This commercial is HILARIOUS.... but touches on a dark trend in the music business. ;)
Alright, so if you haven't already figured this out.... all the controversy is about Auto-tune. If you're not familiar with Auto-Tune, it's a studio tool that corrects a singer's voice, and makes it "in tune". If you set Auto-Tune a certain way, it creates this Auto-Tune effect that you hear so much. Guys like T-Pain, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Jamie Foxx, Akon, and so many others in their genres use this effect on nearly every part they sing.
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Now, the first question many people ask is this... "If someone needs auto-tune to be a singer, should they really be singing?!" The reality is that most of today's music has tuned vocals, and that's not really the issue in question here. The issue under the microscope here is the use of the "Auto-Tune Effect".
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When Jay-Z saw this commercial, it probably didn't make him laugh like it did for me. He was saddened and disappointed, because he saw a brand like Wendy's clowning around with the state of hip-hop music today. Jay-Z thought about this pragmatically (one of the reasons I have a deep respect for Jay-Z, and how he thinks about music), and didn't blame Wendy's.... he blamed the state of hip-hop, for becoming something so easily mocked.
He then penned the song "D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)" decrying the use (and over-use) of the vocal effect in hip-hop music today. He said this....
"I just think in hip-hop, when a trend becomes a gimmick, it's time to move on," Jay said in an interview with Chicago radio station WGCI on Tuesday. "I saw a Wendy's commercial and they're using Auto-Tune. They're joking on it. It's like, OK, enough of that ... It was a trend, it was cool in the beginning. Some people made great music with it, now it's time to move on."
So what do you think about the Auto-Tune Effect?
Is it fun and playful, or just plain annoying?
Personally, I don't mind it on certain parts of specific types of songs.... If the song calls for something with that electronic kind of feel, then fine.... But entire records full of songs that, stylistically, could have just been sung normally? I don't know about that.
In the wake of Michael Jackson's death, the King of Pop, I wonder if music listeners are going to rediscover their desire for real talent.... I wonder if they're going to get bored of gimmicks like this, and start to wonder if Jamie Foxx really can sing underneath that auto-tune effect. I wonder if music listeners are going to demand more from artists....
The one thing I know for sure is this... if music listeners are willing to buy crap music, the music business is certainly willing to create it for them.
Jonathan









