Spring Break
Auto-Tune threatens to make mainstream music even more monotonous
Joshua Aromin
Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: Entertainment
03/05/09 - The face of mainstream music has always been in a constant state of perpetual motion and metamorphosis with it being represented by artists such as Michael Jackson, Tupac, Nirvana, The Spice Girls and countless others.
However, right now the state of mainstream music is traveling through dangerous ground and is in a period of lowered standards that's riddled with singers hiding behind the security blanket known as Auto-Tune.
Invented by Antares Audio Technologies, Auto-Tune is a tool that automatically corrects a singer's pitch, giving anyone the chance to sound like an accomplished singer. The Antares Technology Web site calls Auto-Tune, "The fastest, easiest-to-use, highest-quality tool for correcting pitch."
With different versions of the program available, Auto-Tune can also be used to distort and add different kinds of special effects to voices. Notable users of Auto-Tune include Kanye West, Cher, Daft Punk and of course T-Pain. Rapper T-Pain has become synonymous with the auto-correction tool and regularly uses its voice effects on his tracks.
Understandably, the ability to be able to automatically correct pitch is a desirable tool for any musician, but the ease of Auto-Tune brings laziness, cheesiness and undesired uniformity to an industry that doesn't need it.
Its pitch correction and special effects limit the broad selection of music on the radio and foster a bland sound of constant sameness that diminishes any kind of variation between artists.
Of course, beats and lyrics vary song to song, but the overall style and sound heard on tracks altered by Auto-Tune is the same. The idea of a song with perfect pitch is an attractive option for singers, but in addition to lyrics, beats and instrumentation, the slight nuances of a naturally tuned song should also facilitate distinction among different tracks.
With a hankering for perfect pitch through Auto-Tune, the deviations in pitch found in the voices of singers such as Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin are suddenly forgotten and demand is replaced with carbon-copied vocals that lack any kind of musical diversity.
Instead of trying to produce a perfect recording, more and more artists are simply becoming satisfied with mediocrity and are escaping usual grunt work by using Auto-Tune.
Auto-Tune was fresh and new when Daft Punk's "One More Time" was released, but it's becoming increasingly stale. The half-human, half-robot sound of Auto-Tune has lost its qualities of originality and is more of a laughable means of conformity.
For now, the glory days of mainstream music are far behind, leaving the creative aspects of production behind, while also burying any reason for a musician's aspirations for perfection. Auto-Tune is like a dagger into the chest of an already staggered music industry.
While there will never be another Michael Jackson, another bubblegum-pop group as important as The Spice Girls, or another grunge band as influential as Nirvana, Auto-Tune is certainly reducing the music world's chances of finding someone to fill that void.
However, right now the state of mainstream music is traveling through dangerous ground and is in a period of lowered standards that's riddled with singers hiding behind the security blanket known as Auto-Tune.
Invented by Antares Audio Technologies, Auto-Tune is a tool that automatically corrects a singer's pitch, giving anyone the chance to sound like an accomplished singer. The Antares Technology Web site calls Auto-Tune, "The fastest, easiest-to-use, highest-quality tool for correcting pitch."
With different versions of the program available, Auto-Tune can also be used to distort and add different kinds of special effects to voices. Notable users of Auto-Tune include Kanye West, Cher, Daft Punk and of course T-Pain. Rapper T-Pain has become synonymous with the auto-correction tool and regularly uses its voice effects on his tracks.
Understandably, the ability to be able to automatically correct pitch is a desirable tool for any musician, but the ease of Auto-Tune brings laziness, cheesiness and undesired uniformity to an industry that doesn't need it.
Its pitch correction and special effects limit the broad selection of music on the radio and foster a bland sound of constant sameness that diminishes any kind of variation between artists.
Of course, beats and lyrics vary song to song, but the overall style and sound heard on tracks altered by Auto-Tune is the same. The idea of a song with perfect pitch is an attractive option for singers, but in addition to lyrics, beats and instrumentation, the slight nuances of a naturally tuned song should also facilitate distinction among different tracks.
With a hankering for perfect pitch through Auto-Tune, the deviations in pitch found in the voices of singers such as Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin are suddenly forgotten and demand is replaced with carbon-copied vocals that lack any kind of musical diversity.
Instead of trying to produce a perfect recording, more and more artists are simply becoming satisfied with mediocrity and are escaping usual grunt work by using Auto-Tune.
Auto-Tune was fresh and new when Daft Punk's "One More Time" was released, but it's becoming increasingly stale. The half-human, half-robot sound of Auto-Tune has lost its qualities of originality and is more of a laughable means of conformity.
For now, the glory days of mainstream music are far behind, leaving the creative aspects of production behind, while also burying any reason for a musician's aspirations for perfection. Auto-Tune is like a dagger into the chest of an already staggered music industry.
While there will never be another Michael Jackson, another bubblegum-pop group as important as The Spice Girls, or another grunge band as influential as Nirvana, Auto-Tune is certainly reducing the music world's chances of finding someone to fill that void.
