*dead

Invocations (dead) cannot be called by newtboy because newtboy is not privileged - sorry.

Yeah - you're right - they've clamped down on the leaked audio. Putting in a temporary replacement with only a snippet of the song.

both before and after make my ears hurt.

I don't give a single fuck about mainstream music, but, you really can't find fault in the artist at this point.
Just like automation has made many of us lazy in day to day tasks, I'm sure the benefits of digitization have made most of todays 'pop' artists not care too much about their real-life performances.
Not that this has to be said, hopefully, but: Ultimately 'pop' music is a construct of dozens of individuals, neatly produced, prepped and packaged for an audience with the sole intent of profit. Those that buy into it are far more worthy of ridicule than the artists themselves, even if the artists and all those who support them are guilty of dumbing down what most people consider art.
In the end, if you don't like this kind of shit, post, promote and value your favorite live bands. At least that introduces people to new, greater-quality experiences, whereas this won't change anyone's mind about the music. It just makes fans turn away, and those who already knew better feel good about themselves.
This wasn't aimed at the poster. Just humanity in general.

The thing is, if you are a good musician, it is hard to be out of tune. It will actually bother you. Being in tune is just something you do, you just hear it, feel it, all the time.

Agreed, @artician - my favorite tag is *livemusic.

You beat me to it.

My Initial opinion: Who Cares??????
I mean, isn't this the mainstay of the industry these days?
I'm not saying I prefer this stuff, it can be fun, it has it's place.
In no way is it a replacement for someone with a strong singing voice.

But it's not news, it's OLD NEWS. I'll bet this is the same for 70% or more (made-up statistics) of the Pop music released today.

That being said. It's a terrible situation when the "Music" industry prefers image over the ability to sing or play instruments.

... And they are wondering why the music industry is dieing?

Music is ability, imagination, art and talent coming together in a cohesive lump which provokes emotions fused with a rhythm that lets you feel it inside.

That's not manufactured - it's Emoted.
"Lets try putting music first in the industry again!!!!!"

Oh if only it were that easy.

Manufactured music has pretty much always been awful. They just promote the crap out of it and once it hits a critical mass, it's all over.

Personally, I don't really care if a singers voice isn't great. A fairly well know example would be Bob Dylan. It's the passion or the message that is important to me. I actually think most of the music I like has pretty lackluster singers. Primus, Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr. come to mind. And then there's bands like the Pixies who have great vocals and the passion.

Autotune should be banned except for Karaoke where it should be mandatory.

some previous year called and want's their easy target back.

No way dude, karaoke is karaoke because it's the go-to way for you to watch people you don't know who think they can sing, completely ass-rape one of your favorite songs in a public place.

The Japanese people had to find a way to return America's gift of annihilating the collective spirit of Nippon-nationalism with A-bombs. What better way than to have one of your favorite tunes (having been burned into your circuits the way the artist intended), horribly flensed by some tone-challenged wailer?

'Karaoke' is the Japanese word for 'revenge.'

There are times when the out off tune take will actually be better than on tune. It may have more emotions whereas the on-tune part can sound a bit cold, emotionless. Happens a lot when singer is focusing on keeping it in tune. Autotuning when used correctly can bring out the best of both, emotions and tune. Personally when i'm recording someone, i try to emphasize the emotion and don't care for slight mistakes "just let it rip, will fix the tuning later".

Also, when you take pretty much any singer, record them for hours, some bits will be totally off. Take the best singer you can think of and with 100% certainty you could post clips of them being just horrible. With Britney and a like, there is some money to be made from those so we hear the leaked clips more often.

This one wasn't even that bad, just a bit out of tune here and there. Go and find David Lee Roths vocal tracks and they are just horrible, one would really have to think how on earth he is even considered to a be a lead singer. Put the original track with the rest of the band on: brilliant.

It's about context, if you take any vocal track and solo them, they are pretty awful compared to the finished song. For singers it's a nightmare in studio, you can make them cry, hell, with proper evil, you can make them quit music forever in a single session. That's why you usually never present takes back to them solo, you just fade other tracks down a bit, put some room reverb etc.

Is it really dying though? I really don't follow any music. but something tells me they're still raking in the dough in massive amounts though.

Like someone else said. People keep buying this stuff. The demand is there and they are just supplying it.

I have to agree, both versions are horrible, but I don't like pop in the first place, so I am biased.

Too many people actually give a damn about what celebrities do when they're not making movies or singing songs. Many of the celebrities themselves are sick of the frenzy. Some give it up, but some stay for the paycheck. How many times do people refer to a celebrity by their character's name instead of their actual name. "Oh shit, I just saw Captain Kirk!", vs "Oh shit, I just saw William Shatner!"

When people don't like the drudgery of their own lives, they start thinking about other peoples' lives.

Good points well taken. I loathe Karaoke so much that I, somewhat jokingly, say I'll only go if it's your birthday and you cry if I won't.

Moving this video to Zawash's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

Got the original version back - here's a "compared" version:
*backup=[...snipped...]

Added alternate embed code for this video - backup requested by Zawash.