An up-front disclaimer - I do not like Paris Hilton. I hate/am offended by/find fundamentally wrong the whole “celebrity for no reason” fame that she seems to seek by any means. I can’t think of a thing I have heard about her that I find worthy of any attention. Heck, she’s not even my type.
I stumbled across the video for her song Stars are Blind. The vocals are fully processed - you can’t tell who (or what, given the software-assisted vocal adjustments) is singing.
But you know what? For a piece of pure pop confection, the whole package - song + video - is surprisingly good. Certainly no worse than the output of other pop non-singers, like Kylie Minogue or Paula Abdul.
I am not ashamed to admit this - frankly, I don’t care. But as a musician and someone who invests a lot of time in listening to music, I was surprised at how polished it is - the song is hooky and very well-produced for that type of pop and the video catches your eye in the right way - it’s a good example of that kind of thing.
Is it high art? 'course not. But damn if the little twit didn’t give it a decent shot.
The song is just a ripoff of “Kingston Town” by UB40 (with a dash of “The Tide Is High” by Blondie), and the video cribs its look and feel from Herb Ritts’ classic sexy video for Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.”
How much of the vocals actually have to be “her” in order for her to get top billing? Her voice is better than I thought it’d be (still pretty damn vanilla and dull) but I have a hard time believing someone who’s famous for doing nothing would suddenly cough up any talent. I mean, if she was this good (and by good I mean “adequate”) why haven’t we heard something before? I smell a stand-in.
Now see…that’s just wrong. I think she has to have the lion’s share of the decibels or notes or something in order to get billing over the “back-up” chick. My guess is she paid some perfectly talented up-and-coming to lay low so she gets all the glory.
You must be under the misconception that the record industry is an honest business. Anybody with enough money can either a) fix their vocals with studio tweaking, or b) have someone else record the vocals altogether and pass them off as their own.
I remember reading in a magazine recently (offline, so no cite unfortunately) that there’s rumors floating around that Paris’ rather sub-par vocals have been severely overlaid and bolstered by a “session” musician that they hired for that purpose. There’s also the fact that even though she’ll happily lip-synch to it in the clubs she’s at when it comes on, she’s yet to pick up the mic and go live with it.
I saw parts of the video. I agree that the vocals are highly processed. Her “voice” is one of those quiet whispery voices and you can’t understand a word she’s saying. The video struck me as a ripoff of something else, not very original. Do they think if it’s in black and white that will make it arty?
I think she has the bucks to pay people to make her look and sound good enough for some people to be foolish enough or curious enough to buy it and make her money back and get her even more attention.
As for her real voice, I once saw a clip of her singing Karaoke at the Sundance Festival - anyone who heard that and thought “nice voice” was obviously wasted.
I think it’s her voice, but I get the flavour of autotune in it. I don’t know if I can actually hear it or if I’m just fooling myself, but it feels a little too spot on.
The video is supposed to be an homage to Wicked Game.
Final verdict: It’s moderately catchy, but it absolutely not this year’s Since U Been Gone.
I must admit that the first time I heard it I was on the highway and really liked the gentle UB40 reggae groove. When the DJ back announced it as Paris Hilton I felt unclean ans wanted to tear my ears off. I’ve heard it again since and there are many, many worse songs. It’s no My Humps or Milkshake and for that we can be thankful.
I have to give props to a lot of these faceless producers these days. They’re making some really catchy pop tunes with good hooks and interesting compositions.
Unfortunately these don’t sell on their own and need a pretty “face” to sell them.
I find completely talentless Britney Spears, Madonna, and Ashley Simpson.
But when they lend their voice to be processed and reprocessed to a song written by someone else and produced by someone else you can sell it.
Examples: Britney Spears “Toxic”, Madonnas “Hung Up”. For me you could add any female vocal to these tracks and they’d be the same song.