Lend Me Yr Ears And I’ll Sing You An Auto-Tune
Words George Booker
Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 5:10 am
I just perused a very interesting quote on SevenCities friend Ernie Smith’s ShortFormBlog. This comes from a Time.com article on the ubiquity of Auto-Tune, the pitch correcting application that has been creatively innovated in recent years, primarily by my Tally pally T-Pain (I don’t know him or anything, I just love Tallahassee). Says Auto-Tune creator Andy Hildebrand:
If you set it to 10, that means that the output pitch will get halfway to the target pitch in 10 milliseconds. But if you let that parameter go to zero, it finds the nearest note and changes the output pitch instantaneously. I never figured anyone in their right mind would want to do that.
What he is referring to is the current inclination, primarily among rappers such as Lil’ Wayne and rappers-turned-crooners such as Kanye West and crooners-often-erroneously-labeled-as-rappers such as the aforementioned Pain, to set the program’s retune speed to absurdly fast or immediate levels, resulting in that yodeling robot effect many of us have come to love or loathe in contemporary pop music.
As frequently happens with obnoxious pop trends, I have ended up falling into the apologist role. Jerome thinks I do this on purpose, making myself find value in the shallowest of pools. Sometimes he might be right. I don’t usually get into anything that exist only as a product to market to pre-pubescent audiences…no boy bands or tween sensations. I do seem, however, to have a remarkable tolerance for R&B that many of my friends deem offensively bad or stupid.
If I sometimes like to be a bit contrary, I don’t usually like playing the apologist. The interchange usually develops to the other person frothing, spraying vitriolic words and saliva all over the place as they throw things and knock furniture over in an angry, impotent attempt to express how much the latest silly gimmick on top 40 radio is some sort of nadir for pop music that is simultaneously raping the past, present and future while eating their children. Meanwhile, my mild point, usually something along the lines of “I don’t think ‘Buy You A Drink’ is that bad” tends to get pumped up to match the melodrama on the other side.
My response to “Auto-Tune, after all this time, was the one thing that made pop music horrible forever and the only thing that can fix it now is if Jesus comes back, holds off on Rapture, and uses his time to resurrect Elvis Presley and form a team of crime-fighting musical saviors who tour the world in a psychedelic bus that can drive over water because without that kind of intervention, Auto-Tune will kill real singing forever, and we’ll forget how we even sang, and eventually talked, and language entirely shall perish” is this: that’s silly, what are you talking about, crazy?
Anyway, beyond everybody’s surprise, ranging from violent anger to bemused befuddlement to “Who? What are you talking about? Who let you in here?”, at T-Pain’s emergence as the most influential pop performer of his time (which feels strange to type. Really? Um…apparently, I guess…yes? But…has Outkast done anything? Radiohead? Really, T-Pain? I guess so, but…that doesn’t seem right but that’s what the numbers…indicate…), I have to say that I really don’t mind the Auto-Tune revolution. T-Pain isn’t the most substantial album artist in the world, or probably even in his zip code, but he’s given us more than his fair share of decent singles. Lil’ Wayne has been both transfixing and annoying with the device, but Kanye West made one of last year’s unlikeliest classics, 808s and Heartbreak, using almost exclusively Auto-Tuned vocals.
Auto-Tune Yodel-Emceeing is a new iteration on one of the oldest stories in pop: new technology comes along and people around the same time find a way to use it the creator never intended and then we have a new kind of music. Auto-Tune sounds most like a vocoder, the device incorporating synthesized vocals and keyboard and that funny hose Snoop Dogg has dangling in his mouth in the “Sensual Seduction” (nee “Sexual Eruption”) video. The vocoder was originally used for purposefully flat, robotic vocal effects until Roger Troutman showed how vocoder could be incorporated soulfully and transcendently into devastating funk with Zapp. Auto-Tune hasn’t found its Roger Troutman yet, but it is a legitimate technique. Or, at least it has the potential of a good gimmick, which is more than can be said for most things.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
George Booker is writing this about himself in the third person. He was considering second person, maybe making this the "Bright Lights, Big City" of bios. He was looking into casting Micheal J. Fox in the forthcoming film adaptation, as the disabled actor would likely portray him with ample charm, sympathy, and fifty-something boyish handsomeness. Recently, however, Booker has realized that only Anne Hathaway or Chiwetel Ejiofor could really capture his essence. Late 20s, Norfolk raised music writer. Former DJ and production head for WVFS Tallahassee, former staff clerk at defunct Norfolk music stores DJ's and Relative Theory. Current Film Editor and Contributor to No Ripcord Magazine, contributed blurbs to Link and Port Folio Magazine.
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The auto tune is the new “toy” for the music industry in general and hip hop in particular. Much like any new trend or fade, the music industry has gotten a hold of something, the masses buy into it, and it will played right into the ground. In two or three years, it will be gone and then brought out as a bit of nostalgia five years after that but some rapper who is “kickin it old skol, yo.” Besides, hip hop doesn’t have the incredible vocal talents of a Sarah MacLachlan, a Dido, or a Peter Murphy.
“I’m on a Boat” by Lonely Island featuring T-Pain is the greatest song ever specifically because I love to hear T-Pain sing “I never dreamed I’d be on a boat…” with such auto tune passion and autheticity. Other than that, it still annoys the piss out of me when it’s used to this extreme and I’ll relish in my self-righteousness when this fad is over. I find it interesting when it’s compared to what Troutman and even what Teddy Riley do… those guys can sing. I like T-Pain’s hat, though.
Dido? Really? A tremendous voice, too, but we forget those are a dime a dozen in the international sense as well as the local. A good voice can’t make up for being inconsequential. Sorry to be so snobby, but I get a bit vicious to figures who got rich defanging the Bristol sound. Speaking of that, I’m claiming Beth Gibbons for hip-hop. Now there’s a voice. On behalf of R&B, I’m tempted to point out that Mary J could eat Dido for lunch, except that I don’t think she would make a filling meal for Ms. Blige, and she might not sit well in her stomach, but I will claim in this metaphorical cannibal vocalist comparison that the belch Mary J. Blige lets out after consuming Dido whole will still be more powerful and compelling in a technical and a soulful respect than anything I’ve heard from Dido.
Yeah, current Auto-Crooners are very faddish, and we likely won’t be hearing nearly as much of this in a few years, but I don’t get why people hate it so much. Hasn’t the radio been churning out obnoxious fads like this for…ever? Why does this one bother people so? I think people take it personally because it is seen as an affront to powerful organic vocals coming straight from the gut.
I get a little bit of that, but in the case of the new obvious Auto-Crooners, it is very obvious that the effect comes more from a computer than natural or developed vocal talent. I don’t think anybody feels tricked, so I think comparing amazing singers to Auto-Tune pop architects is apples and oranges. Nobody thinks Kanye West can actually sing, but that doesn’t make “808s & Heartbreak” any less authentically touching. You can get mad at the toys, but I don’t find it worth the effort. I’m just too lazy to be much of a purist for anything.
Another interesting point that the Time article touches on is that Auto-Tune has become a ubiquitous industry device. People get annoyed by the artists who are being completely transparent and playful in their use of it, but its been around for a decade in common use, long before its current popularity as a gimmick. Even artists whose image relies on vocal strength and authenticity, like veteran country belters as revered as Reba, are known to use Auto-Tune live and in the studio as a safety net. It seems silly to me to get dismissive when openly ridiculous pop stars are bold enough to make the manipulation obvious and whimsical. I will concede that it is often annoying, though.
Another good point, George. While it does annoy the hell out of me when I hear Kanye using auto-tune (actually, everything Kanye does annoys me), it annoys me more when these little pop tarts and , apparently, country singers try to sneak it in under our noses. Maybe I’m just annoyed because I can’t sing and I realize that I could’ve been a rock star instead of a writer had someone told me about this.
You’re right, it is better that these new cats just do it rather than try to get over on us. It’s just not appealing to my snobby rockist ears. Then again, I listen to noise rock and Chicago post-rock bands whose vocals make many people cringe. But at least it’s organic. To each his own, I guess.
And, yeah, Beth gibbons has belonged to hip hop since Dummy.