It's a shame, but it's good that I'm not into mainstream crap they call music.
everyone is doing it these days... sadly. Just like every bands music is mastered the same way which is loud... too loud. Today's music hardly has any dynamics to it. This includes everything I listen to. I have a cd recorder with a level display on it. every cd I play, the levels are straght up just under 100 %. People in the record industry actually thinks this sounds good. The bands themselves have little or nothing to say about this.
It's a BOLD thing to say that everyone is doing it, because that's not true... Autotuning is used solely with pop and rap/hip hop music; Top 40 radio hits, although some other artists are using it.
The use of Autotune is much, much deeper than you think. Although I don't think it's necessarily a bad tool either. It's just used for the wrong purpose - it is a perfectly applicable tool; a graded pitch shifter and pitch shifting is a very old technique; it goes right back to the earliest tape manipulation, only now all that has changed is the ability to pitch shift and keep the original speed. The Beatles used pitch shifting on numerous tracks, and they even used the technique to put various parts in tune with other parts. There's nothing 'wrong' with Autotune itself, I hope people realise this.
The use of Autotune is much, much deeper than you think. Although I don't think it's necessarily a bad tool either. It's just used for the wrong purpose - it is a perfectly applicable tool; a graded pitch shifter and pitch shifting is a very old technique; it goes right back to the earliest tape manipulation, only now all that has changed is the ability to pitch shift and keep the original speed. The Beatles used pitch shifting on numerous tracks, and they even used the technique to put various parts in tune with other parts. There's nothing 'wrong' with Autotune itself, I hope people realise this.
Spice Girls and Girls Aloud are two of the biggest selling pop groups ever in the UK - they're also perhaps the two most talentless in terms of singing. A huge amount of studio trickery has gone into getting their vocals to sound acceptable. They sell because of the looks and attitude that makes up the brand.
Yes, I agree, I was left a bit confused as to what the article was getting at. Tuning correction goes on in every genre of music, even when recording artists that are thought of as excellent singers. Definitely nothing wrong with that if used sensitively - time constraints, not losing an otherwise great take etc.
At the same time, is there anything wrong with using pitch correction as an effect, rather than a 'corrector'? T-pain makes cash from having his own sound, kids love it (I personally fail to see the appeal).
Pop music is often forgettable and musically devoid, but musicality is not it's purpose. Spice Girls and Girls Aloud are two of the biggest selling pop groups ever in the UK - they're also perhaps the two most talentless in terms of singing. A huge amount of studio trickery has gone into getting their vocals to sound acceptable. They sell because of the looks and attitude that makes up the brand.
Long live indie, acoustic rock, and jazz! Oh, and CLASSICAL!