Auto-Tune defined by dictionary.com states the meaning as such: (n) a software package that automatically manipulates a recording of a vocal track until it is in tune regardless of whether or not the original performance was in tune.
Taken from antarestech.com in 1997, Antares Audio Technologies (founded in 1990 as Jupiter Systems by Dr. Harold Hildebrand) moved into the hardware DSP effects processor market with the ATR-1, a rack-mount version of Auto-Tune. Antares incorporated in May 1998 and in January 1999 they acquired Cameo International who was their former distributor. Later in 1999, Antares once again created a new product category with the Antares Microphone Modeler, which is a plug-in that allows any reasonable quality microphone to sound like a vast selection of other more complex microphones.
Many artists in today’s pop culture rely heavily on Antares’s digital phenomenon. According to hiphopmusic.com, Auto-Tune was initially used discreetly to smooth over wrong notes but Cher first used the effect in 1998 as an instrument rather then as a corrective lens in her single, “Believe,” which reached the 74th spot of the list on VH1’s, 100 Greatest Songs of the 90’s. This song catapulted the popularity of Auto-Tune and in today’s pop world a vast majority of artists has moulded Auto-Tune as a generic sound. Most notably, Faheem Rasheed Najm, or otherwise known as T-Pain who single-handedly revolutionized the use of Auto-Tune in the hip-hop genre by winning two separate Grammy awards for both singles “The Good Life” with Kanye West and also “Blame It” with Jamie Foxx. As more and more artists continue to use the software, Cher and T-Pain could both go down as the grandparents of Auto-Tune; with special consideration to the ever-controversial artist, Kanye West.
But not only has Auto-Tune impacted the music industry for better or for worse, upon releasing the software to the general public, people everywhere Auto-Tuned everything and anything on the internet. Youtube.com has hundreds of thousands of videos dedicated to parodies and wanna-bes broadcasting their creativity and morphing older videos into musical mock-ups. According to networkworld.com in 2010, over 700 billion videos were viewed on youtube.com and more then 13 million hours of video were uploaded to the multi-media juggernaut (just to give you a rough idea of how powerful the internet can be to broadcast yourself).
Auto-Tune the News takes serious interviews and news pieces from around the world and masks the Auto-Tune feature over the voices and adds music to the background to create a much different tone then what the original content was originally intended.
Other youtube.com users such as SherrieLeaLaird take popular viral videos to make a new viral video using Auto-Tune such as SherrieLeaLaird’s Auto-Tuned take on Antoine Dodson.
Auto-Tune’s ability to turn anyone into an overnight songbird couldn’t be more evident then a video on youtube.com of a homely woman singing in “a-capella” about her favourite alcoholic beverage in contorting tones and pitches and then when later replayed in Auto-Tune and laying a music track beneath the song, the woman sings a catchy jingle.
Perhaps its reasons such as this that turns people off from Auto-Tune and why some people give zero respect to artists who use it such as Kesha who not only uses Auto-tune in her international hits such as “Tik-Tok,” but also sings in speech which may have also catapulted a new genre of pop music style. Collegehumor.com best explains her style with their musical parody “Sing-Talk.”
Further-still, T-Pain may have tarnished the music fad by allowing SonicMule Inc. to use his name in their iPhone application created in 2010, I Am T-Pain. According to americanconsumernews.com I Am T-Pain users have created almost 35 million Auto-Tuned recordings, the application has made Apple’s Top 300 iPad/iPod application list and I Am T-Pain has been featured on TV shows such as The Ellen Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. At US$2.99 per download, T-Pain cashed in and permanently scorched his name into Auto-Tune history.
Rap super-star, Jay-Z released a track that was intended to ruin and crushthe use of Auto-Tune under the title, “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune),” but according to crunchgear.com Anteras admitted that there was a boost in Auto-Tune sales in the weeks following the release of the song. The article goes on to explain that D.O.A. was ironically produced by Kanye West, an artist who certainly uses the gimmick in his own music.
No comments:
Post a Comment