Arguably no popular mainstream artist right now has benefitted more from do-it-yourself music production software than Adam Young of Owl City. Around 2007, Young began experimenting with music production in his parents' Minnesota basement, recording his voice with an inexpensive microphone and using a computer program called Reason to flesh out the tracks with electronic instruments. He built a viral following with the help of Myspace, ultimately leading to great success for his major label debut album 2009's "Ocean Eyes" as well as that album's number one hit and flagship single, "Fireflies." On one hand, what Young has done is cool because it's been incredibly entrepreneurial from the get-go. The Owl City project has shown that anyone can make a hit song, so long as they've got a laptop, a microphone, a few hundred dollars for a decent music production program. Heck, with Apple offering GarageBand as a pre-installed program on its laptop and desktop computers, the latter ingredient may not even be a necessity anymore. On the other hand, what Young has done is not so cool, first because his music actually sounds synthetic and fake, and second because he's built an army of imitators who believe they can reach a similar level of success with the same robotic methods. Young's walls of electronic instruments, loops, and sound bites aren't even the biggest problem with his music; on the contrary, it's his voice a thin and lifeless instrument that is the biggest problem. Owl City songs sound like they could be fronted by the male version of Siri for how fake and emotionless the vocals are. Even Young's album covers, usually colourful photographs of tourist attractions, seem airbrushed and inauthentic.
Craig is a Chicago-based freelance writer who like to talk incessantly about music on AbsolutePunk.net. He also does writing for marketing companies to "pay the bills," but his true passion lies with the pop culture sphere.
