Sunday, May. 15, 2005
The Wonder Of Narration
By Rebecca Winters
Stevie Wonder had a vision. In a music-industry first, the video for So What the Fuss, the single from the blind balladeer's album due next month, is enhanced with narration for the visually impaired. As Wonder performs the song onscreen, raspy rapper Busta Rhymes describes the visuals: "Stevie's playing a pearl-white drum set ..." he tells listeners. Calling the project a "breakthrough," Wonder says he's enlisting other artists to add descriptive narration to their videos as well. Before it catches on, we'd like to warn the visually impaired: Christina Aguilera sounds a lot better when you don't know what she's wearing.