Résumés
Abstract
Bruno Mars excels in his live performances. However, the studio version of the song “Locked Out of Heaven,” from his Unorthodox Jukebox album (2012), is distinctly different from his live performances of the piece in its pitch accuracy. How can we address this contrast, beyond the possibilities of negligence, accidents, or even conscious choices? The answer might reside in an analogy between the inaccurate pitch of the studio song and the video clip, where the director, Cameron Duddy, imitates the deficiencies of a VHS cassette, at the same time utilizing the spontaneity of Mars’s live band. According to Sanden, the removal of human imperfections can often make a performance seem less live. After analyzing the live and recorded vocal performances (with the help of re-mediatized performances we found on the internet), Duddy’s video clip, as well as the critical discourse on liveness in popular music, we argue that such a song re-establishes the power balance between the “final” version of the album and the one presented by pop artists on stage: Bruno Mars offers a new take on the consequences of discomorphosis, thanks to a surprisingly parsimonious use of pitch-correction technology within a meticulously produced pop song.
Keywords:
- Bruno Mars,
- pitch correction technology,
- liveness,
- Adele,
- human imperfection
Résumé
Bruno Mars est réputé pour ses spectacles live. Cependant, la version studio de la chanson « Locked Out of Heaven » de son album Unorthodox Jukebox (2012) présente une différence marquée de ses spectacles live dans sa précision de tonalité. Comment peut-on aborder ce contraste, au-delà des possibilités de négligences, d’accidents, ou même de choix conscients ? La réponse pourrait résider dans une analogie entre la tonalité imprécise de la chanson du studio et le clip vidéo, où le réalisateur, Cameron Duddy, imite les défauts d’une cassette VHS, tout en utilisant la spontanéité du groupe live de Mars. Selon Sanden, la suppression des imperfections humaines peut souvent rendre une performance moins vivante. Après avoir analysé les performances vocales live et enregistrées (à l’aide de performances remédiatisées que nous avons trouvées sur l’internet), le clip vidéo de Duddy, ainsi que le discours critique sur la vivacité dans la musique populaire, nous soutenons qu’une telle chanson rétablit rapport de force entre la version « finale » de l’album et celle présentée par les artistes pop sur scène : Bruno Mars propose un nouveau regard sur les conséquences de la disco-morphose, grâce à une utilisation étonnamment parcimonieuse de la technologie de correction tonale au sein d’un chanson pop méticuleusement produite.
Mots-clés :
- Bruno Mars,
- technologie de correction de tonalité,
- vivacité,
- Adele,
- imperfections humaines
Parties annexes
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