self-released indie songs.

Well she also covered a Taylor Swift song in the same "style." I guess if it works for someone in that context, it works anywhere.

Taylor Swift's own s/t-Fearless-era live performances not always a model of "matching and maintaining" pitch tbf.

trying to mimic the awkwardness of t-shirt wearing bleacher dwellers iirc

haha

sarah bland

She's back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cITvIxVNAN0

on brand

Exaggerated Autotune abuse does seem like a good response to the previous flak but still not sure what to make of this; I think I want either the rapping to be better or the production to be more mental.

while she is clearly going for another shitpost, this one isn't weirdly pleasant to listen to

too boxy and irregular to be passed without a bit of tearing

doctor said that when i was born

lightning not gonna strike twice here. whatever her intent was, she's now In On The Joke

Actually I quite like it now, it does get pretty mad by the end

Wow, this only happened six months ago and my brain had already scrubbed all memory of the phenomenon

A marketing genius at work (the question posed at bottom came up as a notification; clicking it led to this, an autoplay video)

https://i.imgur.com/YTNoj1v_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

oh god no

She’s really leaning into a particular angle now

(YouTube keeps showing me these clips, I must’ve “subscribed” to her channel)

this is not good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzIB9ty-Dp0

The song isn’t, but the video’s pretty well done

haven't watched it yet

wow super bad :/
trying too hard

red dress remains a classic

actually a decent parody of how loads of current pop songs sample metal guitars to be edgy