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What Has Become of Music?
The music industry has seen its fair share of disturbing trends. High-pitched, whiny singers who can’t do what their title
[i.e. ‘singer’] asks. Naming songs or bands with numbers (such as Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”; as this was recorded twenty years ago, he didn’t have cell phones to blame). Terrible songs that have even more terrible dances associated with them (I’m lookin’ at you, “Cotton-Eye Joe”). I’ll take the high road and not mention disco.
Oops.
But one of today’s more disturbing trends is the frightening use of Autotune. Supposedly, Autotune will catch a singer’s imperfections and will smooth said imperfections out, making the song and the singer better and more listenable.
And Autotune may just work. But only when it’s used correctly. What does “correctly” mean? It means being as subtle as possible. It means remaining in the background and only accentuating a singer’s abilities. It means being as unnoticeable as possible. Apparently, plenty of country stars use this, but they use it wisely to ensure a good vocal performance. Which is, in itself, preposterous; what country star has given a good vocal performance since the computer age? I’m surprised most of the self-proclaimed “rednecks” can even use a computer, let alone correct their vocals. It’s just one of those crazy mysteries, I guess.
I digress. People use it correctly and unnoticeably, sure. With Cher’s unfortunate use of the program in 1998, however, Autotune became a bit more mainstream. Nothing too “in-your-face,” but Autotune was definitely noticeable.
It laid in wait for ten years, waiting for the public’s acceptance of people that REALLY can’t sing. And suddenly, in 2008, Autotune reared its ugly head. Unfortunately, the mass public (i.e. high school kids who think they’re awesome but really aren’t and college kids who are too accepting of whatever radio station they happen to be on) did more than accept it: they asked for more of it.
Turn on any radio hip hop radio station, and there was Autotune. We have the eminently named “T-Pain” to thank for this. His extensive use of Autotune has led too many people in search of a hit to use the program as well. The disgusting vocals of Lil’ Wayne are made even more vile by the computer effects. And I consider myself pretty liberal when it comes to lyrics.
Perhaps most disappointing, Kanye West’s album 808s and Heartbreak is full of the stupid program; one of the few unique hip hop vocalists just had to take that road. West claimed it was more emotional, a sound that fit his “heartbreak” album. To me – I don’t want to speak for everyone – Hal 9000 is not emotional. One’s natural vocal inflections express heartbreak and emotion better than a computer ever can.
I’m all for better-sounding music. When this “Autotune” sound originally became popular – Peter Frampton’s talk box, which essentially talked through his guitar – it wasn’t ridiculously overused. But the hip hop Autotune gorging is getting old and more pointless. It truly says something about our habits and entertainment as Americans that so many people prefer people who can’t sing. Since when are we cheering on people who have zero talent? I know we’re all about equality, but we’re not even playing in the same field as equality here. Autotune is like steroids, but steroids for the weakling players who couldn’t even hit a baseball prior to use. We know these people can’t sing. They even know they can’t sing. So why are they profiting?
Thankfully, 2009 is here. With any luck, it’ll not only be the year of emo/screamo’s death, but the year of the deservedly painful death of Autotune. We’re a nation of change now, right? The first thing to change on the menu is the ear-wrenching use of a little program called Autotune.
Well, I guess we can attend to the economy first. And the war in Iraq/Middle East. I guess unemployment and the environment as well. And stopping the onslaught of horror-film remakes (The Wolfman?! Seriously? Lon Chaney, Jr. is rolling around in his grave, fashioning a silver bullet to take down Benicio del Toro. Or so I hope.).
But then comes the ruination of Autotune. Maybe there’ll be some awful computer virus that gets rid of the stupid program, which would then make it an awesome computer virus. Until then, boycott the trash. Or just write whiny articles.
Maybe I’ll sing a whiny song about it...
But I can’t sing very well!
Dun dun dun…