And She Wonders Why

Ran into this because of a sports site link of all things.How I got there was not that interesting. But it made me think. And you know a thinking Ed is a dangerous thing. Dangerous to everything civilized and proper. Vanessa Mae is someone who was a child prodigy with the violin. Extremely talented. The thing is along with that talent she was also blessed with looks. Hence the MTV effect.

MTV for me is visuals that look for music to accompany them and not the other way around. Music is the side kick, the window dressing. Music is the icing and not the cake.

Any idea what she does for a living?

She had opportunities open to her that are not open to your typical violin player. They were looking for an excuse to get her on a video. I mean how many violin players segue into singing?

How many violin players do you know get to pose in the ocean with a white clingy wet dress?

Oh well I have an idea what the music execs were thinking. Same thing football coaches tell themselves. If you got talent we will find a spot for you on the field. I just find this execution of marketing just so weird. I have known the song I Feel Love for as long as Vanessa has been alive. If you take the time to view the video below you may notice that there is really no real singing. It just sounds so generic.

So here we have a world class violin player being made to sing without any real passion or uniqueness to it. A paint by numbers feel to it. I am totally against things that are contrived. I am totally for the intrinsic value of things.Some music exec thought the world class violin playing was not enough so they did this. Steve Martin said in one of his albums something like he wanted his act to access more people because more access meant more money. Or something like that. Google did not have the quote. But that is exactly what we have here. I find the whole exercise silly and that is why I am writing about it.

I have seen quite a few symphonies in my day. I don't recall any of the violin players or the French Horn players for that matter with a skirt this short.

And she wonders why classical music buffs (pardon the pun) don't take her seriously.

Ed

http://www.vanessamae.com/faq.shtml

What about her recent ventures outside of violin music: pop singing, acting, and fashion modeling?

In her 19th year, Vanessa-Mae has gone into three new endeavors, all highly glamorous and none involving violin music. Perhaps they were to build her image, or maybe to increase her fame beyond being just a violinist, or maybe just for fun - who knows?

In late 1997, the single of "I Feel Love" was released in Europe. This song is different from all other Vanessa-Mae singles, because it is neither classical music nor techno-acoustic fusion - it is mainstream pop music, and it is vocals not violin music. Madonna, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, or any other female pop singer could have done it. Maybe it was influenced by her session work on Janet Jackson's album THE VELVET ROPE. The "I Feel Love" single didn't quite reach the British Top 40, and her management was disappointed.

"I Feel Love" is on STORM, as is one other track of Vanessa-Mae vocals without violin titled "Embrasse Moi". That one is sung in French and English, and is very similar to the style of French pop singer Vanessa Paradise - two teenagers named "Vanessa" singing in French. These two songs were not Vanessa-Mae's debut as a singer, she had already done some vocals on "I'm a-Doun for Lack O'Johnnie" which was on Classical Album 1 in late 1996, but that song was still classically-inspired techno-acoustic-fusion violin music. The new ones are not.

If she really intended to launch a new career as a pop singer, it seems to have been unsuccessful. Vanessa-Mae's voice isn't bad but neither is it exceptional enough to stand out in this overcrowded field.

In September 1998, Vanessa-Mae made her acting debut in a short, unusual art movie titled THE VIOLIN FANTASY. You can read more about it on other websites such as Ultimate Vanessa-Mae; its webmaster was one of the extras in the movie. It features music from the new album, THE ORIGINAL FOUR SEASONS.

Vanessa-Mae missed the London premiere of her movie debut because she was making her fashion-modeling debut at a show in Paris, helping to introduce a line of Gaultier. You can read the details and see photos at Ultimate Vanessa-Mae which got it from the London newspaper The Daily Telegraph.