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Natalia Kills

Severus Snape

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I stumbled into her material quite recently, as she is pretty much unheard of in the U.S. She's a British music artist, short film director, actress, and songwriter, according to Wikipedia. I'm still on the fence about how I feel regarding her music. One thing that I am sure about is the fact that she has a very beautiful voice. You can see this in her live performance of her single "Mirrors":



It's so nice to hear someone with such a beautiful voice, for a change. There's too many raspy-voiced female mainstream singers like Amy Winehouse and Gaga. Yuck. Then there's some who are just...idk what--like Miley Cyrus. However, this Natalia girl has got some serious singing talent. I absolutely adored this performance...which is why I can't really understand how something so beautiful turned into this:



I really do love the video, it has a beautiful horror film feel to it, but the auto-tune. Ech! I liked her non-electronic performance better. The video just makes her sound like all the other dime per dozen pop stars out there today. With that said, I love her earrings.

This video of hers, "Zombie," is in my opinion, much better. It still has the slightly annoying electro-voice, but the video is so film noir that I don't even mind it. This video is absolutely amazing.



She's apparently been around for a fair bit outside the U.S. "Zombie" is from 2009, so, she's been at it for at least two years. She got discovered by Will.i.Am. in 2008, according to wiki, and her album "Perfectionist," is scheduled for its American release in 2011. She's definitely got a different style, albeit influenced by, for example, film noir. Musically, her non-live performances aren't anything special at all. I think she might be the rare breed of pop musician who is actually better live than on a recording. I'm afraid idiot people will try to claim she somehow "copied" Lady Gaga because her stuff is being released on the American market so late (this has already started on YouTube.) Such claims are pretty stupid, considering most of this stuff was released either around the same time as Gaga's projects, or sooner (IMO, Gaga's "Born This Way" imitated Natalia's "Mirrors" in some aspects.)

With that said, it wouldn't be out of the question to observe some very real parallels between them--the main one being, neither of them started out doing this electro-pop garbage at first, and both are actually much better live than on their records (with my admitted penchant for soprano voices, I prefer Natalia's singing over cigarette-ruined Gaga's.) One really ought to wonder why either of them agreed to sell out so much, when they could be much better.

Anyway, just my thoughts on her. I wouldn't even had started this thread, had I not heard that live performance. I was ready to write her off after seeing that "Mirrors" video, but that beautiful performance completely changed my mind. Still, I don't know if I can be a fan of someone who sells out--it's really against my [very few] principles. In any case, post your observations here. Until then, I'm still on the fence.
 
She's got a nice voice.. but not something too impressive (in my opinion).. But I like her live performance, nice song. ..

The 2 videos... I only managed to really watch the second one. And I just don't understand, not only the need to use electronic music and the distortion of the voice with those vocal programs, but there is this worrisome trend of trying to be original, but gloriously failing to. The dark themes in mainstream videos and songs are predominating, the similar visuals, for instance, the use of manniquins/puppets (Rhianna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Jessie J, Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas and many more).... The use of that much high-tech, even of aliens more recently.. A recurrent unsettling theme. Of course, I am siding with the theory that they themselves are becoming these programmed, controlled entities, because, to me, it is self-explanatory: the lyrics, the videos, their appearances, I don't thik it's just shock value... Natalia is singing about her love for a 'cold' zombie, Katy Perry is professing her love for her Extraterrestrial and... There is nothing human left, and they're all imitating each other. No..they're not having any more creative input, some of them never had from the very beginning and it was easy to be presented with this and that theme and follow it in a heartbeat, but they're the products and victims (either willingly or non-conscienciously) of this extremely weird trend. .. The visuals are looking perfect, super charged, super flashy, extremely inclined toward the use of subliminal symbols and words (the recurrence in words can be also noted). The tech world is limitless, which is worrisome, because too much of this , I'd call it, callous perfection, is... to much, can't find the word. Overbearing..? There is this void and creepiness that I feel when listening to today's mainstream music and watching today's mainstream videos... But, I mean, regardless of whether all this is purely a matter of perception, (of course, I, for one, feel it's more) it's the way they're coming off, what they're conveying is really really creepy. It's more voyeuristic, because I like some horror movies and am a big big fan of psychological and existential movies, or even other darker-themed songs, for instance, but those that I like don't create an atmosphere for me like it's the case with the mentioned media tools, it's different, I feel like an unwilling, uncooperative target when watching these kind of videos..

Sorry for the mispellings and other seemingly sliced formulations.. late ours, hurrying much, lower coherence...^
 
Well, Natalia's "Zombie" came out in 2009, so she was way before Katy Perry's and Lady Gaga's 2010 "E.T." and "Monster," respectively. In that regard, they copied her.

However, the "Zombie" video obviously has a lot of vintage film noir influence, and "Mirrors" has a more horror film feel to it. Like I said, it was interesting to note how neither Natalia nor Gaga started out doing that kind of music, etc. and they both got "discovered" at around the same time, by Will.i.Am and Akon, respectively. They both are also better live than on record, with Natalia being the obvious better singer. Neither's image is very authentic, though--Natalia was doing more hip hop style videos in '05 under the name "Verbalicious," while (then) Stefani Germanotta was doing her piano songs and looking/acting nothing like what we would recognize today as Lady Gaga. So, in that regard, I think they've both been heavily influenced by whoever manages them--and it makes sense. Large record labels aren't going to really let newcomers "play" with their style/image/music, even if they're talented--it's not art they're putting out, it's commercial material they're selling, and everything has to undergo a pre-approved image before it gets released to the market.

That's why I have to laugh whenever someone says Gaga is original. There is no being original in mainstream music, especially in such an early stage. The gamble is too tremendous, and it's no coincidence that every little music starlet is going down the exact same route at pretty much the exact same time. Gaga, Perry, Rihanna, Natalia, etc. are nothing more than the products of middle aged, filthy rich WASP and Jewish men telling us what to like, once again. They're the real artists--in creating something so appealing to the dumb masses, so that they laud it even when it is notoriously apparent that they're being had.

One ought to wonder, though, and it's certainly a shame that all of those girls had to sell out their music in exchange for fame. That's why I admire the likes of Emilie Autumn--she rejected a major label who wanted to sign her because they proposed she change her music to be more "mainstream." To be taken seriously as a musical artist, you ought to first respect your craft and your work. If you whore out your talents, then I can't take you seriously at all, which is why I'm on the fence about Natalia, who, despite her beautiful voice, has chosen to auto-tune herself to fit in with the rest.
 
^Yes, and she's quite a talented rapper. She's been working with Cherrytree and Akon as well, at around the same time Gaga was working with them, so one ought to wonder why they chose to mold them in a similar image. Neither of them was this way before they got signed, after all. Natalia was "Verbalicious," as I mentioned earlier, and Gaga was Stefani Germanotta playing her piano ballads half-naked and looking like a regular Jersey Shore girl (I know she's from NY but that tan--ech!)
 
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