There has been a rise in the use of auto tuners in main stream music over the past couple of years. What an auto tuner does is correct pitch in peoples vocals. where I see a problem is that artists have been increasingly reliant on using this to push out their big hits onto the masses. Not only is it being used more frequently but it has also been used to a heavier degree. Instead of a light touch to help correct a singers pitch, it is being used to the extent that makes them sound almost robotic. (Though this is often a type of sound the artist is going for often seen a lot in main stream hip hop today). Artists such as T-Pain and Lady Gaga are examples out of the huge pool of artists now following the auto tuner trend.
This technology is still new and has become a standard in the main stream music scene. It seems that the majority don't seem to mind this new trend and others see it as a cheap instant gratification for the artist to pump out hits. Personally I hope this trend does not last. This technology is new and may have unrealized potential still but in my opinion as a listener it seems like this technology just creates a wall between the artist and the listener. As David Byrne of the Talking Heads once said, "The better the singer the harder it is to believe what they are saying" comes to thought when I think about the mind set of the modern day popular music. It seems to me (though I do not wish to generalize about all artists since music no matter what will have its exceptions) that artists in the main stream are more focused on feeding the crowd an intoxicating melody to drill into their minds while hammered at a club than deliver an honest and heart felt sound and message to its fan base.
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This is a very interesting subject in music these days. Where does the line between audio production tool and pop-artist crutch get drawn? Most major pop artists of the past decade and on have been auto-tuned. I find that I walk the line with this matter. Lady Gaga and Ke$ha (ugh) aside, I find that the auto-tuner adds a cool synthetic quality which I feel is almost appropriate with the cookie-cutter, bubblegum pop songs of today. Artists such as Discovery, Owl City, and King Crimson have used auto-tuning extremely artistically in my opinion. And auto-tuning is the great equalizer for the independent musician, allowing pretty much anybody the option to sound like T-Pain. Either way, I am sure it's a fad. For every new sound in music there are 50 around the next corner, let's not forget Peter Frampton and his talk-box.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with it.... I hate all that music in general, who cares what they do, but i belive all CD's of pop stars have been micro tuned, to make their voice completely acurate if a take isn't perfect. Using an auto tuner to create a synth voice shouldnt just be seen as another intrument. Im sure people flipped out over the electric guitar when that first came out, and every generation has this distaste for music, even jazz was hated when it came out and thought as musical blasphemy.
ReplyDeleteSome of this music may sound lame, but just recently I got into a band ( Attack Attack!) their lame and almost silly, but tis a hardcore band, with screaming and emo singing, and they even threw in some auto tuned voice, I kind of like the mixture, and theres a whole new autotuned hardcore genre ... which people make fun of and have dubbed it "crabcore" from their low crouches when they "breakdown" anyways... watch if youd like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQVpITyOdc8
I had a very long post made earlier and it disappeared into the wonderful world of the internet. Heres my take on autotune. I don't think it'll ever fully go away. It seems to have died down a lot from last year though. I feel that once Jay Z's Death of Autotune came out a lot of artists stepped back from using it obsessively. But then theres Lil Wayne, he took the diss Jay Z threw at him in DOA and made his own song. Listen if you dare http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09034nAECLY Now, I'm not really a fan of rap. Listen to any of the other music I like and you'll think "what the hell!?" I can dig Lil Wayne though. Take away the autotune, and you still have a talented artist. I guess autotune is like using guitar distortion. Not really an authentic sound, but people use it regardless.
ReplyDeleteAnd Ross Z., Attack Attack! is far from a hardcore band. Emo, yes. Maybe if they didn't flip their hair in unison I could take them seriously. Wait... no, I couldn't. That was a lie.
^Katya Medeiros posting there, btw.
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