Links & Bits for 4/14/11

Vocoder and the Female Voice: Laurie Anderson and Imogen Heap (Bitch)

Is there anyone who isn't sick of Autotune yet? As annoying as the Autotune fad continues to be, vocal effects are nothing new in music. People have made whole careers out of their use of vocal effects, from the “talk box” of Roger from funk band Zapp to the aforementioned dread Autotune of singers like T-Pain.

Sexism and Saturday Night Live (What Tami Said)

It is interesting how uncomfortable people get when faced with the truth of sexism (any "ism" really). Chevy Chase squirmed. He had first tried to blame squabbling in the writers room on women trying to get "women's issues" onto the show. When Curtin additionally pointed out that, as a woman, she couldn't get a credit card in 1975, Chase snarked, "Yeah, 'cause I was holding you back."

On Ashley Judd and the Politics of Citation (The Crunk Feminist Collective)

It’s frustrating when all the work that black women have done to speak back to music that has particular, real world consequences in our lives is ommitted and unacknowledged. We’ve also done this talking back with an analysis of the systemic forces that make black men/rap music the scape goats for societal oppression of women. I know it’s a personal narrative, but can some hip-hop feminist foremothers get a shout out?

Is There a Glass Ceiling on American Idol? (Persephone Magazine)

Of the eight contestants now left on season 10 of American Idol, only two of them are women. I’d like to think that one of them (amazing 16-year-old Lauren Alaina) will win, but given Toscano’s departure, things aren’t looking good for the ladies. While some of the men left are not bad, many of them lack the combination of singing power and artistry that is needed to become a successful recording star. Why are the drippy Stefano Langone and inexplicably creepy alt-country dude Paul McDonald (the official candidate of the snarky Vote For the Worst campaign) still there when the girl with pipes that could stand up to Celine Dion is now watching on TV from the comfort of her own home?