Loquacious Music

I’ve been arguing recently about the ubiquity of Auto-Tune. Simply put, it ruins songs. Of course, because record companies don’t seem to care about actual songs these days, they’re using Auto-Tune in the studio and hot mastering everything to oblivion. Consumers don’t care; why should they?

Here’s an example. Take Janet Jackson’s awful new single, “Feedback.” The Auto-Tune makes it, to my ears, unlistenable:

The vocals come in at about :20. There is no singing here. Ms. Jackson’s vocals are simply being manipulated up and down.

Compare that to this, a song from 1995:

There is no Auto-Tune here. All we hear is Ms. Jackson’s voice, on key and supporting itself. Hell, even when she misses a note (at 3:18), she makes it part of the song: “Oh, didn’t quite hit the note — that wasn’t such a good time.”  Part of the reason for this is that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis wouldn’t have let her anywhere near Auto-Tune during that period.  But the other part is that the use of this dastardly plug-in reaches far and wide…even to crappy bands like Nickelback:

This Auto-Tune is less evident, but it’s still there.  (Listen to the “unclench” in “unclench your fists.)

Also, what’s up with that dude’s perm?