b'How geophysics ruined musicFeatureFigure 8.Output of the instantaneous frequency calculated for a synthetic linear 9-80 Hz vibroseis sweep using the Auto-Tune algorithm overlain on aFigure 9.Nigel Anstey appearing in the film Harry Potter and the spectrogram of the same sweep. Philosophers Stone.directly as an indication of the pitch a value is found byGeophysics in the artsinterpolating the values near the turning point. Details of the contributions of geophysics and geophysicists Aside from its commercial use the ubiquity of Auto-Tune nowto the arts are somewhat hard to come by, even with all the extends to Karaoke as well. Although the reader is not, at thisadvantages of internet film databases. Turning to geophysicists stage, likely to be speculating on the authors enthusiasm forfirst, Nigel Anstey (Figure 9), recipient of multiple awards from Auto-Tune, in the case of Karaoke it could be considered, literally,the SEG and EAGE, appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosophers to be a lifesaver. The My Way killings were a series of at least 12Stone (he is the grandfather of the actor Tom Felton who played murders over 10 years that arose from discordant renditions ofDraco Malfoy).Frank Sinatras 1969 hit (although very popular, it only reachedFilms that feature geophysics at their core are limited. Known number 27) in the Philippines, where it has since been removedexamples include Tremors (1990) where a seismologist tracks from many Karaoke machines. In 2008 eight people were shotlarge worms that burst out of the ground to devour people. dead in Thailand in a Karaoke dispute that featured multipleTremors was a success but despite one of the stars, Kevin Bacon consecutive renditions of John Denvers 1971 number two hit(who else?), stating that it only made a fifth of what the charts Take me home, country roads. Hopefully the use of Auto-Tune for(accountants) at Universal said it would a further five sequels, Karaoke machines will reduce such incidents in the future. and one prequel were made (including the dramatically titled Perhaps the title of this paper is a misnomer, perhaps Auto- Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell).Tune is in-fact the greatest contribution that geophysics hasIn The Core, a geophysicist discovers that the earths inner core made to the arts. Why shouldnt we use signal processinghas stopped rotating leading to a deterioration of the earths techniques to tweak a performance and produce singers withmagnetic field. After saving the day, the hero geophysicist, perfect intonation? Its critics argue that these digital tools areto his credit, turns down the opportunity to join NASA to responsible for making many musical artists sound mediocre,educate the next generation NASA could use a few good bland, and like a copy of everyone else using the same tools.men, you know replying that Yeah. Unfortunately, so could They remove the uniqueness of vocal performances by turningmy freshmen geophysics students. For those contemplating glissandos, the natural slide between notes, into multiplewatching this movie, the reviews7 are not encouraging (e.g. successive notes (the Cher effect) and make a singer with abig, dumb, explosion movie, Is it bad? Oh yes). Sidney powerful and wide vibrato sound like a human synthesizer.Perkowitz, a professor of physics at Emory University in the USSinging with perfect intonationdoes not always make a greatattributed the movies failure to the fact that people understood performance; just because it is technically perfect, it is notthe science was so out to lunch8necessarily better. Good singers can hit a note perfectly but will often go slightly flat or sharp to achieve specific resonances andIn the 2009 movie, 2012, a geophysical team warns of an harmonic overtones in their voice and add flavour to a part ofimpending catastrophe due to radiation from solar storms a song (interestingly Hildebrands patent claims the oppositeheating the earths crust. Despite being poorly reviewed by and says thatWhen voices or instruments are out of tune, thecritics Wears out its welcome at a ridiculous two hours and emotional qualities of the performance are lost). 40 minutes, throwing out every clich in the disaster movie handbook the film was commercially successful and despite To be fair, it should be stated that there are many people whothe geophysicist not being the lead character (instead being a favour its use. It has been argued that Auto-Tune opens up newstruggling writer played by John Cusack) at least he survives.possibilities in music as many musicians (such as T-Pain) use itUnfortunately, geophysics can often be portrayed negatively, as a unique tool to augment their performances. Indeed, in thein the 2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters it mentions that the 1970s, when synthesisers and other forms of electronic musicmonsters that go on to ravish the earth were awakened by came along, many artists resisted them as they did not see thatseismic surveys (They returned because of us. It was our atomic you could use those tools in a new way instead of just replacingtesting that awoke Godzilla. Other creatures like the MUTOs the instruments that came before. from strip mining and seismic surveys); and in 2017s Kong: Skull Perhaps, however, the debate over the merits of Auto-Tune are moot and in-fact geophysics has contributed to the arts in fields7https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/coreother than music. Although nothing immediately sprang to8https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/21/hollywood-films-obey-mind, we did think it worthy of some further research laws-scienceAPRIL 2022 PREVIEW 46'