The Great Auto-Tune Debate

I may not be a huge follower of pop but I know a bandwagon when I see one and it’s been hard not to notice the increasing grip of Auto-Tune on the charts. Even Bon Iver has got in on the act recently with Woods on his Blood Bank EP.

I won’t claim to be any expert on the subject, this article from the New Yorker sums up the debate better than most, however, I do share the writers sentiment that it’s the imperfections in music that make the whole experience worthwhile. It’s hard to imagine the fragility of Joni Mitchell or Fleet Foxes being served any great favours after their vocals have been pumped through a magic synthesiser. At a base level, the whole process carries a distinct undertone of laziness, whereby an artist can clock off early instead of putting in a couple of extra hours at the studio.

Of course, alt-rock isn’t really the natural arena for Auto-Tune, you’re more likely to hear the technique on ‘Believe’ by Cher, ‘Lollipop’ by Lil Wayne or any track with T-Pain featuring. Still though, the sight of Kanye West freewheeling through ‘Heartless’ on American Idol does seem to fly even in the face of a manufactured pop show, where talent is supposedly judged on a candidates vocal performance rather than simply their showmanship.

Either way, I don’t think Aretha is going to be looking over her shoulder in panic anytime soon. The most likely outcome of this phenomenon is that it’s going to seem pretty dated pretty quickly. Kudos though, goes to T Pain for realising the inherent ridiculousness of this mini-genre and self-parodying himself to perfection with The Lonely Islands’ ‘I’m On A Boat’. It takes some serious balls to utter with a straight face, “Never thought I'd see the day / When a big boat comin my way / Believe me when I say, I fucked a mermaid.”