Watching Ellen Degeneres introduce the magic of an auto-tuned microphone to her audience made me curious. Where did this talent-providing tool come from? How did it become so mainstream? Why is T-Pain the first artist to make a career out of this vocal game genie? Will pop acts please stop using it (cough Kanye cough)?
Here’s an unofficial timeline of the computerized vocalizer that is invading mainstream music:
- 1970: The musical vocoder AKA “talking synthesizer” was invented by Wendy Carlos and Robert Moog and was featured on songs from the Clockwork Orange soundtrack
- 1970’s - 80’s: Vocoder is used as a special effect in many songs, most of which have a robot (Mr. Roboto) or futuristic theme. The effect is never a dominant aspect of a song (good!)
- 1996: 2pac’s ‘California Love‘ tops the charts and features a vocoded robot on the hook
- 1997: Auto-Tune is released and uses a type of vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances (translation: it makes your shitty voice sound on key with a slight computerized sound)
- 1998: Producers use Auto-Tune to frighten the world with Cher’s new sound in her hit single ‘Believe‘
- 1999 - 2004: Producers everywhere take note and use Auto-Tune to craft catchier hooks and improve lackluster vocals. See KCi & JoJo (’Crazy’), Daft Punk (’One More Time’), Madonna (lots), Britney Spears (ha!), Eiffel 65 (’Blue’), let me know more that come to mind…
- 2005: T-Pain releases his first single, ‘I’m Sprung‘, which features close to zero non-Auto-Tuned vocals. T-Pain releases his second single, ‘I’m In Luv With A Stripper‘, which showcases his lyricism, but still not his real voice
- Present: Actual talent is being squeezed out of mainstream radio, one Auto-Tuned song at a time. After the jump are a few samples.
Kanye West’s new track “Love Lockdown”:
Cher’s “Believe”:
Daft Punk’s “One More Time”:
Lil Wayne on the hook for Game’s track “My Life”:
Kci and JoJo’s “Crazy”:
Chris Brown’s “Forever”:
T-Pain’s “I’m Sprung”:
Snoop Dogg’s “Sexual Seduction”:
Check out T-Pain’s sense of humor about his secret to success.
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Not to forget Brian Eno’s “And Then So Clear”, 2005.
[...] -The awful “robot” effect in music…presented in timeline form -A nice collection of news bloopers (video) -Derek Jeter is totally fucking Minka Kelly -Introducing your parents to your ladyfriend can be awkward (funny video) -Danielle Bux should be told that her bikini is see through [...]
Also let’s not forget Imogen Heap’s Hide and Seek as heard on the The O.C. (although technically that’s a Digitech Vocalist).
@Darwin: I think the main vocal melody remains unmolested in that song… it is only the backing vocals that are Digiteched.
There are many more songs with more subtly pitch-corrected vocals. These examples use very fast settings to create an effect (that I tend to dislike as well). But careful use of a pitch corrector produces results that fixes ‘off’ vocals in a way that most people can’t hear distinctly. It’s like photo retouching for audio. It removes imperfections, and hence some humanity, but it’s here to stay.
Maybe after technology turns everyone into a artificial star, people will tire of it all, and a new cultural revolution of flesh, blood, grit and honesty will take hold.
I can dream.
WTF I agree that the vocoder sound is annoying and taking over the radio but WTF you put daft punk on there? Yes they use it but its completely different daft punk does not sing does not try to and is actually a fucking amazing band. I demand a retraction! and doode the robot helmets cmon!
Don’t forget about Zapp & Roger’s “Computer Love” and “I Want To Be Your Man.” R&B classics.
Daft Punk shouldn’t be included in this list. Electronic music is their style, they aren’t using it for some cheap pop effect.
“Actual talent is being squeezed out of mainstream radio, one Auto-Tuned song at a time.”
…a little melodramatic, don’t you think? You can (and many people did) say the same thing about the sequencer, the sampler or the drum machine. For that matter, I’m sure if you go back a few decades you’d find some editorial complaining that the electric guitar was pushing real musical craftsmanship aside in the pursuit of volume.
Music is fashion. An effect like this either gets worn by overuse and goes out of style (so in ten years you’ll be able to pick out a late 00’s song by its overly-autotuned vocals), or it finds lasting appeal and becomes a genre of its own. Either way, you don’t need to worry about it “ruining music”.
The Mae Shi use overuse auto-tune kinda as a joke on the track - Young Marks.
2pac song is not vocoder, it is a talk box.
FAIL is right. Talk Box, Vocoder and autotune are three way different effects…
Don’t forget that’s it’s not really taking over/ruining music. This article is complete crap.
Vocoder does actually feature in a prominent role on Herbie Hancocks strange 70’s album ‘Sunlight’. If you want to hear what a truly gifted musician can do with a vocoder, listen to this album.
All country and pop music today uses this technology. It’s use has been widespread for a few years now.
Heh, that Lil Wayne song sounds like Stephen Hawking is doing the backing vocals.
Yes, Daft Punk should not be on this list. They’re actually pretending to be robots.
Zapp & Roger did some songs with vocoder that actually sound great.
And two more words: The Framptone.
Are you on drugs how could you forget roger troutman of Zapp fame. for his legendary contribution to music with songs like computer love.
[...] Blame Cher! Timeline of the Robot Effect That’s Ruining Music- Yep Yep [...]
T-Pain and everyone who is killing R&B music with this autotuner stuff needs to give it up. If you have no talent singing or rapping stay in the background and let real talent shine. Oh yeah, I didn’t forget Kanye. He’s just jumping on the bandwagon figuring he can make a quick buck off the new latest thing. I was happy to hear Jay Z say I don’t need the T-Pain thing to rap. Lil Wayne sounds like garbage with it.. But who can understand what he’s saying anyway. Every time I hear a song using the autotuner on the radio I just change the station. I hate that our future talent has to cheat using this crap. Yes, Cher brought the new wave autotuner to life but she didn’t make a whole album with it. T-Pain and Kanye. I just hope R-Kelly doesn’t start using it. If so, I will stop listening to R&B and start listening to Rock music. At least they haven’t started saturating their music with this annoying thing yet..
[...] no secret that I can’t stand artists who use Auto-tune on tracks, which includes Kanye West’s latest lame effort, 808’s and Heartbreaks. It [...]
way back in 1984 Neil Young released ‘Trans’ which used a number of various vocal-synth methods. The critics hated it, the record company hated it, I thought it was great. It still holds up as to what a fairly creative musician can accomplish when given freedom to try something new. Unfortunately, recording execs want only what sold well last week.
lil wayyne sucks dick
make it stop please 8(
The tool is not ruining music. It’s lackadaisical use is. Producers are allowing it to be used on acts and albums that it clearly should not be used on. Or should I say audibly used on.
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