A song has gone viral and the producers have asked me to bring my hip-hop-pop music maven analytical skills to bear to try to understand it. This is more than just a song though, apparently it's a mystery wrapped in enigma. I'm hearing it for the first time, this is MAHFRA. The artist has become a viral mystery across social media inspiring hundreds of reaction videos due to her vocal transitions and range with tens of millions of views. But the weird part is no one knows her real name or where she is from. Her channel first appeared about 8 months ago launching with one continuous single shot cover song. Since then she's posted one new cover each month with each video gaining more traction ranging from 1.6 million to 15 million views. It should have been me! It's pretty good. With every release her appearance has become increasingly dark and goth in style. This is really weird. MAHFRA. So it's only covers, these aren't original songs so I'm really analyzing the performance and maybe the song choice. Alright whatever, take it away. Her voice is deeper than I'd have expected. I'm nervous about the whole nose ring. Huh. I guess the range is interesting. The first part, the tone of her voice wasn't that great in that low register but I guess the fact that she's going to really low to really high to melodic to screamo I guess that's kind of interesting. Her appearance is just kind of jarring. It's not that she isn't pretty, she's fine looking but she's kind of scary. And her mouth is gigantic and that itself is kind of scary. It's also unnerving that she's not looking at you. It's always a little off the camera. I've never heard this song before. I suspect she's also gone viral because she sounds kind of like a man but she looks petite and feminine in this gotty way. And her physical movements, she has a lot of stillness which is very powerful on stage but then they're very jarring when she kind of breaks into the chorus or the bridge. And also it feels all more than vaguely sinister. That's the other thing. Kind of seems demonic which is alluring to people because demons tempt you. I'm not calling her a demon, I'm just saying that's the aesthetic that people find interesting. And the juxtaposition of perfectly fine banal vocals to like, with this like, that's very jarring catches your attention. Feels kind of mid-2000s, doesn't it? Which I always, I think mid-2000s might be the worst era of music ever since the dawn of man, since baboons started beating sticks on skins, on drums. But now it's kind of vintage I guess because mid-2000s music is 20 years old. Yes, that stillness. It's just one shot, medium shot on her. There's a lot more to say. First though, go to Toothpillow.com, code Knowles. 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Going back at the before and after photos, it's remarkable what Toothpillow did for my family. Now, my youngest son wants one just to be as cool as the big kids. There you go. There you go. Can't beat that. Right now, go to Toothpillow.com. Use code NOLSKINDAWLAS to get your kid assessed for free. And it doesn't move. So that feels very gritty and authentic. It's obviously very highly produced, but it has this gritty authentic feeling and she's never quite looking at you. I get why it's gone viral. And she has at least an interesting set of pipes. It might not be Pavarotti, but she's got an interesting... Not quite Elefant's Gerald, I guess. I probably wouldn't turn it on at a dinner party. But I kind of get why it's gone viral in this culture, which is alienated. The goth speaks to the alienation. The intimacy speaks to the alienation. She doesn't have a band behind her. The disillusionment of our culture. She doesn't smile and she's super gothed out. Anxed. There's certainly plenty of angst. The starkness of the culture. Notice even you see this in architecture. Everything's just black and white now, like those modern cube, hideous, modern monstrosity houses. An old beautiful brick and just bleaching it white, painting it white, ruining it. Everything is really clinical. This is a world that is understood through virtual reality, mediated through technology. So everything just becomes less ornate, less organic, much starker, black and whites. I kind of get that. Even the lyrics of the song, I think we're doomed, is so much doomerism in culture. You'll hear this a lot on the left, which is a sort of fatalist, tragic ideology. But then even on the right, you see a lot of doomerism leading to political quietism. Sun don't shine. It's trying to feel anything. And we're also a very perverse culture because we're over stimulated all the time by colors and lights and doom scrolling and porn and politics and sensationalism and just every we're just very, very stimulated all the time. And so this kind of speaks to that. It lures you in with its stillness, but then it still keeps you there with the kind of crazy jarring movements. I get it. I don't, I can't say I love it, but I kind of get it. Interesting set of pipes. That was your takeaway? Yeah, what? You think she's like a great singer? I'm actually curious for you because what they're doing is nothing you would normally do to make your, a brand new channel go viral. Do you think it was just a musician that had a clever idea that happened to work or is it an industry kind of plant where they found a talented artist and kind of created it? I think it's still possible for an individual artist to go viral. I think that can still happen. And I think that the industry, like the entertainment industry is not nearly as brilliant as sometimes people give it credit for. So I don't know that she's exactly an industry plant. I don't think that's really how people come up as much anymore. It's not like, you know, I'm auditioning for the old casting agent. That's right. I'm going to get a record deal with OCA. That doesn't really happen anymore. So no, I kind of leaned toward, at the very least, this started in a somewhat organic way, even if, I mean, it would be crazy if she didn't have executives beating down her door right now. But when you, hold on, you're critical of my take on the quality of her voice where I said she's got an interesting set of pipes. You think she's what? You think she's Ella Fitzgerald or something? I thought it was pretty impressive, the vocal range, which is why the reactivity is due so well because it's usually vocal coaches being like, how is this possible? No, no, I acknowledge that. It's interesting that she starts out as like, but it's not, the tonal quality of the voice doesn't do all that much for me. No knock on her. She's a very, she's a better singer than I am. Yeah, she has quite a range in the fact that she opens up singing like a man is jarring. But I don't think she's going viral because of the quality of her voice. I don't think she's like Adele, even to use a more modern example than Ella Fitzgerald. I don't think she's like an Adele or I think she's just, I think it's much more aesthetic and I think this is much more about social media and technology than it is about the quality of her voice, even though her voice is impressive. Is that enough? Is that nice enough? That's fair. Is that fair? We'll see. Maybe we'll get Maffra on the show. I'm Michael Knowles. We'll see you next time. Feels kind of mid 2000s, doesn't it? Which I always, I think mid 2000s might be the worst era of music ever since the dawn of man, since that boom started beating sticks on skins on drums. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles. I'm Michael Knowles.
