Cheap tricks

I was talking to a singer/songwriter friend of mine the other day when Imogen Heap’s song ‘Hide and Seek’ came on the radio. Having performed this song live, I have an affinity for Heap’s music and this song in particular. My friend, on the other hand, does not like Heap’s music and detests this song.

When I asked her why she didn’t like it, she complained of the vocoder accompaniment (I suggest you listen to it to understand what I mean) saying it was a ‘cheap trick’ and that the song had little musical merit. As a songwriter, I suppose her opinion carried some weight but I was surprised at her blind refusal to find anything of worth in the song.

In her defence, it is a deceptively complex song: Heap’s sweeping vocal lines and overdubs create a lush sound that the vocals on their own could not achieve. This also hides the fact that the first and third sections are remarkably similar, harmonically. Yet my friend would not let it go and kept up the mantra of ‘it’s just a cheap trick’.

I tried to make my point that the song is more than a clever combination of words and technology and that this performance, indeed *any* performance, will be charged with emotion, just like their own work, which the listener responds to more than the ‘cheap trick’. They countered with ‘an emotional performance isn’t necessarily a good performance’, which I have to say does ring true. (X-Factor anybody?).

I think what I’m trying to say in a very circuitous kind of way is that not everyone will like or appreciate the effort that goes into making a piece of art, or the outcome. Obvious though this may be, I feel it’s worth highlighting, lest any of APs readers be disheartened by previous experiences of being told their art uses ‘cheap tricks’ or is ‘too emotional’. So what? You’re having fun and, hopefully, finding a way to support yourself either through art or by another way way that allows you to enjoy making art.

In a selfish way, an artist’s work is for them first and the public second, and to hell what other people think. Now go and express yourself!