Auto-Tune In Country Isn’t Evolution, It’s Falling Behind
Forget about the intended use of Antares flagship software product known as “Auto-Tune” for a second, and how it can make the rising falsetto of prickly-haired Rascal Flatt’s frontman Gary LeVox sound as pure as the wind-driven snow. Almost since the inception of the pitch-correction software, Auto-Tune has been utilized as a vocal effect as well, and one that has become an indelible part of popular music.
The Cher song “Believe” from 1998 was one of the first popular songs that took the Auto-Tune effect and turned it up to the highest degree to where the tone of Cher’s voice sounded computerized, with the notes having clearly-recognizable steps in between them instead of the more rounded, natural tone of the human voice. And Auto-Tune as a popular vocal effect was off to the races. Next thing you know you have artists like rapper T-Pain using Auto-Tune as a primary focus of their sound.
But country music stayed mostly on the sidelines of the Auto-Tune phenomenon….besides of course behind-the-scenes as that unspoken magic little helper to make up for artists that were big on looks but light on talent. Country music has always been seen as the major American genre that is the most wary of the infusion of technology into the format. Electric instruments were once banned from the Grand Ole Opry stage, and even up to a few years ago, synthesized music or other technological sounds were still frowned upon in country, including Auto-Tune as a vocal effect.
But lo and behold, as yet another symptom that popular country music is fresh out of ideas and would rather become subservient to the influences of other genres instead of engaging in a true search for talent among its own ranks, Auto-Tune here in 2014 has reared its ugly head as an accepted element of popular country music songs.
Of course like all new things in country, the injection of Auto-Tune use was subtle and slow. Music Row seems to think that if they try to be sly about it, nobody will notice, and little parts of popular songs started to feature the vocal enhancement here and there in 2013, and some before that. But here in 2014, the Auto-Tune training wheels are off, and you’re not surprised to hear it in just about any new single from a popular country music artist.
One of the most gross offenses is in the recent single from Jerrod Niemann called “Drink To That All Night.” Though the song hasn’t been a huge commercial or chart-topping success so far, when it came out you could tell it would be a game changer in the way it went in an EDM/Auto-Tuned direction unlike any other song from an established country artist before, pushing the boundaries of what would be acceptable in country. And then last week we heard a new Tim McGraw single called “That Girl” which feels like the big coming out party for Auto-Tune in country music, featuring the vocal effect unfettered and full blast throughout the entire song.
But the alarming thing about the impending country music Auto-Tune phenomenon is not necessarily the use of the technology itself, but how it is yet another symptom of the underlying disease gripping country music of being so demonstrably behind the curve. Country music is constantly feeling like it has to apologize for itself, and to prove to the rest of the world that it can be cool and hip too. With this mentality, country never leads, it follows, waiving its little hand at the side of the popular music stage saying, “Hey, we’re here also! And we can use Auto-Tune too! We’re not just hayseeds!”
The problem is, the use of Auto-Tune in 2014 as a vocal effect actually proves just how lame and behind-the-times country music is. Auto-tune isn’t making country music hip, it’s proving it’s unhip and completely behind-the-curve.
Over the last few years, the trend of country rap emerged in the country genre, with artists and labels insisting that country music must evolve to stay relevant. But what these artists and labels failed to understand that there was nothing current and relevant about rap any more than any other genre. Rap is a 30-year-old art form whose origins go back even farther than that.
With Auto-tune, it’s a similar paradox. Using Auto-Tune was cutting edge when Cher did it in 1998. In the mid-2000’s, Auto-Tune enjoyed the height of its popularity. But today? Today, though the use of Auto-Tune can still be heard in some pop and hip hop songs from artists like Future, it is generally old hat, outmoded, even lampooned and admonished, and T-Pain is the laughing stock in many sectors of the hip hop community. T-Pain is seen as a one-trick gimmick, and it’s expressly because of his Auto-Tune use.
In June of 2009—a good 4 1/2 years ago— hip hop artist Jay Z released a song called “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune).” He was inspired to write the song because he felt the use of Auto-Tune had become a crutch for many artists, and a gimmick. The tipping point was when he saw it used in a Wendy’s commercial….again, nearly half a decade ago. Jay-Z said the point of “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” was to “draw a line in the sand.”
The song went on to be called the best song in 2009 by MTV. Did the use of Auto-Tune die by Jay Z’s decree? No, of course it didn’t. But its use was arguably already in decline when the song was released and it has continued to be in decline….until country music found it in the forgotten dust heap of relevancy, brushed it off, and started implementing it en masse as an element of its misguided “evolution.”
Country music doesn’t need to adopt Auto-Tuned vocals to be relevant, it needs to find its own new wrinkle, its own game-changing element that makes other genres look at it and want to incorporate it into their formats. By using Auto-Tune, country music is not leading or evolving. It’s not even following. It’s proving once again how it’s falling behind.
January 18, 2014 @ 9:46 am
I’m saying this because I’ve seen this misunderstanding in many recent posts:
Just because I post a video in an article does not mean I am condoning, endorsing, or promoting the artist or the song that is posted. It is simply to create context, and give a visual and/or audio representation of the topic discussed. If you want to discuss the specific content of the video, that’s totally fine and understandable and encouraged. But please don’t think that a video posted at the end of an article is the entire point of that post, unless the post is specifically a song or video review.
January 18, 2014 @ 10:15 am
The auto tune genie is already out of the bottle. Unfortunately I don’t see how it can be put back in.
January 18, 2014 @ 10:18 am
Another great article Trigger. I’m really glad I found this site – I’ve learned a lot. I’m a music lover but not a musician so this cleared up the mystery of auto-tune for me. I knew it was used to correct pitch, but didn’t know the history behind it or other uses.
January 18, 2014 @ 10:42 am
I don’t think this will catch on as widespread trend in country music (as a vocal effect that is) for the reasons you mentioned. It is no longer a hot trend in rap and dance music circles and so I don’t think it will catch on big time because it will be portrayed as a joke and the insecure ‘country’ producers will quickly move on from it lest the popular kids make fun of them.
This is akin to the use of past their prime rappers in country songs. First you had Ludacris with Jason Aldean and then Nelly with FGL who were both well past their peak years and were probably a little desperate to maintain their relevancy. We will never see the current trendsetters show up in country because they don’t have to.
The major label executives and producers really are a miserable lot when you think about it. Successful but not considered cool and this just eats at them so they chase the approval they crave.
January 18, 2014 @ 11:12 am
Artists use auto-tune as a crutch. When they try to sing without it on awards shows, they’re flat and can’t hit any of the high notes. When it’s difficult to reach perfect pitch, auto-tune covers their tracks. Rascal Flatts couldn’t stay on key without it.
January 18, 2014 @ 1:24 pm
Great article Mr. Trigger. I think they only key point you missed was “desperate”.
Hearing an auto-tune effect (like in “Southern Girl”) smacks of being desperate to me (desperate to be cool or whatever). It’s no different than wearing the idiotic over-sized wallet chains or those trendy t-shirts (or jeans with holes in them). Male country music just seems so “desperate” now.
January 18, 2014 @ 11:50 am
I loved distorted vocals, and still do to a certain extent. Mostly in industrial music, but certain other genres as well. Stuff like Digital Poodle on the song “Red Star”, Kraftwerk on, well, a lot of songs, heh and Cynic on “Veil of Maya”, basically everything by Bass Mekanik, and basically everything by Black Moth Super Rainbow and their side projects. Or the chopped up feeling that you get from Coil’s remixed version of NIN’s “Gave Up” or ohGr on “Pore”. The main thing though is that none of those songs use “that generic auto-tune sound”. Auto-tune is a boring, boring way to distort vocals, since every time I have heard it used it has done the exact same thing to the vocals. And that particular sound is one I have been tired of since Eiffel 65 used it on “Blue” (though I don’t know if they actually used auto-tune or not, it still has that sound).
My main problem with the use of distorted vocals (save the “fuzzed out, old timey sounding microphone” type, that’s mostly okay) in country music is that it sounds absolutely ridiculous. And to make it not sound ridiculous they need to change it so much that it literally has no perceptible trace of country music left. I don’t care what Taste of Country says, that “screaming steel” or whatever they called it, is barely even noticeable in comparison to the drum machine and auto-tune, and it doesn’t keep the song on the country side of anything.
So, my view is: Vocal distortion (almost) never belongs in country music, and auto-tune is a poor way of distorting vocals anyway.
January 18, 2014 @ 3:27 pm
That’s DEvolution for ya, as far as country goes. :\
I don’t mind the use of vocal effects in pop and rock. I’ve especially liked They Might Be Giants’ use of Vocoder and pitch-shifting on certain songs, because it’s usually for good reason — most often for humorous / playful effect or for some additional, interesting colors and textures, but also sometimes because it feels just right for the lyrics (such as “Robot Parade” and “Nanobots”) or musical style (as in the techno-y “Man, It’s So Loud in Here” and the psychedelic “Wearing a Raincoat”).
On the other hand, in country music I think it seems altogether out of place; if country is supposed to be more down-to-earth than rock or pop, sounding inhumanly perfect (at best) or like a Dalek (at worst) tends to defeat that purpose.
January 18, 2014 @ 11:22 pm
I don’t know it it’s autotune but the only distorted vocal I’ve heard that I like or can live with in country music is Miranda’s Fine Tune. It’s not something I want copied on more songs though.
January 18, 2014 @ 11:54 pm
That is definitely not Auto-Tune. It is some sort of vintage mic or filter. The point of that is to make it sound unnaturally dirty. The point of Auto_Tune is to make it sound unnaturally clean.
January 18, 2014 @ 12:41 pm
Some may not wish to condemn or praise the modern singers or modern technology according to the reasons. Saving country music being in the business of drawing in readers, will hint at it as others do, for keeping their mag in the limelight, fearing that if they say something too honest or negative, pro or con, without at some point apoligising for it, they may lose readers. (It is simply to Create context) (Filler)
Don’t get me wrong, I do not dislike your mag, actually enjoy parts of it, the honest parts that are Pro Country, not the subtle apoligy to the modern singers who have little or nothing in common with Country music other than wearing the brand to hang on true ARTIST coat tails hoping for a lift up.. just stating the facts as I read them.
On the other hand, having always been an Outlaw in the business, one of the true ones, not the modern day kids who so often claim to be outlaws just as they claim to be country, and clearly are not. Most don’t even understand the terms, Outlaw or Country.
They are confused and think using vulgar language, singing about a dirt road or a pickup truck, mis-using facts from the past is what makes them country or an outlaw, not understanding that there is so much more to earning the right to wear the title Outlaw than saying F… this or that or whinning about how their label made them wait 2 weeks before they got a label deal after arriving in Nashville and had to sleep in a motel until mommy or daddy wired them money.
They seem to think being an outlaw or a country artist has to do with how much cursing and singing about dirt roads and pickup trucks they do! They tear holes in ther clothes or more often rip them off to show their best sexual pose, and from their video’s, I suppose that is what they have to sell. Just think, if they put that much effort into writing and singing songs just how far they may get, may even become artist instead of just joining the programmed robot stage runners.
COUNTRY MUSIC is not dead, dying, left behind and by no means has anything out there today to play catch up to with the whinning acts and the flaming stage, guitar busting acts.
COUNTRY MUSIC is an artform! It requires a few ingredients that have been left out of the industry today, the main one being….. TALENT!
The so called superstars of the past few decades do not have more than a touch of that ingredient. What they have is the EVOLUTION of an electronic genious behind a multi-million dollar soundboard with software that does all the work and clearly requires little to no talent on the singers part.
The audience not having been in the business outside of listening, has no clue just how off beat, off key and unprofessional modern singers are, they believe it to be the girl or boy onstage who is doing the performance when 90 plus percent of the talent is the computer and the technician running it.
Not so long ago, after being semi-retired from the business for awhile, I decided to return to the studio and stage for a few short term performances and not having any product to offer, albums etc. I dug up some of my old songs from the 70’s-’80’s that we never released and wrote a couple albums worth of new material.
I did the demo’s in my studio. I went to half dozen studios looking for a place to lay down the final tracks and mixes. Every single one I found had nothing but a computer screen and something called “protools software”. Really!!! Not one studio had a real recording system that recorded the singer and instruments and a real sound engineer to mix it by ear. They explained how they just take the voice, no matter how bad and automatically adjust the sliders and make everything sound perfect …. OKAY? Perfect, really! I haven’t heard anything on the radio or cd in the past decade that sounded perfect or even close to realistic. Yes, it is mastered to where it is in time and tune, but then there’s ….. nothing.
Politics and dollars runs the business and has since the mid to late ’80’s. Money investors who came roaring into Nashville from LA, NY and other so called music centers telling the powers that be (cma, acm, rca, cbs and on and on) how they could make them all wealthy if they’d just dispose of those hayseed Country Artist and replace them with the garbage and advertising of today and of course the industry sold their heart and soul to those money men and began driving out the likes of Haggard, Jones, Waylon, Glaser, Colter, Willie, Whitley, Strait, Wynette, West, Frizzel and several others who would not go along with the gimmicks of the industry, (OUTLAWS) now look what they have, no Country Artist.
YES, there are many acts who wear the Country brand but they are just dollar products, not “ARTIST”, not “OUTLAWS”, not “COUNTRY”!!
(speaking from personal experience of the past as I had several friends among them, yes I was there to watch it fall).
I am so sick of all the touch and go labels, reporters, fake and phony cover ups who fear the loss of a dollar while hanging on the coat tails of the LEGENDS whose TALENT made the industry what is was and what it will never be again because of this.
Country Music is as alive today as it ever was, though most of the “ARTIST” who made it what is was have now passed on, there are still many of us who are remaining true to our roots, still writing and recording actual COUNTRY music and lyrics, the BIG dogs just keep their foot on it so no one can see or hear it.
The only thing that makes Country Music APPEAR to be dead or dying is the wealthy radio station owners, magazine reporters and writers who see these guys and gals out there in the back street bars and honky tonks who are talented, are stars, are Country, are great is the fact that they are owned by the investors who tell them to turn their cameras and point in the direction of the bridgestone arena where the acts have labels spending half million dollars in ad campagins and fake circus sideshow, blinding strobe lighting systems to amaze and wow the crowd with “distractions” to hide the weakness and off key vocals of the act.
If the politics and dollars were not driving the industry, you would see COUNTRY MUSIC topping the charts over and above everything else. Country Music will still headline and profit if the industry big wigs will take their foot off the throat of the talent and allow them to create and perform the ART instead of sitting behind a computer watching their stock market like numbers rise and fall, with singers who will jump and bow on command to put out to songs that have no heart, soul or feeling.
Working in factories where they and build ROBOTS that must be trained to walk, talk, lipsink, prance, whine and jog around on a stage half naked, holding their crotch and letting the camera operators do the work to make it look and sound ….real!
Facts are facts, Country is Country, if you change it, then it is no longer Country! You can stick a Ford emblem on the hood of a Chevy, but that don’t make it a Chevy. You can put a steel guitar and a fiddle in the middle, but that don’t make it Country! You can delete this, ignore it or condemn it, but that won’t change …..
The Most Unwanted Outlaw In Nashville Tennessee
January 18, 2014 @ 2:04 pm
Dude, what?
January 18, 2014 @ 4:07 pm
Ron,
I appreciate what you’re trying to say. I really do. But I have to take exception to this:
“Saving country music being in the business of drawing in readers, will hint at it as others do, for keeping their mag in the limelight, fearing that if they say something too honest or negative, pro or con, without at some point apoligising for it, they may lose readers.”
I have tried my hardest to forge a relationship with my readers that is one based on being as truthful and honest about my opinions as possible, even if that means those opinions are controversial, unpopular, or lose me traffic. I have received death threats, had people write songs attacking me, and have burned many bridges over the years because I was unwilling to be political and stuck to my opinions as a point of principle, many times at the direct loss of readers.
Yes, this website as all others are in the business of trying to attract readers, because that is our job. What is the point, and what would be the effectiveness of writing and posting all of these articles if nobody was reading them? Finding that healthy balance between writing things people want to read, and things that are of substance and are important to the health of the music community is some thing I strive for.
January 19, 2014 @ 10:44 am
Okay Trigger, Maybe I got carried away with the rest of the system and let it all fly in your mag. Even though I don’t apoligize for things I say in a negative manner about this technology driven crap they call music, I will do something here that you will rarely see me do, I will apoligize to you for the way my comment seemed to condemn your writing. but not for the way I felt you kind of backstepped just a touch in the article.
My intent was not meant to be an attack on you in a negative or personal way, though it may have sounded that way as I am not a trained reporter, More so it was just a comment to hopefully say, If you’re trying to Save Country Music, or reclaim the integrity and moral fiber of the honored talent thereof, then hit them fast, hard and often my friend and don’t ever back down in the middle of a good fight for what is right and what is fake.
Many will be surprised to see that though they may lose a few readers who are into this techno correctiveness of singers who can’t hold a note (can’t carry a tune in a bucket) will be surprised to see just how many more readers they actually gain by sticking to their guns in comparison to how few they lose.
I can also clearly understand the comment one posted on using technology to rapidly fix a simple mistake where it would take hours of studio time to cut and splice. I understand it because today the so called engineers don’t know how to correct a recorded mistake in two minutes as talented engineers did in the past, before protools and computers took away the requirements to learn the skills, without a machine doing it for them, and how they think it would take them several hours of wasted studio time. (and likely it would as they do not have the pro knowledge to do it by ear) and therefore must depend on pro tools to feel like they have accomplished something great when they have really no hand in it.
Again my friend, my apoligies, no harm intended and I am still here, watching to see how big your mag gets to prove that Country Music will still sell if the big dog money men will stop buying all the radio stations and tv channels and faking the talent and just let the real Country Artist breath.
It’s the same battle we fought in the ’70’s & ’80’s and though it may appear we lost, we are not gone away with our tails tucked tween our legs, we’re still in the Honky Tonks and back street bars and still drawing Country Fans and making a living doing it.
Just sit back and watch what is going to happen in the near future when fans realize they have been fed a pile of manure and told it was steak. When they hear the real artist, they’ll drop this cma bunch like a hot rock.
Some of my Outlaw friends are now deceased, but they are not gone….and the Legend continues. Some young punk country singers may curse us, sling mud on the legends and poke fun at the true artist, but they all know in their hearts they don’t posess the quality talent to do it and that’s why they feel the need to try taking over the business with childish insults and spend mega bucks on effects to cover their bad vocals, you can cover up a pile of crap,,,, but the stink is still there.
The Most Unwanted Outlaw In Nashville Tennessee.
January 20, 2014 @ 6:58 am
Brevity is the soul of wit.
…Hamlet
January 18, 2014 @ 1:41 pm
A corner office on Music Row, June 2015:
“Hey have you seen how many albums these Irish dudes have sold? They play an acoustic guitar, a banjo, an accordion, and a stand-up bass. Do you think something like that would work in country music?”
January 20, 2014 @ 10:55 pm
Brett, but of course it will. That is a major portion of where our true Country music originated and was further advanced in popularity by our families moving deeper into the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Westward Ho!
It has only been a few short years that those who prefer to play Rock can’t cut it and they try Country and can’t cut it so they add a bunch of phony effects, mixing some of this and a touch of that and in the confusion, call it Country.
Let me say, I am not against any musician doing whatever their talent will allow and enjoy what they do. I find a little something I like in almost every band out there. (if I try hard enough and look long enough and can tolerate some of them awhile, bound to find one song they get right).
My problem with modern singers is, they want to wear the “Country Brand”, but they can’t sing three minutes without it sounding like they have an overdriven distortion pedal stuck in their throat and sing way below the music to where you have to guess what the lyrics say! (of course, that’s the way it’s intended to be….cover up the bad with noise).
If they feel they are as talented and original as they want folks to believe they are, then why hook onto a brand that clearly is not a fit, why not use a little of the talent to come up with their own brand. Like the kids who play Metal or Punk or Rap or ?????? did.
It is irritating to hear them get on tv and talk about how they are in Country because they were influenced by Haggard, Cash, Jones, Wynette, Lynn, Jennings etc.etc. or any of the other true COUNTRY ARTIST but somehow when they perform you never hear any similarities to those Artist. If you are that influenced by any artist, you can’t help but do something that lends to their style in your show, not just a cover or stolen line to attempt to sound close, but real, true Country effort.
January 18, 2014 @ 2:46 pm
I’m not a big fan of Auto-Tune but I will say I liked its use in Kid Rock’s “Only God Knows Why.”
January 18, 2014 @ 2:48 pm
Also”“”“It was used grossly in Colt Ford and Jason Aldean’s “Drivin’ Around Song.” A sickeningly bad song.
January 18, 2014 @ 3:33 pm
Pop country is certainly a novelty and music row will attempt to capitalize on any gimmicks available to line their pockets. Whether its auto-tune, rappers, drum machines – it doesn’t matter. If it can be marketed to 18-34 year olds and sells, they’ll do it.
Its the 18-34 year olds that buy the music, share with their friends, and help push the pop country stuff we despise. While we may hate pop country, tons of kids love it.
I fear that Country music cannot be saved, it will always be evolving into a mess of behind the curve pop music gimmicks. The only hope is to preserve the record labels and artists that do it right. Buy their albums, share with people that have the same tastes as you, and for pete’s sake go see a show. Just think 20 years from now, it’ll be Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton that will be considered “classic” country.
January 18, 2014 @ 4:01 pm
Depends on what you mean by pop country. Today’s pop-country is definitely a novelty, but it is very different from the pop-country of 3 of 4 years ago.
January 18, 2014 @ 4:06 pm
I wonder how much of the blame here can be laid at the feet of country music purists and conspiracy theorists. For years, purists/conspiracy theorists would baselessly allege that so-and-so singer was using Autotune. Maybe some of the singers ultimately decided that if they were going to be accused of using Autotune anyway, why not just go ahead and do so openly and proudly?
Accusations of surreptitious Autotune use have significantly declined on this forum and others in the last few years. Maybe in that respect, the proud and open Autotuners have served the purpose of silencing the conspiracy theorists.
January 18, 2014 @ 9:24 pm
Interesting, but do you really think that accusations of autotune use among mainstream music stars is a “conspiracy theory?”
I’m not an audio technician, but the sense I’ve gathered from anecdotes from producers and insiders over the years is that the 99% of mainstream popular music utilises pitch correcting software. And I think producers and studio experts would corroborate that. I mean, at this point I just automatically assume that virtually all corporate radio music is digitally corrected and run through Autotune the same way I assume that all reality TV shows are staged.
Also, speaking as a music “purist,” I would say that people nautrally have to pick their battles when they bitch about pop music trends. For example, I consider myself a supporter of Kacey Musgraves, but I assume that her songs probably use mild pitch-correcting effects. In fact, I think it’s pretty audible, especially on “Silver Lining.” I think that sucks and is unnecessary, but her music is still fifty times more tasteful and substantive than “bro-country” atrocities
January 18, 2014 @ 9:33 pm
Anecdotes are possibly the most misleading source to use when deriving general statistics.
Also, I do not hear any Auto-Tune in Kacey’s songs. Could you please point out where in “Silver Lining” you hear such an effect?
January 18, 2014 @ 11:17 pm
Ok, but I’m saying the 99% number is what I personally infer from the anecdotes and observations I’ve heard over the years from people who know more about modern production than I do. I’m not really interested in deriving official statistics.
The point is that the technology is such these days that it’s easy to apply subtle digital filters to tracks and even correct and shape individual notes with the editing software. (Not to mention all the compression and stuff, which just sounds crappy to me.) Even without insider information, it’s not implausible to suggest that if the technology exists, many are using it. I also think I can straight up *hear* it most of the time.
Here’s a good article on the subject with clips of “autotune abuse” in various popular songs, including The Dixie Chicks and Rascall Flatts.
http://www.hometracked.com/2008/02/05/auto-tune-abuse-in-pop-music-10-examples/
However, that article is from 2008, and I would imagine the technology is getting more subtle all the time. Yeah, I personally hear it on Musgraves’ songs like “Follow Your Arrow” “Silver Lining,” etc. If you want a specific example, I just happened to notice it recently on the part where she sings the words “bees” and “trees” in the bridge of the latter song: her voice changes notes in a weirdly too-perfect way that’s hard to describe. Either way, I’m not trying to pick on Kacey. From the clips I’ve seen, she’s a good singer who can sing well live.
I think Triggerman is gonna come along and say that I’m missing the point of the article, which is about blatant autotune use for effect, not subtle manipulation.
So I will say this about the use of autotune in Tim McGraw’s new song:
I think it sucks!
January 19, 2014 @ 10:59 am
from that link:
“Outdated: Obvious vocoder-style autotuning is dated, and borders on kitschy. The synthetic warbling vocal sound marks songs as having come from a specific era, the same way gated-reverb on drums instantly places a song in the 1980”²s. Remember: If you make the auto tuner obvious, people will say your song uses “the Cher effect.” Let this be a guideline.”
Six years ago it was being called “outdated” and “kitschy”. And now, over half a decade later here comes country music with Tim leading the way, saying: “our turn now!” It’d be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad. Well, it’s still kinda hilarious I suppose :p ,
January 19, 2014 @ 12:16 am
I think there are degrees of Auto-Tune use and they should be delineated when talking about it and the potential negative connotations of the product. For example, the highest degree of negative connotation would be a singer either singing live or in the studio through a dedicated Auto-Tune filter that corrects the pitch in real time as a matter of habit and during the entirety of the music. Then there are instances when Auto-Tune is used in heavy amounts in the studio for artists who have chronic issues with pitch.
Then it could be used in the studio to correct individual notes here or there in a performance that otherwise is flawless. For example, Taylor Swift does not use Auto-Tune, though there’s many that love to accuse her of it because “she can’t sing”, though of course Auto-Tune would hide that. But Taylor Swift has admitted to “fixing a few things in the studio.” For that high note in one song that she just barely missed, maybe they pull up Auto-Tune and fix it instead of spending more time and money on another take. My guess is that was the intended function of Auto-Tune at its inception, to be a tool for engineers and artists to save time and money when you have a great performance but one or two issues, which even the greatest singer might have, not to wholesale make up for a pitchy singer.
In this instance, I would blame any artist for employing Auto-Tune, and in this limited capacity, I do think that Auto-Tune is used in the majority of studio albums, and justified by the artists and producers as being simply a convenient tool instead of a crutch.
It’s like the breast implant. It was originally designed to be a prosthesis for women who had lost a breast, not as an elective surgical enhancement to fool us into thinking something is what it actually isn’t.
January 19, 2014 @ 12:54 am
I don’t want to start another tiring debate about Taylor Swift, but I do want to point out that the idea of fixing songs in studio includes a wide variety of techniques that have nothing to do with Autotune. At the most basic level, it could simply involve splicing together different takes on a song.
January 19, 2014 @ 7:43 am
Eric, what valid info do you have about Taylor Swift using auto tune?
January 19, 2014 @ 11:09 am
The context of that Taylor Swift comment was when Bob Lefsetz asked her specifically if she used Auto-Tune. Everybody fixes things in the studio. That is what it is there for. I do think Taylor has used Auto-Tune in the studio, but as I also said, I’m not sure that it would be enough to rise to the accusation level of using it as a crutch. Maybe it is, I don’t know. But fixing a note or two is not the type of egregious use of Auto-Tune, either as a vocal effect or a crutch for pitchy singers, that we are talking about here. I think this is an important distinction.
January 19, 2014 @ 8:47 am
I agree with this view. I like things to be as “real” as possible, but the fact of the matter is that a studio recording is a product. It is no different than a movie that requires editing, a poster that contains a photo touched-up in photoshop, or anything else that requires “assembly”.
I am a working bassist (never would’ve guessed by my handle, huh?) and have been in the studio. I can’t tell you how many re-takes I have done recording with a group because one of us just barely missed an accent, or someone fell of time just enough during .05 seconds of the bridge.. these are things that can be fixed within seconds in editing in ProTools and similar software. You hit that Eb a second too late? Drag the wavelength over. It isn’t my preferred method, but like you said – studio time is not cheap, nor is the cost of session players/engineers/producers. I don’t see how reasonable use of pitch correction isn’t the same.
Like I said, I prefer for it to be as authentic as possible.. but even in the 60s, guys found themselves cutting up tape on the studio floor to move things around.
August 5, 2014 @ 7:49 pm
That is all true. But the fact is they use it as standard procedure because Nashville is one giant moneymaking machine. They think that they can assemble recordings like machines and manufacture stars. I am equally angry at the general public for consuming this junk-food vapid crap they churn out.
January 18, 2014 @ 6:24 pm
Even George Strait used auto-tune in Stars on the Water….
January 18, 2014 @ 6:59 pm
Ronn:. ( “The audience not having been in the business outside of listening, has no clue just how off beat, off key and unprofessional modern singers are, they believe it to be the girl or boy onstage who is doing the performance when 90 plus percent of the talent is the computer and the technician running it.” ) – You don’t know how many times I have tried to explain to people that what they are hearing on the radio or seeing on TV has been doctored to the point that the person who did it might not even recognize themselves.
There are the exceptions, however, those people who sing live each day and don’t have any technological assistance to hit the notes or sing on pitch or stay in the key, but I get your point. Where is the music?
I wasn’t going to comment but it’s sort of like ‘if you not gonna pee, then get off the pot.’ If you can’t sing then shut up. (Not you Trigger 🙂 God almighty, everyone thinks they are a singing star these days if they can look sexy enough and scream out a few bars.
If so-called country music would stop recruiting from reality shows and stop calling pop garbage country music and stop demanding that the women who want to sell a song, make sexy videos and men who want to sell a song, stop using slutty women in their videos…………..better yet, stop with the damn videos and see if anyone can actually sell a song these days just by people actually JUST LISTENING. . Bottom line, it all boils down to $$$$$$$$$ and as long as stupid people are willing to be duped into thinking that machine-driven drivel is music, then so be it!! It’s all part of the stench that is our culture these days.
January 19, 2014 @ 9:49 am
Well said Karen.
January 20, 2014 @ 9:07 pm
Actually, the irony is that reality shows like American Idol and The Voice actually do the best job of finding and cultivating vocal talent.
January 20, 2014 @ 9:40 pm
Eric, with all due respect, you seem to be missing an awareness of the talent in the real world outside of the TV tube. (I know that tubes aren’t actually used anymore, but I like the sound of it).
Don’t even get me started on the judges and exploitative methods used on those casting driven reality shows. As a bit of a musician myself, mother of a professional singer/violinist, mother in law of a world class pianist/composer and daughter in law of a singer/guitarist, I know without a doubt that TV shows have nadda squat diddle to do with the development of real vocal talent and professional musicianship.
Developing audience appeal and sex appeal for the TV camera has nothing to do with real vocal abilities. Real solid controlled vocal talent comes with years of hard work and study and levels of performance that most of those people cannot even imagine. People who sing live on stages across the country doing sometimes eleven or twelve shows a week require stamina and voice control and professionalism that a TV show cannot teach.
I’m not saying that some very talented people don’t audition for those reality shows, but it’s not the shows that produce real singers and musicians. Those shows produce products that the market wants to buy.
January 20, 2014 @ 10:31 pm
If those shows are making talented vocalists well-known, then I view them as a net positive.
January 20, 2014 @ 10:36 pm
Depends on ones definition of talent.
January 20, 2014 @ 10:52 pm
And it is wrong to measure the quality of vocal talent by what is produced by TV. There are hundreds of singers out there who are more talented and who make a living singing.
January 20, 2014 @ 11:07 pm
Think about this from the perspective of a struggling vocalist. Would such a person rather remain obscure or attain national recognition? I would think it would be the latter. The most positive aspect of reality singing shows is that they give at least some worthy vocalists a national audience.
January 21, 2014 @ 4:30 am
You haven’t really read my posts have ya? A former contestant on AI, Tom Lowe, is about to become my daughters singing partner. She’s never been on AI but has been told by many that she should. She is very successful and doesn’t need to lower herself to prove that. The usual response by her peers etc is “She is better than AI.” National exposure on TV is not the measure of all musical success.
August 5, 2014 @ 7:54 pm
All that matters in this hollow american “culture” now is MONEY.
They want to sell records and videos and whatever else only and don’t give a crap about music. You will also find that Jews are behind almost all of the money.
January 18, 2014 @ 7:40 pm
It’s funny in a way, I tend to really like vocal screw ups in songs. Like in Flying Burrito Brothers “Christine’s Tune” … the first time I heard that little cough it caught me off guard, but eventually it became something that really made that song “THAT song” to me.
January 19, 2014 @ 8:51 am
I think the human element is appealing. You can hear on some of those older Rolling Stones takes where the band speeds up or slows down just a tad bit.. it shows you it was just a group of guys rocking with the “record” button pressed, no smoke and mirrors.
January 20, 2014 @ 11:13 pm
I can only say AMEN to this comment and the reply! You nailed it. I loved the live recording when Merle Haggard & Bonnie Owens was performing?? I think Philadelpha Lawyer and Bonnie forgot the lyrics, got embarrassed and Merle said, hell, don’t worry about it, they’re human too. (Not a correct quote as it has been near 35 years or so ago, but they didn’t run in to fix it, they didn’t hide it with cover ups, they sold the album just as it was done and I can recall how great everyone thought that concert was because they felt like, these superstars were just people like them, who made mistakes and let it roll.
OKAY, don’t go run and get the album out and come back and tell me how far off I was on the memory of what was actually said. I’m an old Outlaw, I’m legit in making mistakes!!!! ha ha!!!
January 18, 2014 @ 7:43 pm
OK folks set your mental auto-tune to Tony the Tiger …..
THEEEEYY”RREEE FAKE !!!!!
Oh and Ronn let Trig write the columns, lol sheesh.
January 20, 2014 @ 11:15 pm
Do you mind….I’m trying to get a job here! lol, go get’em Trig.
January 18, 2014 @ 7:44 pm
When you consider that the high level douchebag program director types at the large radio conglomerates mostly hate traditional country music and are much more pop culture oriented, it just makes sense Nashville labels would cater to their preferences. The recent success and acceptance of mainstream country rap has opened Pandora’s Box as far as other technologies from the pop music realm are concerned as to being adopted whether they are new or tried and true oldies.
I appreciate those who think they can turn mainstream country music back towards meaningful, melodic music and away from it’s current obsession with mediocrity, but I just don’t see it happening. Once a genre has been absorbed into the realm of mass market pop-culture, the chance of subsequent redemption pretty much goes down a rabbit hole, and Wonderland is not waiting on the other side…
January 18, 2014 @ 8:19 pm
Speaking of innovation (and not Country music related), I saw this article a few days ago and thought the concept sounded interesting (two completely sounding left and right channels that combine into something that sounds good as well):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/nightbus-three-way-stereo_n_4590381.html
Country Innovation? They’ve beaten dirt roads, beer, tractors, (hey) pretty girls, hay bails and partying to death. Maybe this year there will be 20 songs about horses or something?
January 18, 2014 @ 8:51 pm
Phil,
Interesting concept they have there. Although, in my mind, the two versions of the song were too similar to get a full view of what that kind of platform might sound like. I would like to hear something with a Metallica-type vibe on one side and a Kacey Musgraves-type vibe on the other. Now THAT would interest me.
January 18, 2014 @ 9:37 pm
Horses would be an interesting topic, since they carry significant emotional meaning in the country. It could serve as a vehicle for good songwriting. Knowing the modern country music industry, though, I am sure they will find a way to sexualize or materialize horses.
January 18, 2014 @ 8:22 pm
I have spent a lot of time, energy and emotion hating new country music. I’ve despised it with every drop of my being. I’m drained. Country rap, too many truck songs, sluts in videos, shitty singers, shittier songs, now the t-pain effect. Im tired of hoping the bad, bad music goes away. I’ll probably go back to hating it tomorrow, but for today I’ve decided to just ignore this horrible music they call Country. I also don’t like Sushi or tofu, so I just don’t eat those things. I’m just going to focus on all of todays great country music, like Jason Isbell, and ignore the crap I cant stand. At least the nashville TV show has some great country songs, which shows veiwers what a good country song should sound like and I can find a lot of sweet good country music on Spotify and by reading some of Triggers lists. Then I buy the albums I really like, of course, because I love supporting good music.
January 19, 2014 @ 10:34 am
It’s a sad world where you get better music from a fictional show about a music genre, than you get from that genre in the real world.
January 18, 2014 @ 11:09 pm
I don’t like use of autotune to correct pitch because it makes singers sound unnatural and drone-like but using it as a vocal effect is 1,000 times worse. Autotune is the norm in pop but should be banned in country where we have better singers. Why do some country acts feel the need to copy pop? Is pop better? I don’t think so.
January 19, 2014 @ 7:45 am
Yes, Chris if you’re a woman in music, pop is definitely better. Must less judgemental and open to new artists, country tosses out women like yesterdays trash.
January 20, 2014 @ 11:23 pm
I would have to say that traditional or true Country never rejected a good female vocalist or tossed them out. However, speaking on what is presently mis-labeled as Country, they don’t toss them out, they use them like ten dollar street walkers, ho ho ho! sold to the highest video bidder.
August 5, 2014 @ 8:36 pm
Actually, you have it backwards. Auto-tune is used as an EFFECT in pop music but is used on EVERY country recording because they want to churn out moneymakering crap to undiscerning common people – the same people who buy crappy Fords and shop at Almart.
January 18, 2014 @ 11:40 pm
Weird Al Yankovic Explains Autotune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aShimWnbiu4
January 19, 2014 @ 10:30 am
http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/all-clucking-version-of-the-lumineers-ho-hey/n34445/
Would you listen to this and tell me if it’s Auto-Tune? 😀
I turned Top 40/Pop Radio on and every song had some version of Ho Hey in it.
It was bizarre.
January 19, 2014 @ 11:38 am
Been reading for a while first comment just wanted to say this site has helped open my eyes to other artists instead of the same watered down fabricated stuff that’s being played now… I will say I was watching gac this morning and alan Jackson’s blue ridge mountain song was there number 1 on the top twenty, pretty exciting if you ask me
January 19, 2014 @ 1:07 pm
Country and Gospel were using Autotune in recordings and TV way before Cher let the cat out of the bag.
January 20, 2014 @ 7:04 am
Being “in tune” all the time is like blond hair and big boobs…fine at first but if everyone looked that way it gets to be too much…especially on guys.
Here are a few “out of tune” artists I particularly like:
Floyd Tillman (could he even BE Auto-tuned?)
Ernest Tubb
Kris Kristofferson
Bob Dylan
Hoagy Carmichael
Jimmy Rogers
The Carter Family (Some of their recordings are complete tuning disasters)
January 20, 2014 @ 7:59 am
Miss Audrey was always out of tune….
August 5, 2014 @ 7:42 pm
Being in-tune all the time is not the problem. Sounding like a f**ing robot is!!!
January 20, 2014 @ 10:15 am
At least they’ll have a new category for the CMA’s… “Best AutoTune Song of the Year”
January 20, 2014 @ 2:27 pm
Go to a little place like The White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, Texas and see somebody like Tommy Alverson or Gary P. Nunn, just to name a few, lay down the real thing. Will it be “perfect” hell no and if it was it would lose it’s soul. Neither are their studio pjojects. Again, they have soul and charcter. If people will forget about Nashvegas, as far as the industry establishment goes and focus on good solid independent artists of all stripes and support the music they beleive in none of this would matter.
January 22, 2014 @ 5:41 am
When all country music songs are…..autotuned….
….Then country music has my permission to die!!!!
August 5, 2014 @ 7:40 pm
Auto-tune is disgusting. I can tell the millisecond it kicks in and I always just cringe.
I find it particularly insulting that the producers think that if they use just a little bit then we won’t be able to tell. Only idiots with tin ears can’t hear it. They could dial it down to 1% and I would still hear this obnoxious effect. It reminds me of the cartoonish bad CG effects that Hollywood thinks is so great.