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We have a series of features here at P&P that are based on the emails from Kayla, an 11-year-old girl who is the daughter of a friend of mine. Contrary to popular belief, Kayla really does exist and is not just an excuse for me to anonymously reveal my passion for Ke$ha’s music. This week, instead of getting Kayla to write a review on a new track or video, I had her answer a few questions.
When we started getting Kayla involved, it was mostly just for the fun of it. Reading her so unabashedly share her thoughts is always entertaining. But there’s more to it than that. Between politics, marketing schemes, and a host of other factors that complicate things, it’s hard to find a point of view that’s not distorted in one way or another. In spite of her age–or maybe because of it–Kayla is able to offer an honest, fresh perspective.
In this interview, Kayla tells us what makes her like a song, how important looks are, lip-syncing, and the one genre she refuses to listen to.
Big shoutout to Kayla. Hit the jump to read…
What is more important in a song: lyrics, voice, or beat?
I think that voice is the most important part of the song. Voice is most important because if you like the voice, the lyrics and the beat don’t matter as much. I think that a singer’s lyrics could be kind of ridiculous but if they have a great voice that most people don’t mind that much. Also a beat in a song could be kind of weak but if the singer has a good voice they can make the song sound really good
If you listen to a song once and you don’t like it, will you want to give it another shot ?
I like to give songs another shot. Sometimes you might listen to a song the first time and you might not think it’s that good, but when you listen to it a few more times it grows on you. LIke the song Hot by Avril Lavigne the first couple times i listened to it i didn’t like it then i listened to it one more time because i love Avril Lavigne so the one more
time i listened to it i liked it for some weird reason. My mom feels this way sometimes too and sometimes when i like to listen to songs she doesn’t like them at first but then because i make her listen to them all the time she ends up liking them.
Do you ever start off hating a song and end up loving it after a few listens?
Like i said in the last question I really didn’t like Avril Lavigne’s song Hot. When i first listened to it, i thought it was really weird. I really like Avril though, so i kept listening to it and then it ended up being one of my top 10 songs of the summer.
On a scale of 1-10, how important are looks to an artist? Would you ever listen to an ugly singer?
I think looks are a 1 for me. I don’t really care what a singer looks like. If they have a good song, or music that i like, i’m going to listen to them whether they’re ugly or not. i’m sure for some artists the face that they are good looking helps their music go farther, but for me looks don’t matter.
Do you think good looks are more important for female artists? Males? Neither?
Neither. To me it doesn’t honestly matter what you look like as long as you sound good. For example Kimya Dawson is not that attractive at all but people like her music so i don’t think looks are as important as some people make them out to be.
Do you ever wonder if musicians are being “real” or if they are just putting on an act? Does this matter to you?
I think some musicians are putting on acts. Lady Gaga’s image is pretty much an act. This doesn’t matter to me though. If they have good music and i like their songs i don’t really care if they are putting on an act.
Do you care if an artist wrote the song, or made the music? If you found out that Ke$ha didn’t write her songs and wasn’t producing any of the music, would you care?
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I don’t care too much. I would personally rather that artists either wrote their own songs or made their own music. If Kesha didn’t do either of these things i would still like her, but i looked it up online and she writes her own songs and writes songs for other artists so HA.
Does it bother you when artists lip-sync?
It depends on the situation if they are just lip-syncing because they don’t feel like singing or they don’t have a good voice live and they want to make it seem like they do, that bothers me. But if they are lip-syncing because they are sick or have a medical problem like when Adele had bronchitis and couldn’t sing i think that’s ok.
Are there any genres or styles of music that you will NOT listen to?
I would not listen to heavy metal music, but other than that i would give other genres a try and see if i liked the music before giving up on it. The only country singer i like though is Taylor Swift.
Pigeons or planes?
Planes because my grandma is afraid of Pigeons and i don’t like them either because they poop on you and they’re scary.
Love,
Kayla
