That was a night last Friday! No appetite to go out, or to pick up a book, I checked which TV series waiting for me (no success) and then flipped the various TV channels in search of a movie. My eyes noticed this title: "A Star is Born" and triggered vaguely: "Another Music movie", "Seen it, or?", "Keep on flipping the channels edje!" But, nothing of interest so I started this Star and Born thingy. At the start! Not somewhere in the middle as it currently was. Fortunately, I can start whenever I want since my cable TV guys and girls gave me a kinda auto recording of everything. It's more like on-demand, but then only for historical programs and up to 7 days old. But that's beside the point since I want to talk about this movie and perhaps more about its music.
"It opened my eyes", is all I can tell you now.
Why that is? Please bear with me. Continue to read (orrr scan) this post and thou shall learn the reason for the above line of text 😉
A movie. The synopses? Relatively simple story, the girl is an amateur singer and meets this professional singer. She is insecure and unknown. He is not entirely happy with his life, and well known. He convinces her to sing with him on stage.
And that's when Master Goosebumps with his entire posse showed up. When she started to sing, my mouth dropped open. Not entirely but the drop of my jaw wasn't negligible. "What a voice!"
"Shallow" live performance from the Oscars 2019 - The song that got Master Goosebumps going at first (source)
You shall know, I just heard her over my laptop speakers. A good set of speakers, but they are just laptop speakers. Much later, when I had the chance to listen to this very same part of the movie, over my Sennheizer headphones, it happened again, almost. My jaw and dropping thereof, I mean. This time I was prepared. Fixed a cord around my head and jaws 🙃
Note: You can find all sorts of information about this movie over at IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes ... click the previous for links to those pages)
When a little later in the movie she sang alone, not in the duet as during the moving jaw-dropping scene, this 'annoying' 😀 Master and his posse turned up, again. Goosebumps. Even higher than before and coming close to the height of Mount Everest. Perhaps I am a bit exaggerating. But at least the height of Mont Blanc 😂
Perhaps not the best recording, but a live recording that I wanted to share. A nice demonstration of what she is able to do. The song that got the Mont Blanc bumps heights 🙇 (source)
Still, I was in the dark about who she was. What actress is able to sing like that? Must be playback? When so, the lip-syncing must have been powered by some super-AI. IMDB was around the corner and then I got another jab-dropping moment. Lady Gaga? I couldn't believe it. Pinching my arm a few times to try and figure out if I wasn't dreaming or something. A recheck resulted in the same name: Lady Gaga. I felt like having lived under a rock for the last decade or two. She is around for much time already, I only now realise she can actually sing! How could I have missed her completely? Pfff
What did I miss out on since Lady Gaga showed herself to the world?
I started a bit of discography research. Listening to her previous work. I would've been able to spot her talent in singing. Not easily, but possible. It is the music I kinda know her for. This type of music mixes electronics with a voice and lots of entertainment.
I learned I wasn't entirely wrong not noticing this 'girl' before. Though I so very much like electronic music. Listened to plenty of albums by the likes of Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis and many less famous artists from the 80s onwards. Eventually ended up in the Techno side of things (and scene if I may add). But the works by Lady Gaga aren't my thing at all. Sounds way too commercial to me. In one way it also sounds quite easy music to me. I suppose the latter is something required to attract the masses. But also that is beside the point.
My take on all this: miss (or is it Mrs?) Gaga should've focused on different music styles to what she did with her first few albums. I mean, when singing in an acoustic music arrangement, with just a single instrument like the guitar or piano, the voice becomes the focal point. And when said voice is used to show its capabilities, I find it is mucho easier to not only reach my heart but to appreciate her singing talent, in general. And not that I like this genre of music a lot. Rarely do I listen to such. But a perfect genre for showcasing vocals and their capabilities 😍
Did I mention that her co-actor, Bradley Cooper, wasn't too bad?
I wonder if this guy sang before. No albums I could discover. In an article I read he took more than a handful of lessons. And a bit more after Lady Gaga wanted him to perform live instead of studio recordings and use playback tactics. But no, he is an actor, not a musician from a professional point of view. Perhaps also a wise decision. Though he isn't bad, he isn't an outstanding singer in my opinion. That said, he did very well in the movie. Acting skills 100%. Singing skills 65%.
For Lady Gaga these figures are quite different, perhaps also more in balance: Singing skills 90% and acting skills 75%, maybe 80%. No wonder she worked on a few more movies. Although IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes are full of her music videos, I was able to find some pieces she acted in.
Situation over at Spotify
Again I was surprised when checking the Soundtrack over at Spotify. The two most played songs are those that brought Mount Everest to my body. 1+ and 2+ Billion plays. And the other ones? The solo tracks? And the combo tracks with Bradley? Just a measly 50M to 80M plays? C'mon! Sure some of the other tracks/songs aren't that good, but hey, some are kinda close. Like "Look what I found", "I'll never love again" and "Before I cry". Very interesting how the mass works. But maybe also how Spotify and the likes work. By now, I didn't rebalance the play counts too much. Been listening to said two tracks multiple times already while not listening to the rest of the album other than the two rounds I did before even started to write this post. Owwww, I can advise you to listen to the original Soundtrack, the one with spoken words. Little parts of the movie are mixed in between the tracks, adding a bit of context to the songs. But perhaps, you need to first watch the movie to appreciate these additions 😉
The Oscars, though it nominated a wide range of 'bests' for this movie, it gave only one of those statutes to the 'Original Song'. Wins for the same over at "British Academy of Film and Television Arts" and "Golden Globe" (source). I suppose the world agrees with me 😉
Complete Soundtrack 'a Star is Born', the one without the spoken words (source)
Achievements this Weekend
In no particular order...
- This Post 😆
- A Thread over at Leo Finance 🙃
and (now being serious)
- The Discovery of Lady Gaga
And Now?
Will I listen mucho more often to Lady Gaga's albums and tracks? Perhaps, but I doubt it to be honest. Though she has this marvellous voice, the music she performs isn't my thing at all. Well, some of them are in the area of Whitney Houston, an artist I adored. Likely I add those tracks to some playlists. Playlists I rarely listen to I must admit. Always tell me to try and listen to the stuff I bookmark and add to playlists since I do that for a reason. But somehow I tend to 1) listen to music from other platforms or my laptop locally, and 2) am more into making lists than actually executing such 😆
And You?
What do you think of Lady Gaga's voice? Her music?
And what about her acting? In particular, in the 'a Star is Born' movie? Or any others?
Do you follow the moves and steps of Lady Gaga? Her private life and all? Editor: I know nothing about her private life and perhaps all sorts of controversies. Someone hinted at the latter over at Threads, at least I took his response as such a hint.
Spread the Vibes: Challenge Not Challenge
Almost, I forgot about this ongoing initiative, an initiative that never intends to stop: Spreading Vibes on the HIVE blockchain. Fortunately, a challenge that does not have set rules, but just a set of guidelines. I likely addressed only one of those guidelines with this post, leaving the remainder untouched. But that's what guidelines are for 😆 Interested to learn a bit more about these? Check this link.
a HIVE original
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spread the vibes: challenge not challenge & #spreadthevibes