Right now on the Internet a lot of people are finding a lot of funny in Microsoft’s new Songsmith application, which allows anyone, at any level of musical talent, to “compose”–just by singing into their computer’s microphone–awful, treacly songs with the synth-everything production normally associated with Casio keyboard presets, infomercials, and soft porn. Of course, someone’s already tried using David Lee Roth’s isolated vocals from “Runnin’ With the Devil” through Songsmith, which mostly just proved the software to be no match for DLR’s unique phrasing. But this is just an early instance of what I’m predicting will be a “Run [insert a cappella] through Songsmith” meme that will clutter up the Internet for the next, say, two weeks.
Even such goofery as “Runnin’ With the Songsmith,” however, can’t top the ironic entertainment value to be found in the actual, apparently sincere advertisement for the program:
The completely unreal behavior. The creepy vibe surrounding the dad. Glow-in-the-dark towels. There’s a lot to love here, but I still haven’t made it all the way through the commercial in one sitting because–to segue from irony to another entry at Stuff White People Like–I find the music that comes out of Songsmith infinitely more irritating and generally bad than the poll-driven Most Unwanted Song (created by Russian artists Komar & Melamid and composer Dave Soldier) that appeared on a recent rebroadcast of an old This American Life episode. Seriously, the music in the Songsmith ad makes me want to kill either myself or the Internet in order to escape it.
I am positive that somewhere in the world–most likely in Brooklyn–some dude is already working on an album created solely through Songsmith, which will heap on the smirking irony at the same time that it confronts the irony inherent in the project and simultaneously tries to unironically express romantic feelings for a barista at his local coffee shop.
I already hate that guy.