Kanye West: autotune supporter
I’m not sure where it started, but autotune has become prominent in mainstream r&b and hip-hop over the past few years. Now it’s making the transition into pop. Kanye West, the ex-rapper-cum-pop-singer, has used autotune on every single track of his new soul-pop album, 808′s and Heartbreak, and sung praises for the technique (which, if you aren’t familiar with it, basically automatically tunes a singer’s voice to a certain pitch, and – when used repeatedly and at different pitches – can create a “glitchy,” schizophrenic effect).
T-Pain and Lil’ Wayne seem to have really championed the effect, and I guess it rubbed off on Kanye when he collaborated with Weezy on songs over the past few years.
I admire West’s admbitions and attempt to “move on” from one style of music to another, but his attachment to autotune seems almost childish, like a kid becoming obsessed with the latest fad. I wouldn’t be surprised if his next album altogether drops the auto-tuning in favour of traditional songwriting.
My problem with autotune isn’t necessarily that it is annoying, or over-used, but that it can ruin the singer’s directness. Imagine if Bob Dylan or Neil Young had used auto-pitch vocal correctors on their early albums – if, in the middle of Idiot Wind, Dylan decided to scoot his vocals up a few pitches to match some of the higher-pitched instruments. Part of music is that rawness and openness and feeling of exposure – the artist is opening up to the listener and revealing their true feelings. Sometimes that can create a very moving experience. One of the worst and best examples of this is on Neil Young’s Mellow My Mind: that part towards the end of the song where his voice is awful and completely out of tune… and yet it’s overwhelmingly emotional because it sounds like he’s struggling, in pain, and just singing his heart out.
I’m not going to pretend rap, hip-hop or pop of today’s age should adhere to folk or rock methods – my only point is, sometimes the frailty of the singer and their imperfections heightens the impact of their songwriting. The occasional auto-tune effect can create an exciting experience, but when it’s used on every single track, it becomes tiresome and feels artificial and manipulative. Kanye West, as a rapper, has never been too perfect; as a singer, he’s even worse. But it’s his zeal and ambitions and imperfections that made me like him and his music – from College Drop Out to Graduation, he’s made fresh, exciting music, and his vocals have never been used as a selling point. It’s the quality of the songs that spoke to us.
I’ve heard all of 808′s and Heartbreak and, at least on first listen, I think it’s his worst album. The constant auto-tuning isn’t the only thing wrong with it, but it simply feels rushed and lazy. One gets the impression that he’s like a kid on Christmas who’s just opened a new toy and plays with it for hours and shows all his friends, then a week later it’s sitting in his room gathering dust because the new must-have toy is out. (I guess in today’s age it’s videogames, not toys, right?)
Lil’ Wayne’s Dedication 3 mixtape leaked yesterday, too. It is also saturated with autotune, to the point of hilarity; I’m pretty sure even on some of the dialogue tracks, Weezy is using auto-tune on his spoken words. Here’s hoping this trend dies swiftly.
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