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Cranking up a 30-second preview of Omarion’s new single “I Get In,” on iTunes, I leaned back and listened to the distorted voice of the R&B star. Not Omarion too, I sighed in disappointment as I continued my search for higher quality music. This recent experience has only fueled my opposition to the new auto-tune bandwagon jumped on by a multitude of singers, ranging from Britney Spears to Kanye West. Auto-tune is an audio processor that disguises off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, allowing singers to disguise their incapabilities through perfectly tuned vocal tracks.
In other words, it is a shortcut to fame in the music industry and is also tainting the music that I love. It allows untalented artists to obtain credit they do not deserve.
I admit that the first time I listened to auto-tune music, I thought it was intriguing. I filled my iPod with T-Pain, perhaps the most notorious auto-tune user, as he revived the auto-tune trend of the late 1990s in the mid-2000s. When renowned rappers Lil Wayne and Kanye West began adopting this device last year, I bought their albums, Tha Carter III and 808s and Heartbreaks, and enjoyed how the auto-tune mixed with the rappers’ entertaining wordplay and well-crafted lyrics. As more and more music artists started using auto-tune, I believed that music was transformed, and for the better. In addition to Lil Wayne and Kanye, other artists such as Trey Songz, Jamie Foxx, the Black-Eyed Peas, Marques Houston and even the vocally skilled Mariah Carey used it. These artists are all talented so I was fine with their use of it; as a matter of fact, I even believed that the auto-tune legitimately enhanced their voices and music.
I continued blindly listening to these songs until my perspective was completely changed a couple months ago when I downloaded and listened to “Birthday Sex,” by Jeremih. It was perhaps the most atrocious piece of crap that I have ever heard in my entire life. Not only did the song contain obscene lyrics, but was also completely butchered by auto-tune. “Birthday Sex,” unlike other previous auto-tuned songs I listened to, came from a poor excuse for a music artist. It only took one amateur who abused the tool of auto-tune as a crutch to completely change my mind.
This experience left an irritating note in my ears. I began to realize the phoniness of auto-tune. Although I attempted to give it a second chance by listening to my old songs, nothing got that “Birthday Sex” experience out of my mind. As I deleted all the auto-tune infected songs on my iPod, I also researched auto-tune and realized that anybody, especially people who lack musical talent, can take advantage of the device and “cheat” their way to stardom.
Coincidentally, Jay-Z’s new album, The Blueprint 3, came out during this time. On this album, there was a specific track called “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” where Jay-Z elaborates that far too many people have jumped on the auto-tune bandwagon and that the trend has become a gimmick. Jay-Z, the greatest rapper alive, taking a lone stand against auto-tune was a dream come true for me. Although the song itself hasn’t prevented auto-tune from dominating the radio, let alone the music industry, I know that with a talented artist I respect, I’m in good company. Now every time I listen to a song tainted with auto-tune, I merely cringe and switch to a different station, searching for authenticity. |
