I didn't know I was singing

The "Amy's Answering Machine" article reminded me of a CD by the Sursiks called "I Didn't Know I was Singing." Here's a link to the CD with some samples (my 2 personal favorites are slashin' your own tires and hey gary this is kirsten) (warning: may contain some adult language)

http://cdbaby.com/cd/sursiks

The basic idea to the CD is that they gathered a bunch of answering machine messages and transformed them into songs. However, the voice isn't just talking over the song, but rather is the basis for the melody. It's interesting to listen to a sample, then re-listen to it and hear how musical the original message actually sounds.

The answering machine is really an interesting technology. It's like a one way conversation, or like a memo that you come up with and say on the fly. What this CD really shows is how expressive talking is when it's natural. I'm beginning to understand Socrates's anxiety that writing would be the death of language as he knew it, because although these people we hear on the CD aren't very eloquent (I always crack up when I hear, "and I never liked you ever, anyways!"), the rhythm, intonation, volume, and timbre of their voices show their mood and what they're talking about, regardless of the words.

What this CD demonstrates is how technology is used for an artistic endeavor. I remember the first time I heard this CD (to be fair, I don't own the CD, but I occasionally come back and listen to the samples when I'm bored), I felt I had a different view of the world. I listened differently to how people talked and said simple things, or how it would sound if I could isolate a weird noise somebody makes in the middle of a conversation that, in context, sounds perfectly normal. I guess that talking itself is a technology. Before spoken language, I suppose we relied on the old grunt n' smash to communicate. This CD takes multiple technologies (the spoken word, the answering machine, various musical tools, recording and editing devices) and helped at least me better realize the way in which people speak. I'd love to hear music like this, except made out of different languages, newscaster speech, an actual conversation, a public speech, a comedy routine, etc and see how differently (or similarly) they all would turn out.