Title: Goodbye
Artist: Kristinia DeBarge
Label: Mercury
Release: single August 10 2009 / album August 17
When I was a kid I read “Little Heroes” by Norman Spinrad. The plot pivots around the creation of a successful AP (artificial personality) for a music label to replace troublesome pop and rock stars. I mention this because I’m wondering if Kristinia is real.
Because the song has a major uncanny valley problem.
The voice is heavily synthesized. Yes, there are “electronic yodel” effects to bring the song up to date, but the synthetic tweaking doesn’t stop. Ever. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that the Yamaha Vocaloid Lola is the actual singer (or maybe the more advanced Marianne), after all they are used quite a bit as fake backing singers, but they have problems with range.
Given that Kristinia DeBarge is the daughter of James DeBarge of 80′s R&B group DeBarge (never heard of them either) and the hair movement seen in the (embedding refused) low quality video means that she is probably real. Then again, CGI hair is getting better. I just don’t know if she is the singer here.
The only thing I like about this is the discovery that “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” is actually a 70s hit my Steam. I honestly thought it started life as a 1920s football chant.
And that provides the hook which will take a while to remove from your brain.
