Lately, while watching live performances on television, I've noticed something that really disturbs me. I'm seeing more and more singers using AutoTune during their live performances! Is it just me or is this a load of BS. I know that a lot of "artists" like Brittany Spears and Madonna use it in the studio and that's bad enough but when everybody starts using it in concert then, really, what's the point? You may as well put ME up there. All you have to do is remember the lyrics, look pretty and dance around a little. I'm PISSED at this trend. Watch and listen carefully the next time you see a live act on TV. The incidence of this is growing exponentially.

What is AutoTune ?

That was a place in 80's NYS where you would take your car to have your carberator adjusted. I'm serious!! But seriously it is a device tthat brings vocals to a correct pitch before leaving the soundboard.

I say ..just let the car break down and let's see if Geico is for real...only kidding folks ...they are no good dumbasses as well. Eyes on a stack of money staring and ......are you shitting me??? and I was to feel safe? Actually Geico needs to be destroyed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-09-25 21:50 by Chris Fountain.

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More Hot Rocks
But seriously it is a device tthat brings vocals to a correct pitch before leaving the soundboard.

Ever hear that isolated backing vocal of Linda McCartney onstage during "Hey Jude?"







She died too soon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-09-26 07:34 by loog droog.

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Duane in Houston
Lately, while watching live performances on television, I've noticed something that really disturbs me. I'm seeing more and more singers using AutoTune during their live performances! Is it just me or is this a load of BS. I know that a lot of "artists" like Brittany Spears and Madonna use it in the studio and that's bad enough but when everybody starts using it in concert then, really, what's the point? You may as well put ME up there. All you have to do is remember the lyrics, look pretty and dance around a little. I'm PISSED at this trend. Watch and listen carefully the next time you see a live act on TV. The incidence of this is growing exponentially.

you dont have to know the lyrics because everybody uses teleprompters

Does this explain how non-singers seem to be singing reasonably well in film roles? Suddenly everyone can sing!

I thought the thread was going to talk about the singing along at the shows. It is getting ridiculous IMO. It has to feel good for a singer to have 75,000 people know his songs, and sing them along with him. But it's gotten to where it is the entire show. And what if the band was going to go off into a differebt direction.

How do you spot it then? How can you tell that it is being used?

I think I've bust a button on my trousers....

I think another bad trend is how show length is going down...

Some bands now feel like playing an hour is enough...

Another one is the skyrocketing cost of tickets. $250 - $350 for floor seats? C'mon.

The greatness of live music is over outside of the new bands in tiny clubs.

Too many bright lights! Whatever happened to nice and dark shows? Now, you can see the person furthest away from you.

Be kind to the fans with dialated pupils.

Oh, and another one... people who want to sit during rock shows. C'mon. Get up and boogie.

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skelly
How do you spot it then? How can you tell that it is being used?

You can hear it! It's that wierd, metallic, computerzed robot-voice thing exemplified on Cher's song "Do You Believe In Life After Love (anyway, I think that's the right Cher song) or was it the one where she's singing on the aircraft carrier.

autotune is a gimmick. the latest trend in music. give it a year or two and it'll go away.

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goinhome
C'mon. Get up and boogie.

Wow. I don't think I've heard that since...1973.

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loog droog

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goinhome
C'mon. Get up and boogie.

Wow. I don't think I've heard that since...1973.

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&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param

OK.

But in a rock context?

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ghostryder13

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loog droog

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goinhome
C'mon. Get up and boogie.

Wow. I don't think I've heard that since...1973.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="

&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param

count me in

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@#$%&
autotune is a gimmick. the latest trend in music. give it a year or two and it'll go away.

I don't agree; it will become more prevalent. Bad thing. gree with all suggestions. I was watching an ACDC show and saw that omnipresent perfect aisle in between the two seating sections; all spic and span. Just hated it.
Plus I used to olove the stages drenched in red or puple light. Now they always add so much white spots, jst to facilitate filming, TV, nosebleeders,Leavells, and insurance agents.

of course the #1 "disturbing trend" is cell phones....for calling friends,
for taking pictures & video, for holding (like a lighter) for encores etc.. etc..

others:

power hungry security guards

people that attend shows just to "be seen" (& don't know the music)

women that dress like groupies..and actually think they have a shot at meeting the band.

men that dress like the band and think they have a shot w/pretend groupies.

over dependence on tele-prompters by lead singers.

when "rock stars" wear tattered clothes as a COSTUME and not because
it was the only clean clothes on the tour bus.

reality is too close to the Spinal Tap movie.


IORR............but I like it!

AutoTune is to singing what photoshopping is to photography. That way, things can be polished and treated until they're unreal, until the rawness is gone, until they are surreal.

The Cher song "Believe" that has been mentioned above, came out back in 1998. AutoTune hasn't disappeared since then. It leaves artifacts when not properly applied. On that song, it was unproperly applied on purpose, like on many songs since then, especially hip hop songs.

But glossing over raw vocals with this pitch correction device is reportedly pretty common these days. Strange days indeed when the music business is more interested in homogenizing vocals instead of finding and nurturing the careers of singers with unique voices. Where are the Jagger, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, John Hiatt, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Barry White, Cee-Lo Green of the near future?

I don't watch much TV anymore, but this summer, I got the impression that AutoTune is being used now on the voices of commentators in TV documentaries of the so-called docu-tainment genre - in an attempt to stir up more emotions in the TV spectators. But isn't that opposed to the goal of a documentary, which is meant to present information - food for thought - instead of the next thrill, like movies would do for example?

Are cellphones with AutoTune the next big thing?

Hip hop isn't music. Kanye West is hip hop. Asperger's at its ugliest, is Kanye.

"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

Thanks for this post and info Duane in Houston!

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sdstonesguy
The greatness of live music is over outside of the new bands in tiny clubs.

Absolutely. Also true for older bands and artists who haven't become so commodified that they can't take risks on stage or in the studio.

Last Friday I saw Krs-1, and on Sunday saw Chain and the Gang (who "Stoned in Washington DC" might know) the first with a crowd of maybe 500 and the second audience of like 200, and both were completely electrifying shows -- both krs 1 and Ian Svenonius (from Chain & the Gang) have been actively creating and performing since the late '80s/early '90s.

In both cases, the sh|t was coming into being on stage, in front of our eyes and ears, unexpected fun poignant delightful weird hilarious aweonspiring inspirational things happening on stage, and therefore in the crowd, making something that had never been before, and would never quite be again.

And that includes wrinkles and bumps and imperfections and mishaps that turn into brilliance.

Example: Middle of the show mic goes out for krs 1, so he starts freestyling literally not missing a beat, in front of our eyes like weaving straw into gold, explaining to the sound guys what went wrong, which mic is out, then continuing to give a second by second soundcheck, all undaunted, in rhyme, simultaneously interacting with the audience, telling them not to worry he'd return to the song he was foing, addressing the skepticism of someone near the front (who sure as hell never have imagined krs would be making up a rhyme about him).

Example: Ian Svenonius has a few songs where he's singing/telling a story as a lead in. And he weaves into the story local details, not in some contrived fashion, like plugging in the name of our town, but actual observations, wonderings, and occurrences.

Example: Bo Diddley in 1988, ina club on 400 people. Someone yelled something to him about a moose (this was in Maine) during "Hey Bo Diddley." He made a face, and then stopped and said "Whatchoo on about? A moose? A moose??? and broke into a spontaneous song where he say "Everybody loves my moose -- cuz he's mangy!!" and he and the band and then the crowd are all shouting "The mangy moose! The mangy moose!"

I'd not heard about auto-tune -- completely horrified, and also weirdly amused.

I guess there will always be a struggle between spontaneity, unpredictability, authenticity, the brilliantly sparkling light that is creativity, versus the very human urge to control, make predictable and safe, be "perfect," and ultimately to deaden.

I choose the former.

This may be harsh, but to me, the people who use auto-tune have gone to the crossroads in a big way...consigning any creativity they may have to an early grave.

To me it comes down to what Dilated Peoples said many years ago:

Are you in it with the heart or
Are you in it for the funds?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2009-09-26 22:07 by swiss.

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billwebster
AutoTune is to singing what photoshopping is to photography. That way, things can be polished and treated until they're unreal, until the rawness is gone, until they are surreal.

The Cher song "Believe" that has been mentioned above, came out back in 1998. AutoTune hasn't disappeared since then. It leaves artifacts when not properly applied. On that song, it was unproperly applied on purpose, like on many songs since then, especially hip hop songs.

But glossing over raw vocals with this pitch correction device is reportedly pretty common these days. Strange days indeed when the music business is more interested in homogenizing vocals instead of finding and nurturing the careers of singers with unique voices. Where are the Jagger, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, John Hiatt, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Barry White, Cee-Lo Green of the near future?

I don't watch much TV anymore, but this summer, I got the impression that AutoTune is being used now on the voices of commentators in TV documentaries of the so-called docu-tainment genre - in an attempt to stir up more emotions in the TV spectators. But isn't that opposed to the goal of a documentary, which is meant to present information - food for thought - instead of the next thrill, like movies would do for example?

Are cellphones with AutoTune the next big thing?

Awesome post -- great points, love the photoshop analogy. Man, I hope you're wrong about documentary narrators, but you're probably right.

All of the above is about commerce. It's like the brilliant formula that launched and sustains McDonald's (etc). Based on people's desire to always know what their next hamburger will taste like. It's not about the best hamburger, or a yummy hamburger, it's about the hamburger always tasting the same. Many people will pay for the comfort of not being surprised. Missing the opportunity of popping into Beck's diner and having their uniquely fabulous juicy burger.

Commerce at a grand scale is very cynical, predicated on the belief that squashing out any uniqueness or spontaneity will translate to predictable revenue. And it's true: it does. I live in a city without any chains in our downtown (except Duncan Donuts and Starbucks), and visitors who come here don't always know that when they arrive, and they must go to any of the many [many many] superb local establishments--and are inevitably enchanted.

To be completely fair, thank goodness, humanity, creativity, and spontaneity can never be fulled flattened. Even in a McDonald's experience or some massive concert with klieg lights you'll get some teeny glimpse of something real happening.

Question...many people my age don't go to shows. And when they do they are the giant productions. And I don't know whether that's because it's easiest to access? or the bands that have huge sterile concerts just happen to be bands/artists that were most popular when they were young? Or it's not acceptable among their peers to go to anything other than a giant show? like seen as weird to go to, say, ramblin Jack Elliott in a theatre of 100 people? or that many people don't really like music (or maybe don't need music or creativity) that much anyway? I don't go to the big shows because they don't do anything for me (and sometimes little shows suck too -- like Lou reed in a club of 300 in 2001 was one of the worst live music experiences of my life -- and plenty of smaller bands suck and put on crap shows).

Also...are there any exceptions people can think of? I don't want to be an cranky person saying no one should enjoy a Big Mac now and again (they can be pretty tasty). Any giant shows with really memorable moments? (I would bet many here would have wonderful stories of Stones shows!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-09-26 22:35 by swiss.

Can someone please answer my question? Is Autotune the way that actors in films are suddenly doing musicals, and snging very well?

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Bliss
Can someone please answer my question? Is Autotune the way that actors in films are suddenly doing musicals, and snging very well?

bliss, just so you know, I tried to find anything specific on this trend re: actors/actresses but didn't find anything.

- swiss

Well, take Sweeney Todd. Top actors not known for any singing experience are suddenly singing their hearts out: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Sasha Baron-Cohen. Depp in particular is great! But it's obvious that the two young actors who play the sailor and Toby are singers as well as actors.

So is it due to this machine? Can I too put out an album?

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Bliss
Well, take Sweeney Todd. Top actors not known for any singing experience are suddenly singing their hearts out: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Alan Rickman, Sasha Baron-Cohen. Depp in particular is great! But it's obvious that the two young actors who play the sailor and Toby are singers as well as actors.

So is it due to this machine? Can I too put out an album?

Most probably, yes. The recent film Mama Mia comes to mind. But that doesn't bother me too much. Hell, in the old days they would just sync a real singer's voice into the soundtrack. I just think that if you're a professional singer and people are paying good money to see you perform then they should get to hear if that person can really sing or not. Hell, true pros from days gone by like Elton John, Bruce Springsteen or Roger Daltry wouldn't even consider doing something like this (at least I hope not). They just let r rip and it is what it is, or play the song in a lower key. The only thing worse would be to just lip sync the whole show and hope nobody notices or cares. What's next? Guitar plyers using those PlayStation guitars with 4 different colored buttons?!?!