Word: instrumentalization
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...question music fans everywhere are asking these days: What you got? We're going to let you in on a little secret--and we're going to say this as nicely as possible--not all of today's hottest teen-pop stars are blessed with powerful vocal instruments. But that's not what many fans are looking for. In the '00s, they want to see their favorite performers get down, back that thing up, shake their bonbons, dance. "I want to be an all-around entertainer," says teen singer Christina Aguilera, who is actually blessed with a powerful vocal instrument...
...people who might actually call Al's selection of me an act of chutzpah," he said in Nashville, using the familiar Yiddish word for audacity. Lieberman has chutzpah too. At first glance you figure he will bore you silly, but he grows on you--his voice is a decent instrument, and he obviously enjoys playing it. His basic tune, about an immigrant's grandson who was the first in his family to attend college and now might be Vice President, is an American classic. He makes no effort to conceal how tickled he is to be on the ticket...
That's Wyclef: you can't pin him down, not to one instrument, not to one style, not even to one country. He was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Newark, N.J. He's a rapper and a singer, an entertainer with an ear to the streets and an eye on the top of the charts. He has written and produced hits for Santana and Whitney Houston and has also worked with Destiny's Child and Sinead O'Connor. "He's like a chameleon," says Melky Jean, Wyclef's sister and frequent supporting vocalist...
...hokum," and a few seconds into Dinah, the listener surrenders to the melange. The plucky violinist takes a solo, then a guy going infectiously nuts on tissue paper and comb. Finally it's steel guitarist King Bennie Nawahi's turn. He attacks the melody while caressing his instrument; his solo, like the best improvs, seems both wild and thoughtful. The full band convenes for a last mad-dash chorus, racing to Bennie's steel pulse. Who can hear this music, this musician, without feeling...
Visualize this: Timothy Draper, the gonzo venture capitalist from Silicon Valley, swoops into a South Central Los Angeles church to preach the gospel of school vouchers to a group of black ministers. He is introduced--by his own advance man--as "an instrument of God's hand, like Rosa Parks." Never mind that this is a 42-year-old multimillionaire preppie known to ski in boxer shorts and throw Frisbees at conferences, who even dressed as Batman to inaugurate a Manhattan office. Today, Draper tells the assembled pastors, he is ready to spend at least $20 million of his fortune...