Autotune – The History of the Music Industry Marmite

T Pain – Pioneer of the ‘autotune’ vocal sound

So it’s already a given; like the controversial bread spread, you either love Autotune or you hate it, and if you sit on the ‘love it’ side of the fence, then you will probably agree that there are only a few artists that you tolerate it on. But what is perhaps more interesting  is the reason why Autotune has such a negative representation. After all, it’s only a plugin right?

It all began with a group of music producers coining the ‘It is a way for poor vocalists to sounds half decent’ attitude, which caused a lot of stir, as artists started adopting this opinion from their producers, and passing it on to their fans, until of course it became such a widely known topic that the mainstream press started to formulate their opinions; often siding with the negative attitude.

While many vocalists have used Autotune to mask their bum notes and less than great vocal tone, it has caused a significant problem for the good singers who actually sound great with Autotune. T Pain and Akon, two of the pioneers of the Autotune vocal sound receive a great amount of negative feedback simply on the basis that they use Autotune - ‘therefore they must be awful singers’, but both T Pain and Akon have proved to fans their incredible vocal abilities without Autotune during live performances and studio videos on Youtube, they simply prefer their vocals with Autotune.

Now, while I am happy with some of the industries protests such as Jay Z’s – Death of Autotune song, I think it is a shame how black and white the argument has become, ultimately Autotune is not all that dissimilar to other vocal enhancement plugins such as reverb and compression, which are universally accepted by producers and musicians alike, It’s just that Autotune is more obvious, and noticeable because it affects the vocal tone directly.

The statistics are certainly in place to suggest that although music fans will shake their heads with the media journalists, Autotune on well sung vocals is a sound that many people enjoy and prefer, so why should we compromise our music fans listening experience due to a chip on the music industries shoulder?

Hopefully, this article has contributed to the grey area on the debate, and if you were previously an altogether Autotune-hater, you may now have some added respect for the genuinely talented singers who use the effect.

Tags:Autotune, autotune debate, music industry marmite