Unrefined "Musician" Gains a Global Audience

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "An unskilled musician performed a catchy pop instrumental for more than one million YouTube users even though he can't play a lick of drums or piano. The 22-year-old Norwegian's tool was stop-motion video, WSJ.com reports. From the article: 'To make "Amateur," Mr. Gjertsen recorded each analog beat and note one by one on video. He transferred the sounds from each video clip into audio files, which he could rearrange with the Fruity Loops sound-editing program — the same software he's used to create his all-digital music in the past. After organizing the sound files into the right order, Mr. Gjertsen reconstructed the pattern with the original video files. In the final product, he insists, nothing about his performance was digitally enhanced. "You have the original sounds from the video," he says.'"

Comments

"Unskilled"?

[daveschroeder]

Just because he can't play piano or drums, he clearly still knows what sounds good, has a sense of beat, tempo, and melody, and knows how to use editing software.

I'd wager most modern music is made just like that, and involves a lot of people who would meet this definition of "unskilled" musician.

Re:"Unskilled"?

[Keith Handy]

He does use the hi-hat. And he has an excellent ear for music - sure, it has a choppy sound as a result of being, as you say, micro-sampled, but there are harmonies and chord progressions in there that are prettier than what a lot of "real" musicians come up with in their entire lives. To top it all off he displays a self-effacing sense of humor about the whole thing.

-an actual musician.

Re:"Unskilled"?

[Eideewt]

Translation:

"As a clueless amateur who has managed to lay my hands on a few instruments, I now prepare to deliver my infallible wisdom. First of all, he's not actually playing those instruments. He just recorded video clips and rearranged them. So you see, he didn't actually have to play the notes in order or at any particular time. Real instrumentalists *do* have to play notes in sequence. Ergo, he is a terrible musician.

Even though I'm a musician in the loftiest, most pure sense of the word, I am not rich and famous. I now mention a current band to show that I am 'with it'. I also hate them for their success. I've never been part of a real recording session, but I know just how it works, and quite frankly, this guy does not meet my own personal standards of musicianship.

So while this guy may be skilled at making music, he is not a skilled musician. This is so obvious that I can't be bothered to explain my logic."

Starting from the top:

Thank you for you explanation of the nuances of playing an instrument. Because we all missed the part where he didn't actually play them. The way he just plunked a few notes then assembled them into a piece was kind of like the point, you know? At the beginning he showed us that.

Now your knowledge of modern music is somewhat lacking, both in the areas everyone should know (current groups) and in the areas you propose to explain (recording). Certainly the amount of editing any particular group needs varies, but speaking as someone with actual knowledge of the field, modern music is very heavily edited, and has been for a number of years. When he says that modern music is made "just like that" he's right on the money. A sample is generally longer than his, but there is a phenomenal amount of cut'n'paste work in every single song you hear on the radio (unless you're listening to oldies or acoustic music).

Nice attempt to make yourself look moderate here. "The man is skilled. Skilled at sampling and editing." These sound like words that would leave George Bush's mouth, by the way. You've managed to develop a strange definition of "musician" which doesn't seem to line up with whether a person makes music. I suggest syncing with reality at your earliest convenience!

Lasse Gjertsen is a genius

[cliveholloway]

It's obvious from some of the comments that posters haven't seen his work. He's one of the most creative artists I've seen on YouTube. From the pointless and bizarre Den Lille Valpen, to the simple humor of US, to the amazing production values on Jeg går en Tur. And the guy is only 22.

Personally, I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

cLive ;-)

ps - oh, and the "Your mother is a" Slutt joke is quite funny too...

Re:Pompous much?

[emilng]

I am an amateur when it comes to musicians and music theory, but if this discussion were applied to visual art, you seem like the kind of person who would walk into an art gallery and look at the little plaque next to the piece and disregard the actual artwork because you see the name of the artist and recall that from some art review that their work was mostly derivative of a genre of art originated by someone who is mostly unknown in modern main stream culture. You would then proceed to go home and research this artist and convince yourself that because this artist was the first they are better than the artist whose work you completely overlooked in the gallery. I'm not saying that's what you do, but that's certainly how you represent yourself.