I thought a lot of people were bending over backwards to defend music producer Tony Visconti last week. Visconti produced many of David Bowie’s most iconic albums, and yes, Visconti absolutely knows a lot about music. If Visconti chose to throw shade at pop music in general terms, or if he name-checked some of the worst offenders of voice-manipulation, I would not have had a problem. But he chose to name-check Adele, and that’s an issue. This is what he said:
“You turn the radio on and it’s fluff, you are listening to 90% computerised voices. We know Adele has a great voice but it’s even questionable if that is actually her voice or how much has been manipulated. We don’t know. There’s a sound to pop now that is so perfect it’s boring, because everything is fixed.”
Many people thought he was saying “Adele is great but over-manipulation is so prevalent that even she is not immune.” Others thought he was saying “We don’t know the extent to which Adele’s voice is a product of computerization.” The latter is how I took it, and I was offended on Adele’s behalf because WE DO KNOW. We know how she sounds live. We know how her un-manipulated voice sounds. If Visconti had come for Katy Perry, I would have been there. Katy has the weakest voice when she’s singing live. And whenever FKA Twigs sings live, I’m reminded of the weakness of her voice too. Same with Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Britney, Lana del Rey. Even Taylor Swift. But no. He came for Adele.
So Adele responded to Tony Visconti this weekend. According to Consequence of Sound, Adele told an audience: “Some dickhead tried to say that my voice was not me on record… Dude, suck my d-ck.” Here the video (it’s a bit NSFW-ish for her language, except you can’t really hear what she’s saying because the fans are so annoying).
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Grumpy Adele > grumpy old fogeys.
Eat it Tony.
Also, dude has been working in the industry for many many many years. I bet he’s very aware of his phrasing and word choices.
I doubt it…he may be experienced but he’s not making a living speaking to the public often, doing presentations etc. He wasn’t even on television. Maybe he likes working in sound production because he’s an introvert who likes dials and buttons instead of people (which is fine). Throughout the years, he may also have taken a direct manner of speaking to artistes to get his end product which is why we are getting the two interpretations of his comments.
Tony is an extrovert, actually. He is even in a band that was in place before Bowie’s death that has been traveling around playing Bowie music. He’s always given lots of lively interviews over the years. He and Bowie even had a falling out decades ago when he disapproved of Bowie’s choice of boarding school for Duncan (which ended up true. Duncan was miserable he now says). And Bowie felt he was indiscreet and cut Tony off for years until they made up down the road.
I meant that Tony in an interview publically discussed Duncan and Bowie’s choice of sending him to that boarding school.
I see, thanks Jayna. I’m not sure being in a band makes him extroverted but since he’s given many lively interviews, my conclusion then is he did not phrase his comments well. So I absolutely get why it seems he is shading Adele. However, I do think he has a point that got lost. To untrained ears like mine, Adele’s sound production would never be obvious. But to him and some commentators here who are in this field, I trust they know. It doesn’t invalidate at all that Adele is a great singer live or on album. Also, I agree with another commentator that mentioning Katy Perry etc may be unkind or it would be useless because we already know from our untrained ears that Katy, Madonna etc are performers rather than singers so they definitely use a lot more help in sound production. Maybe he needs more media training hahha
@Jade, I agree.
“However, I do think he has a point that got lost. To untrained ears like mine, Adele’s sound production would never be obvious. But to him and some commentators here who are in this field, I trust they know.”
Exactly!
Adele’s talent is her voice. This man’s talent is his EARS. Just because some fans might bristle when his comments mention your favorite, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t speaking the truth.
Tony Visconti was the KEYNOTE SPEAKER at SXSW this year.
Lolz *clutches pearls*
Hee. Hee. Hee. *faints on chaise lounge*
Most people seem to miss his point, which is completely valid, even if he singled out one specific person and is hawking his new show.
He never said that Adele cannot sing, in fact he said “we know she has a great voice”. People are just getting hung up on him bringing up Adele instead of someone they deem more worthy of criticism….. however that is not his point. The recording has to be perfect. Even if there is a little sharpness/flatness which the general public might not even notice, it will come up on the sound engineer’s audacity/melodyne program, and they would def. correct it, might also add effects like reverb, compress it master it, etc.), there is a LOT of production going on.
These slight pitch corrections and effects will not produce the Cher/T-pain robotic effect, and will not change the voice timbre/tone etc.
Obviously knowing how people are most singers don’t confess to this (since they would be plagued by lip-syncing and “he/she can’t REALLY sing rumors even if they can) but Adele is a bit touchy.. because she knows the truth. A little hypocritical.
The Internet is no place for well thought out logic and reason.
HahaHAAA, Zapp Brannigan! 😀 Apparently the internet can’t handle the truth. ;-P
Your point is valid. However, I believe he said that he doesn’t even know that it’s her voice. That doesn’t give the impression that it’s the ‘usual’ brush up. He was inferring massive corrections to the point that he’s not sure if the final product remotely resembles how she would sound live(with the apparent massive corrections there as well). There’s always a lot of production going on-Visconti is a producer, this is what he does so he should know. If he wasn’t bashing her voice it would have been very easy to be clearer. He made his point which got him the press he wanted for his new show, but I detect shade.
+1
Tbh I, for one, don’t really care or deny that there is post-production, live edits, whatever.
Maybe his point is that musical editing is not always egregious like that Omi – Cheerleader song. That this dilutes our understanding and appreciation of real music, where human flaws are the actual perfection. Even, that it is too prevalent because now that is what the public expects. All real arguments.
Except he didn’t say that, that’s everyone giving him giant benefit of the doubt. He acted a pissy old man with no care of others and shat on Adele, specifically. She clapped back in form. I hope he responds. It will be excellent.
He “shat on Adele” by asking aloud why people put unnecessary production on her naturally fantastic voice?
…or was it the part where he called her a “great singer”?
Man, the internet can be a scary place.
‘Shat on’ may be strong language, but I’d say when you comment on record and name drop another artist negatively you are looking for a reaction and definitely criticizing.
I don’t think this was even a backhanded compliment. If it was, he wouldn’t have followed with how he was looking for someone different (subtext different than Adele). Someone who he feels is a virtuoso (subtext not Adele). He called her great, but that doesn’t really override the rest of it. If he even name checked a couple other artists as ‘great but using too much post production’ I’d be less on-board with pissy Adele.
He was talking about pop music overall and the current trend to overproduce. He used Adele to illustrate that point. He is CORRECT in everything he has said on this matter. Pop music is overproduced, and even artists who have great voices have producers and engineers going overboard on their recordings.
If he “shat on” anything it was her production. Which I agree with. Her songs all have a bland, over produced quality to them, and are saved only by Adele’s voice.
I’m obviously not being clear here because I think we are arguing different points.
I’m not disagreeing with his message about production.
I think it’s out of line to name drop one person publicly when you could have made your point without naming names. That wouldn’t have got the same press though.
Plus I enjoy a juvenile response some times. I love the juxtaposition of fancy lady, face full of makeup and a trucker mouth. Maybe it makes me more forgiving of Adele than I should be. If Chris Pratt had that response to criticism I don’t know if I’d find it as funny.
Absolutely agree with you.
THANK YOU!
+1,000,000
It’s so amusing to me that people are actually offended on behalf of Adele lol. It was so obvious what he was saying and I actually think he’s right.
Everything you said.
Totally agree
@kitten and idontknowyouyoudontknowme, MIC DROP!
THANK YOU for being the voices of reason in this non-issue.
It’s too nice of a day to knot up one’s knickers when there is no offense to be taken!
And now Adele is piling on? What codswollop! So classy of her to miss the point and swipe at someone who paid her a compliment.
Great point.
This ^^+1million!! Adele is being sensitive and hypocritical, her voice has been tuned just a wee bit on records and all producers and folks that actually work in the industry know this. Ugh I just can’t .. Anyhow thank for breaking it down in an easy and educated fashion!!
Haha reminder that Adele is always off the cuff when she gets fired up
Yes! And brava, Adele!
What a classy lady. If this was some other starlet responding to someone in this manner you guys would be ripping them a new one but it’s your beloved Adele so she gets a pass. She’s disgusting, for responding that way. He never said it wasn’t her voice. Is this how she reacts when people don’t fawn all over her and she receives a bit of criticism, though he wasn’t even criticizing her.
LOL, you love to live dangerously
V4Real, spot on!
You raised a very good point.
amen! totally agree
@Kaiser …
Looking at what he wrote above, it seems to me that he meant the first and not the latter. I think he used Adele as an example because–as he actually said–she has an incredible voice. He didn’t say that he thinks her voice is manipulated, he said that the way Pop music is recorded these days, we have no way of ‘knowing’ how much manipulation is actually done in the Studio or not. I just think he’s simply saying that so many of today’s Pop stars have weak, non-authentic voices so Studio voice manipulation is prevalent.
The best way to tell if a singer has an authentic voice is to compare their Studio voice to how they sound live; assuming they really do ‘sing’ live. Adele sounds the same and sticking with some other current singers (and sorry if I miss any one), so does Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Pink, and yes … even though she’s not a favorite here … Beyonce.
I agree that that’s why he used her as an example. I’m disappointed that she responded in such a childish way.
I was disappointed too. Especially because her reply made her sound like Khloe Kardashian.
I agree with you so much. And it’s not “pearl clutching” to recognize an immature come-back for what it is. For starters, why give this guy even more publicity, bec that’s exactly what she’s done.
She’s starting to annoy me.
It was a terrible way to respond to a music producer. Same as it was bad when she name dropped Damon Albarn.
It seems like she has no idea how to communicate with people in a mature way.
I don’t get this. If you want to make a point about auto tune, maybe pick someone whose voice is actually weak and/or manipulated extensively. Because yeah, we don’t usually know how far it goes but as you said, with Adele we do know. So how is that making a point?
And can I just say, he may have a point in general but these nostalgic rants about how bad pop music is these days always ignore one thing. Back when there wasn’t any auto tune, a LOT of successful bands/singers … well their voices weren’t great. Sure, that was authentic. But it wasn’t great. They had other qualities for sure but then so do people like J.Lo. I mean that woman is an entertainer, not a singer/songwriter. It’s just a different time but I guess nostalgia can’t be reasoned with.
That’s how I still feel about it too. I think his point is 100% valid, but he really name checked the wrong person to make it.
Agree with you both that he used a bad example. And littlemissnaughty, I said similar the other day. I was listening to 🎶Old man take a look at my life, I’m a lot like you 🎶 which I think was David Crosby (?) and I thought, man, his voice is awful. He would never make it today.
GNAT, that’s Neil Young.
And Kelly Clarkson! How could I forget a singer with one of the most beautiful, authentic voices today? I LOVE Kelly’s voice. 🙂
lol – I have major beef with Clarkson. She might have a wonderful voice but girl is as vanilla as it gets. I can’t stand how absolutely boring her music is.
@Erinn, who wrote: ” lol – I have major beef with Clarkson. She might have a wonderful voice but girl is as vanilla as it gets. I can’t stand how absolutely boring her music is.”
Now I’m curious. In what way is Kelly’s music boring? She sings about life … beautifully. Like all gifted vocalists she sings sad songs, happy songs, and edgy songs. “Miss Independent” is my favorite ‘edgy’ slice of Kelly. 🙂
Yeah, see I think Miss Independent is about as vanilla as it gets. Compared to what Beyonce and Rhianna and Gaga and even Katy Perry are doing it’s just so…blah.
I like Kelly as a person, she has a good if not exactly interesting voice, but her music all sounds the same. It’s either a dull ballad or a Max Martin faux rock pop number. To be fair to her I don’t think she gets anything like first pick of material.
I don’t think Adele’s ever hit the highest notes in the record version of Someone Like You live. She always drops them down.
I’ve seen one performance where she kind of did. It was really rough, but she did hit them. Sounded nothing like the album though.
Perhaps he didn’t mean to go after Adele, specifically. But regardless of whether he!p’s had media training, if he is such a brilliant music producer, he ought to know well enough to make his point with RELEVANT examples. In this case, Adele is not a relevant example. He deserves every bit of clapback he’s getting for his asinine remarks.
Be honest!
As Adèle has a really great voice as her voice in live is not as “clean” as in her albums.
@…French, yours is another voice of reason.
I don’t see the problem with what he said. Recordings today are too perfect and over-produced. Adele’s latest album is actually a great example of that. It way too ‘perfect’, it crosses the line into dull manufactured crap.
Adele has a great voice, but no, she doesn’t sound the same live. There’s some notes she only attempts to hit when she’s doing a filmed live performance for TV, in concert she takes it down a level or just skips it altogether. Her voice can be a little rough at times live, she still doesn’t have good technique and you can tell when she’s pushed it too far. She can be really flat at times. Her voice is as clean as the voice on her albums maybe 5% of the time.
She’s a very good singer, but she’s really not that incredible. The best Broadway singers, they can do what they do in the studio live for 1000 performances. That’s amazing. Adele is amazing in comparison to the Britney’s and Katy’s, but that’s about it.
Thanks for saying this. I agree she doesn’t sound the same live. She’s a good singer but she’s not a great singer. Is she a better singer than Katy Perry or Taylor Swift, hell yeah but people such as Christina Aguilera and Celine Dion blows her away. Mariah Carey before her voice issues also blew Adele away. I also think Emilie Sands have a better voice than Adele. Hitting high notes as if someone is strangling a cat doesn’t make you a great singer.
“There’s some notes she only attempts to hit when she’s doing a filmed live performance for TV, in concert she takes it down a level or just skips it altogether. Her voice can be a little rough at times live, she still doesn’t have good technique and you can tell when she’s pushed it too far. She can be really flat at times. Her voice is as clean as the voice on her albums maybe 5% of the time.”
That comment alone proves that Tony was right in using Adele as an example. Even Mariah in her prime when singing live wouldn’t always hit those extremely high notes from songs such as Someday and Emotions.
Then you won’t hate me if I say I believe that Kelly Clarkson has a better voice and range than Adele?
This comment is for Emma. For my part, Kelly Clarkson has one of THE best voices in the business. Superior in vocal quality and range to Adele. Christina Aguilera also has arguably better vocal chops and range. Too bad she has terrible technique.
I think Brttany Howard from Alabama Shakes has one of the best voices in the business. Her live vocals match that of her record version and is even better then the record.
@Emma Hell no I wouldn’t hate you. Actually I agree. How could I forget Kelly; I like a lot of her songs.
Aguilera does have a great voice but I can’t stand all the ab libs and riffs she does in her live performances.
@V4REAL yes and yes!! I was just thinking about Emilie Sande and wondering why she isn’t a bigger deal in the States as personally she is a stronger singer and writer than Adele. Ahh anyhow thanks for being yet another logical and reasonable voice on the interweb!!
I admit I haven’t heard much of Celine live lately so I’m not sure how her voice is holding up, but as of 5 years ago she was pretty much the only pop act who could actually recreate her studio vocals live and have it seem effortless. Whitney could before her lifestyle caught up with her. Mariah could on the rare occasion she could be bothered.
Christina totally can, but she can never let herself be as restrained as she is on her albums and ends up unnecessarily straining her voice.
Plus, with that attitude, she’s not going to have a very long career.
But we don’t care. At least, most fans who buy the music don’t care. I just want some good music with a real voice. I don’t care who it is really. and I care even less who produced it etc. Those days are long gone and have no value mostly to the masses.
This isn’t the 70s. Music hasn’t had artistry to it in a long time so this guy was just using Adele’s name for his own personal gains. Which is shady disrespectful move. If he doesn’t have anything the public wants to buy and can’t get their interest on his own merit, that’s the breaks. But to use someone who DOES have the talent appreciated today, and then criticize it publicly, that’s shady AND unprofessional. What a jerk. I don’t care how old or connected he is. He’s a jerk.
Team V. He’s right and her response was crap. There is a difference between her live and her recordings that can only he attributed to production cleaning it up even I can hear it. He wasn’t shading her. He was stating fact about what goes on in production; deal with it. V is not some DJ throwing shade; he’s a huge producer who has forgotten more about sound than most people will ever know.
I agree about her response, it was do childish and sad. It clearly shows how she has become accustomed to everyone telling her how great she is. That even the slightest criticism even when it’s not provokes this type of childish behavior.
I agree too about her response. Not helpful especially to her in the long term probably.
She’s sounding like foul-mouthed, thin-skinned Khloe now, and that’s not good.
I still stick with my first comment. He has a reality show coming that when he quoted that he was promoting. Bad mouthing the biggest pop star going right now gets you press and clicks.
He didn’t bad mouth Beyoncé. 🙂
🙂
🙂
🙂
I just wish someone would give her some breathing training or to move the mike when she takes a breath.
Adele should have given a better comeback. But no, she decided to be juvenile. Unnecessary. A woman with her talent doesn’t need to be so defensive.
Agreed, she could have just ignored it as he is entitled to his opinion like anyone else. But she had to respond in a rude, juvenile way like a kid that isn’t told no very often.
I seriously want to know what this kind of accusation is really about (he’s using it for self-promotion but I’ve heard it from others) because everyone is using autotune, and yet:
1. I hardly hear this accusation levelled against male singers.
2. Or the producers/industry at large for using it with impunity. (Wouldn’t that weed out the problem if the buck stopped there?)
3. We know Britney never sings live and yet that’s never addressed.
But keep coming after acts that can actually sing but who may need to preserve their voices on some occasions or who dance/perform as well as sing, rather than acts who are so reliant on it we don’t know what they actually sound like.
Let’s also consider that Whitney Houston lipsynched at the Superbowl but could still actually sing. Why do singers have to keep proving themselves while the industry runs them ragged and pays them very little compared to their own sales. Where’s that critique of the industry? Are they supposed to burn themselves and their voices out to convince people who probably don’t care either way?
Most artists unless accomplished or longlived, don’t mix their own music. So share some of this criticism with the producers, engineers, industry in general – and particularly stop throwing it at talented female artists.
He gets a side-eye from me.
Do they ever say this stuff about blando dudes with guitar bands, as many of whom have weak voices too – or are dude bands somehow beyond reproach because: omg real instruments tho?
When boy bands were popular such as InSync and BackStreet Boys there was criticism about their singing. Even Justin Bieber is criticized for his singing. And the Britney Spears lip sync thing has been addressed many times.
@V4real
Please tell me about the multiple criticisms against vocalists in bands with guitars and how the are as just as prevalent as criticisms against female vocalists and “pop” singers in general.
Your reference to NSync and boybands suggests that criticism was a while ago, and towards the usual pop star target.
The autotune element is a symptom of the industry (in all genres and has been for a while) not just artists it’s considered okay to take a pop at because they got too successful in a genre he considers questionable.
Yes! But you know, “authentic” means you write your songs, play your instruments, and don’t use auto tune. Never mind the fact that this doesn’t guarantee you music people will like. There are VERY few singers who can sustain a very high level of vocal performance through an entire tour. If you want a long career, you better take care of your voice. It’s all you have.
@FF
I agree.
For one thing, he wasn’t talking about auto tune and nothing else, he was talking about the entire package of production. There is SO much done to vocals, and people are just assuming it was about auto tune because they don’t know anything else that goes into production.
Male artists are absolutely criticised for overly processed music, particularly the overuse of autotune. Women actually seem to get less heat for it from the industry, when I’ve read industry articles. They are merciless about boy groups and other all male bands in particular
He was using Adele as an example because she’s considered the best out there. If he’d dropped a whole list of names and they were exclusively female maybe there would be merit to the argument that he’s sexist. He dropped one name, she happened to be female, and he used her as his example because she’s so highly regarded.
if you know anything about music at all, you’ll understand what he’s saying and recognise it isn’t criticism of her. It’s criticism of the current standards in music production.
@Goodnight: THIS. Thank you.
“Even Taylor Swift”… Um, Taylor Swift has one of the weakest live voices in modern pop music, worse than Lana, J. Lo, or Madonna. It is known.
Are y’all gonna rip your “musical overlord” to shreds for responding in such a way like you do when other singers and pop stars dare to breathe?
👀
Of course not. Don’t you know that nobody is allowed to make any kind of criticism of her music?
Are you even reading the thread?
Eh. Adele has a great voice but I can’t stand her yelling most of the time on her boring songs. Her comeback was immature and stupid, but it’s not new.
But she’s obviously proud of her anatomy 😤
I wonder what the reaction would have been if Taylor Or Beyoncé would have made such a crass commentary their concert. I love Adele but she curses a lot and makes crass comments and I’m always reminded of how other singers would be called out and ridiculed if they spoke the way she did.
I saw a video recently where Snoop was on a radio show making a similar point. How all rappers sound the same these days, rap in the same staccato style and even the beats are so similar as to sometimes be indistinguishable. He was speaking to the over production of music and the lack of distinctiveness between artists nowadays. They gave several examples and yeah, he was dead on.
It’s kind of the musical equivalent of Beans, beans, beans. Everything’s starting to taste like beans.
Apparently people don’t seem to like being told that there is a wizard behind the curtain, and that all is not quite what it seems.
No need to kill the messenger. Anyone who doesn’t realize that most recorded and live contemporary pop music production is tweaked, is fooling themselves.
I applaud Tony for having the integrity to want to raise the bar.
People have a problem with others expressing negative opinions out loud. Nowadays you cant dislike something without people treating it as a “slam”. Unless you do it anonymously in the internet.
Even if Visconti flat-out said Adele is an awful singer (he didnt)… How is that a problem? Is he not allowed to dislike her?
I think it has always been that way, that most artists don’t do their own music and sometimes don’t even sing their own songs or play any instruments, but these days it’s just too blatantly obvious that music companies are just trying to make money; there’s no pretending to be different, it all sounds the same.
Except that particular bar burned away decades ago. There aren’t even any ashes left to scoop up from anywhere for a spell or anything like that. … haha
“Some dickhead tried to say that my voice was not me on record… Dude, suck my d-ck.”
The fact she so ignorantly describes Visconti as ‘some dickhead’ says a little bit too much about how up her own arse Adele now unfortunately is.
She really seems to have become a product of her hype.
THIS
she should be like sade….and just ascend and not be brought back down to earth, responding in a hoodrat and pwt manner to criticism
Every music produced nowadays is edited and ‘cleaned up’- Adele’s as well. But I think he just used her as an example. That she got so defensive not only confirms that, but shows how immature she really is. She could have ignored it, or just given some funny remark about it. She doesn’t need to be vulgar.
Completely agree. She would have been better off to have joked or simply ignored it.
Not liking this version of Adele at all…
not a fan of new adele…. the last album was awesome….
I would have thought the long break from the music industry would have prevented her from becoming a product of her hype, but sadly it had the opposite effect.
He’s right, she’s amazing but over produced. Listen for example to the song “Fire to the Rain” and you will hear the growl she does every single time she sings the word “watch” and it is just so obvious that the chorus is repeated over and over. I don’t like this at all but this is what is expected nowadays from a pop song, and I think it hurts the industry and the artists. What would have been really great is to hear her sing this song (and others) WITHOUT the repeated chorus. It would really be special, and she could be a trendsetter, putting the industry back on the path toward a more authentic musical sound.
I don’t think it’s bending over backwards at all. I think that saying “we don’t even know what Taylor Swift sounds like” would have not had much impact: Taylor Swift doesn’t sound very well even after post-production, sooo, what would the point be of name checking her?
I think to make his point, he HAD to name someone with an amazing voice to make his point. Adele could have been the first to come to his mind, otherwise he could have maybe said Beyonce or Kelly…
Don’t see the problem, love Adele, but disappointed by her response.
I think that saying “we don’t even know what Taylor Swift sounds like” would have not had much impact: Taylor Swift doesn’t sound very well even after post-production, sooo, what would the point be of name checking her?
Exactly!