Will the Real Artist Please Stand Up?

Written By:
Madeline Kim

Published:
Dec. 04 2009

Auto-tune, oh lovely auto-tune. The wonderful device used to disguise the mistakes and imperfections of our beloved music industry. Now a days, what is the point of real talent when you have this wondrous device at your very fingertips? The music industry is slowly fading away, true artists and stars being heavily outshined by the same tune sung over and over again by what sounds like the same synthesized voice. It is almost impossible to tell any of the recent pop songs apart when everyone has that identical pitch-perfect voice. Today, any run-of-the-mill teenager with some audio software making up words like yah-trick-yah can make it big. There is no need for talent if your computer can do that for you. What happened to singers being able to sing, and rappers being able to rap? Not to say that there is not any talent left in the world. However, it is a shame to know that artists who are known for their sheer talent, voices, and dedication are competing against the likes of these gimmicks jumping onto the auto-tune band-wagon. The two are not of the same caliber, and quite frankly they never will be. Take new tween star Justin Beiber. Is it not bad enough that the boy still sounds like he is making macaroni necklaces at daycare, but to go a step further and synthesize that high-pitched voice of his? That is taking it a bit too far. Unfortunately, it does not just stop at tweaking minor flaws and pitch problems now. Record companies flaunting the use of their creative juices by frequently varying the pitch on every note, therefore producing an electronic vibrating type noise. It sounds much more like a swarm of cicadas coming to attack than it does music; no way that a human could naturally produce such a noise as this. The epidemic is not only striking the foolish and untalented, it is moving onto stronger fresher bait. Record labels and music companies like to think that auto-tune “enhances” the voices of their artists when all it really does is butcher a perfectly good song. Why sign a deal with these artists if you think they are not good enough to perform with their real voices? Simply does not make any sense. With the number of “artists” debuting everyday it is hard to keep track of them all. Everyone tried so hard to be different, some way to stand out. Rap songs, ballads, alternative rock blaring on the radio all sounds like pop now. How can you tell the difference between that new Kanye song from the next dance track coming out? Individuality is a rare thing to find when everyone has an equal chance at sounding “pitch-perfect.” I suppose that there are some very persistent people out there that will do anything to strive towards their dreams of being a star. Whether it is with the talent they are born with or with artificial goods coming from a machine. Unfortunately, the way record companies abuse auto-tune, it is not all too difficult to spot out the singers from the fakers. It may just be me, but there is a pretty noticeable difference between a human’s voice and an impaled goat’s, am I right? So, auto-tune, oh lovely auto-tune singing to me. Please be gone forever and let the true voices of the young and talented shine through your artificial “perfection”.