It was in the 1993 when MTV was still playing music and I was still trying to be hip on current trends. A hot new super-star who married a famous teen star turned softcore porn actress released what turned out to be a massive hit. I heard it first on a television, one of those old 19" or 21" CRT TVs, playing through the television speaker. Even though the playback system was crappy, I could tell - it was obvious and quite disturbing to my senses. The compression was vastly overused on all the instruments with very extreme gating on the individual instruments so that when they stopped playing between sounds there was dead silence. It really bothered me and I was convinced this was a poor decision by a young, self-righteous artist who would later be completely forgotten. Later when I heard a copy in my recording studio I was stunned at the level of compression on every single sound, even the drums and guitar were as dynamically flat as could be accomplished. There was no real bass or serious high treble, and the voice sounded like it was coming through an old POTS telephone - except with wider frequency range. Ugh.
I was wrong in my initial predictions he and his music would fade away. He wasn't forgotten and, in fact, is considered a member of California rock royalty on par with RHCP, Foo Fighters, and Sheryl Crow.
What was the song? Who was the artists?
It was "Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz.
The rest is history.
I was wrong in my initial predictions he and his music would fade away. He wasn't forgotten and, in fact, is considered a member of California rock royalty on par with RHCP, Foo Fighters, and Sheryl Crow.
What was the song? Who was the artists?
It was "Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz.
The rest is history.