Death to Auto-Tune
Musical integrity and computerized vocals
ALEX FERWERDA
Opinions Writer
Music has always been a glue binding cultures, races, religions and countries together.
It has the unique quality of allowing new ideas to slip past people’s current paradigms and cause significant changes to the way we live. The influence that music can have on different generations of people is unparalleled. It’s fair to assume that life would be something of a drag if music wasn’t there to console us, energize us and bring us together.
However, recently there has been a growing number of artists and bands who have discovered a trick, allowing the untalented technocrat to sing “well” and in tune, both in the studio and live in concert.
Auto-Tune — the audio processor used to correct pitch and disguise mistakes in music recordings — may very well be the biggest cop-out of modern popular music.
Taking a look at top 10 music charts such as the iTunes music store, the Billboard chart, Rolling Stone magazine and Saskatoon’s very own C95, it quickly becomes apparent that not only do the artists not give a shit about musical integrity, but neither do the masses, who devour this revolting noise.
Each one of these pop music lists contains at least 25 per cent of this computerized clamor. For example, The Black Eyed Peas’ lame excuse to bring people to the dance floor with Will.i.am’s tone-deaf voice magically becomes harmonized in the song “I Gotta Feeling.” Likewise, The Stereos summer hit aptly named “Summer Girl,” which epitomizes what a rock or pop song should never be: sung by someone who needs computerized help to stay in key and written with pseudo-gangster lyrics like, “You know my game is tight / Gotta take advantage of this one summer night.”
I’m fully aware that people enjoy this music for other reasons than the lyrics but when you couple artificial melodies with poorly crafted poetry, it really makes you question whether the public chooses this music or some round-table marketing team is steering modern-pop music straight into hell.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m fully aware that music in the last three decades has always lacked a level of originality. Its existence is solely dependent on the instant-gratification generation that was ingeniously crafted by the mass marketing of wealthy businessmen and their foray into psychological commerce. But enough is enough; this has to stop somewhere, right?
Who says it can’t be our generation that decides to revolt against this terminal case of auto-tuned racket. Just because the merchandising of music has become digital, doesn’t mean that the vocals of the artists we listen to have to follow suit.
So, next time you’re on iTunes or another medium of downloading music, take a step back and think about all of the legitimate artists out there today who don’t need a pitch-correcting software to solve their talent issues.
You raise a number of intriguing points in your commentary on Auto-Tune. Perhaps you’ll allow me to take issue with several.
To be sure, pitch correction is possible with Auto-Tune. For example, John Mayer goes into the studio, lays down an entire album and heads off on tour. A month later, an engineer discovers that a few notes are slightly off pitch. To my mind, there are essentially three options: 1) leave the questionable pitches as they are, 2) bring Mayer back into the studio at considerable expense to fix a few bum notes, or 3) subtly alter the pitches using Auto-Tune, or similar pitch-correcting software. I hope we can agree that the third option is the most practical, and this is the purpose for which Auto-Tune was designed. I get the sense this prescribed use of Auto-Tune is not the ‘cop out’ to which you are referring.
If I’ve read you correctly, the off brand use (made famous by Cher in 1998, and used almost exclusively by T-Pain since 2003) is what you find bothersome. I agree that many tracks using Auto-Tune are objectionable. Mya’s recently leaked “Want it All” featuring Sisqo comes to mind here. Similarly, T-Pain has stated the use of Auto-Tune in “Pop Champagne” was rather amateurish. In any case, these artists using Auto-Tune aren’t fooling anyone. Auto-Tune is a tool, not a magic wand. More over, the mechanized, disembodied sound is incredibly distinct and easily recognized. I would argue that Auto-Tune marks much of the music of this generation. In a few years, I imagine its signature sound will seem incredibly stale.
While on the subject of T-Pain, though, I think his (and Kanye’s on the concept album 808s & Heartbreak) use of Auto-Tune is highly artistic and deeply musical. T-Pain’s Thr33 Ringz (2008) is a lesson in Auto-Tune. He has demonstrated time and again that this effect, which sounds like a gimmick when imitated by others, serves as the core of his musical expression.
More broadly, I also have a slight concern with the notion that the market for popular music is driven by talent. To be sure, there are talented pop musicians, but musical talent is only one small element in the persona that, to borrow your words, “legitimate artists” must project. Looks, lifestyle, networking, tours & public appearances, these all must be cultivated alongside pure, unadulterated musical ability, and I would argue that (when it comes to popular music) a successful artist negotiates all these components rather than excelling in a single aspect.
Thank you for the column! This is all very fascinating stuff.
-Andrew
autopain2.wordpress.com
Totally agree. You should’ve done the article a favour by mentioning the inspiration for your title. If I’m correct it’s Jay-Z’s new single D.O.A. from his new hit album The Blueprint 3. Jay-Z clearly intended to send a message not only through this single, but his entire album. Let’s hope his pun Death of Auto-Tune aka. Dead on Arrival, is accurate.
Respect one of the greatest rappers of all time, and watch the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z13AjI8n4I
This auto tune problem reminds me exactly of the time rap first surfaced. Rap music and rapping in general was a perfect way for talentless idiots to be part of the music world and many of us thought it had to end quick and people would snap out of buying it.
Rappers, and hip hop, same mindless garbage, was a godsend to all these fucking talentless losers and will never ever go away because they themselves are the ones buying it in order to remain on the scene.
This is why every song you here from them now has auto tune in it. It is another perfect tool they can use to mask how little talent they have. Every other music style has had its place in time and stepped aside and made way for change…. Except rap and hip hop. Get used to the auto tune shit people. It’s not going anywhere.
Using it to sound a certain way on purpose = whatever. I probably won’t listen to it but knock yourself out.
Using it to correct the mistakes of someone who misses notes/can’t sing = cheating. Sorry, I know it’s difficult to record vocals and get the pitch dead on, but how hard can it REALLY be? Music was recorded for decades by people who could sing, no auto-tune needed. If you want to be a singer and you can’t hit the notes…well, either get better at it or find another job.
“This auto tune problem reminds me exactly of the time rap first surfaced.”
So you were alive and old enough to remember when rap first surfaced in the late 70’s? That makes you what….in your 40’s now?? And you’re still, bitterly waxing poetic on the Campus newsletter website..??
that leads me to believe you are either:
a) Only now getting the education that you clearly needed DECADES ago.
Or
b) …..I wont even go there.
“Rappers, and hip hop, same mindless garbage, was a godsend to all these fucking talentless losers and will never ever go away because they themselves are the ones buying it in order to remain on the scene.”
You’re absolutely right. Rappers are the only people buying rap music. So when a group like the Beastie Boys go multi-platinum with an album – that just means that multiple-million OTHER rappers bought it, right??
Yeah, you’re definitely on to something here..
“This is why every song you here from them now has auto tune in it.”
Yeah, just like that brand new Funkdoobiest album that dropped…oh wait..nevermind. You are literally speaking about 0.005% of the genre when you are speaking about those that use/have used Autotune. Had this comment been directed at Pop music, i’m guessing that number would be more like 75%
“It is another perfect tool they can use to mask how little talent they have.”
Again, you’re BANG ON.
FACT:
Autotune was actually invented by T-Pain, shortly after he got the boot from Nappy Roots. Once he perfected the formula, he hopped in his Delorian, drove 40 years back in time and then gave it to every Pop star, and other industry type as a gift from the future of music.
“Every other music style has had its place in time and stepped aside and made way for change…”
That has to be the s t u p i d e s t thing I have ever read. Maybe you can help me out though; when exactly did Rock and Roll “step aside” and “make way for change?” When people started experimenting with the formula and created sub-genre’s such as “Death Metal” “Punk Rock” etc..?? Or maybe it “stepped aside” when Blondie recorded “Rapture” (and paved the way for, get ready…….HIPHOP!!)
Come to think of it, I enjoyed it best when the Jazz, Country, Adult Contemporary, and Classical genre’s of music stepped aside and dissapeared completely. That was my favorite.
“Get used to the auto tune shit people. It’s not going anywhere”
Much the same as how we should get used to idiots like you. Until relatives stop breeding, or they implement mandatory IQ tests on every computer in the world, we will unfortunately have to get used to idiots like you spewing mindless babble about things so clearly beyond their mental capacity.
Nobody’s asking you to like hiphop music. But to demonstrate such a lack of understanding of music in general….thats just embarassing.
While I agree that Auto-Tune is a blight on the music scene, I do not agree that all music in the last three decades had “always lacked a level of originality”. As distasteful as the rap scene may be to you or I, there is no denying that nothing like it had been seen before in popular music. You can call rap a lot of things, but unoriginal isn’t really one of them.
Also much of the music of the current Indie scene is *full* of fresh sounds and ideas. Take for instance “Los Campesinos!”, a seven piece Welsh indie group formed in 2006 whose unique blend of melody and cacophony is both energizing and uplifting. The group uses vocals, electric guitar, bass and a drum kit, but also employs less orthodox instruments including the glockenspiel, violin and various horn instruments.
Take also the recording career of Kimya Dawson, who first achieved prominence in late 2001. Here is an artist that has eschewed the decades of work that have gone into making recordings sound “perfect”, and instead focusses on an extremely natural sound. Her lyrics are powerful, intelligent and true (often painfully so).
Her tone and pitch are not always perfect but these criticisms pale when you listen to the soul behind the music and lyrics. In many of her songs, Dawson challenges modern society in much the same way that the great Bob Dylan does. However, one would be mistaken in believing that she is simply emulating Dylan.
I believe that it is foolish to call any music unoriginal or shallow until we take a close look the origins of the song in question. When music is written and sung from the heart, then it is only unoriginal in that we are all human beings who share similar desires, similar needs and similar motivations.
these people are no longer “artists”, more like pupets for the latest elitist joke on us. i’ve suspected that the music being produced now is all done in a studio & i can sense the manufactured vibe in it. it doesn’t come from purity, it’s fabricated & i’m one of those people who doesn’t like being sold a cheap product just to make some talentless, greedy, selfish, heartless indivudual(s) wealthy & in a position of having something that ppl want. maybe that’s why the music industry in a whole is in a $ hole. “singers” no longer rake it in for these elitist wanna be’s. most music sucks these days.
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