Music: The Rise of Auto-Tune

So, I wanted my first post to be about music. Since discussing the entire medium as a whole would take hours upon hours of research and writing, I decided to narrow this week’s topic down to something more specific: Auto-Tune

Here’s some background info:

A software designer at Exxon created a program that could monitor seismic waves. Sound waves would be shot into the ground, and the program would read the sound file, and could detect oil. The program’s creator, Andy Hildebrand, found that it could be used to alter pitch. Having taken music courses, he directed his software more appropriately for musical use.

The original intent of the software was to make quick, last minute corrections to the pitch of a singer, without having to record the verse a second time. It’s still used that way today in many genres, and is almost completely unnoticeable in most cases. This was very helpful, as albums began to sound ‘cleaner’ with respect to the vocal tracks. Many argued that although it was more pleasing to the ears, the vocals began to lose authenticity with the induction of post production.

Artists and studio producers discovered that if they ‘turned up’ auto-tune, they could create an electronic-sounding filter on the singer’s voice. Cher’s “Believe” was the first popular song that used this effect. However, Cher was not the one to popularize it. T-Pain is notorious for his over use of auto-tune. It made him stand out among other rappers, and gave his songs a different feel. Since then, its use (and overuse) has been prevalent in popular music.

So why do artists turn up auto-tune today? Well, there are a couple of reasons. Some artists believe that the use of auto-tune gives their music more flavor. It helps the lyrics and music flow better, which is good for catchy-popular music. Auto-Tune also sounds better on an electronic or synthesized track. Rappers can get away with not using auto-tune, as they usually don’t actually sing. R&B artists, on the other hand, use auto-tune to make their lyrics mix better with the music.

The most obvious reason that an artist would choose to use auto-tune is simply because that artist may not be able to sing in pitch or key. Instead of using other methods of tone correction, an artist will just use the distortion to mask his or her inadequate singing.

That’s auto-tune in a nutshell. Its use has exploded over the past decade, and many of the songs on  the Billboard Top 10 use the effect over the entire vocal track. While it may be considered overused, auto-tune is something popular musicians are utilizing universally, and isn’t going away any time soon.

-Mike

Hello

I had a difficult time coming up with a name for this blog. I considered calling it The Media in Review. Then I realized that people would read my blog expecting me to actually review music or movies or whatever. They would get angry, leave and no one would actually read my blog. I would be left alone to talk to myself for the entire lifespan of my blogging career...

Anyway; this page has nothing to do with me actually reviewing certain pieces of media. Rather, I will be reviewing and discussing an entire medium (movies, music, television, etc.) as a whole. I will pay closer attention to what makes something successful and what makes something good, as the two don’t always mix. This will require two things on my part, comprehensive research, and a somewhat educated opinion on everything that I'm talking about.

This blog will have a dual nature. Half of my posts will be an objective analysis of each medium. I'll try to explain why some things are popular, and why some things aren't. I'll also talk about who controls what becomes popular and what doesn't. The other half will be my opinion on the current state of each medium in pop-culture. I'll try to avoid ranting as much as possible when writing these posts. I'll also try to keep my opinion as informed as possible. I’m going to keep my opinions out of my objective writing for the most part. I may interject and include my personal feelings on a subject where it fits, but nothing much than that. Like I said above, writing something like this will require a lot of source material and a lot of planning, but it’s going to be something that I enjoy writing about, as our lives revolve around this stuff.

I will be making a major updates to the blog at least once a week. I may write shorter, sporadic posts, but I'll make sure to have big updates frequently. I will cover the following topics as they seem the most relevant nowadays:  
-Movies
-Music
-Television
-Technology
-The Media (News)

Two posts for each subject. One will be an objective view; the other, not so much.

I won't be talking about anything specific today, but all of my posts will be as informative and comprehensive as possible. My first major post should be up within a week.

-Mike