polyneux

I've sat here for about an hour now trying to come up with a good response to this and I hope I can be conclusive here. From a musicologist perspective, this is an expected and natural movement. You have something the children like = it will become popular. This is not a thing unique to the United States or Western European countries at all. India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Korea have all gone through this phase of modernization where older styles of music are being replaced by what we as adults (or near-adults) are labeling as weird, poppy, or crap. It is not America going down the drain, it us going in a new direction.

This movement of new music being shunned talked about poorly is not so new at all. In the 50s when John Cage walked out on stage to a piano and did absolutely nothing (read: silence) for 4' 33" there were reactions almost exactly to what you've seen here, people walked out, said it was crap, etc. This represented a movement of music that to the ear sounds weird or disconcerting but in reality has solid background that is like a puzzle to be uncovered.

But that is a digression.

The point there is that he's not going away because our children love him. Not only that, Americans love the underdog story, plucked from YouTube obscurity by famous rapper scout and thrust into the limelight. Cinderella, Cinderella Man, Cinderella Dog, etc. It's neither strange nor unusual.

The other point I have to make is this;

Not only has the general touring life proven detrimental to the average person. It has also proven so to children as well. Michael Jackson, the Partridge Family, Mozart, and other child acts have had a habit of ending up in weird situations due to their lifestyle.

The vocals are unhealthy. No child should be made to sing in a stressing manner before they hit puberty, as it will negatively impact their voice later on. This is why boy choirs and children's choirs always sing simple arrangements and stay with in a very narrow range. His success has sprouted other child acts that you can easily YouTube or see on shows like America's Got Talent, of young kids trying to belt out Mariah Carey, Beyonce, or some other screamer act (which even they have trouble doing repeatedly).

Autotune feigns a lot, it sounds more or less alright, and allows the singer to pretty much speak into the microphone. That twangy frog sound is not a good one for people will try and mimic.

This might be a little hyperbolic and over-worrisome, but in my world where I get kids under 16 every year who spent the summer trying to record themselves in video or tape and they have to sit out for four weeks because they've croaked their voice it is a definite problem.