Auto-tune is an audio processor created in 1997 by Antares Audio Technologies used to alter pitch in audio and instrumental music recording by disguising off-key inaccuracies artists make.

This audio processor has made it easier for artists to succeed in the music industry, but the use of auto-tune is masking terrible singers dependent on technology rather than real talent.

The initial use of auto-tune in mainstream began in 1998 with Cher’s release of her song “Believe,” which was the first major success of auto-tune.

Cher’s producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling discovered cranking the auto-tune processor to its highest settings created a distinct robotic tone many mainstream artists have adopted into their music today.

Some artists that have auto-tuned themselves include The Black Eyed Peas, Lil Wayne, Miley Cyrus and Fall Out Boy.

I was initially introduced to auto-tune in my high school years with the release of T-Pain’s first hit single “I’m Sprung.”

Being the naïve high school student I was, I really enjoyed auto-tuned music until I found out what it really was.

I got curious about what these artists sounded like without it and needless to say I didn’t like what I found.

I have likened this experience to nails scraping across a chalkboard or the sound of an 18-car pile-up on I-5.

What’s to stop me from hiring a hit producer and auto-tuning my voice in order to make a name for myself? Nothing, and it is this easy accessibility that is diluting much of the music industry with trash.

These artists are banking off the use of a machine, as opposed to other artists that have worked their way up from the bottom by the use of their natural talent.

Take an auto-tuned artist like Ke$ha, who is making a name for herself despite admitting she uses auto-tune in her music.

I have looked up several of her performances online, and she sounds horrible without the use of auto-tune, yet her music is selling out stadiums and arenas and doing great with record sales. I just don’t understand it.

Compare her to artists that sound incredible during their live performances.

Two bands that achieve this are Incubus and Linkin Park. Both bands have taken their live performances above and beyond the quality of studio releases. Coincidentally they co-headlined the same performance I attended.

It is that sort of performance quality and talent the music industry is lacking today, and something we desperately need to return to.

Auto-tuned artists need to be put on a reality television singing show and picked apart by a panel of judges for the mediocre performers they really are.

Now that is something I would enjoy watching.

When I listen to music, I want to hear a performer’s real voice and not some computer turning his or her terrible voice into something I supposedly want to hear.

I see no reason in paying more than $100 for tickets to listen to an artist’s voice filtered to the point of sounding robotic.

And though there are fewer artists using auto-tune than before, and to some degree that is a good thing, but there are still many artists who are profiting.

Something needs to be done about these artists, because the quality of their music is laughable.

Until then, I’ll patiently wait for the inevitable death of auto-tune.

 

Chris can be reached at: [email protected]