Personally, I don't like autotune. I feel like it gets rid of the "hard-earned" talent and effort that musicians put into their pieces. Vocalists and instrumentalists, with the help of certain programs and acoustic engineering, rarely have to worry about hitting the right note. Being able to botch details like that just takes away part of what I love about music: The artistic expertise that it takes to write up and play a piece. You can be an octave away from a chord being played, but because of editing, it's as if nothing ever happened. Nobody does "multiple takes" anymore- they just do one and open up a bunch of software for the next few hours or so. See, I'm a fan of R&B, Jazz, and Classical- The rhythm in those genres are arguably created by the players' own emotions and dexterity and handling the music. Having autotune with that? It takes away the "art". As a colleague of mine stated, people are at arms deciding whether music is something meant to be handcrafted or merely "produced" in the manner of a factory line similar to the days of the Industrial Revolution (van Scherrenburg, 2016). I very much value the "art" in music, so a large part of me is against this new age of "autotune-driven" vocals.
"Fly me to the Moon", by Frank Sinatra, is one of my favorites
However, I do see the interest in "synthetic" music, as many people today are very interested with fast paced electronic sounds. While I prefer my music to be genuine, I have to admit that "synthetic" means are able to satisfy me in ways that "authentic" music can't. In my opinion, things like autotune are only good when used as a niche, as a certain style of music, rather than being a corrective device- by that, I mean I would rather have a song in autotune if its MEANT to be in autotune.
For example, not only do I like classical/Jazz/R&B, but I also like a series of music done by programs called "Vocaloid" and "UTAUloid", which are Japanese vocal synthesizer programs. In these programs, both the beat and the lyrics are artificially created- there is no semblance of anything being "real". Here is the situation in which I actually respect artificially designing music, as it is "synthetic" 100% of the way through, and is not meant to "correct" any blemishes. The style IS electronic music, and the vocals are MEANT to be artificial.
Yukari Yuzuki- There's Supposed to be a Cheat Code for Happiness
(Also one of my favorites)
I prefer seeing "synthetic" music more as a style/genre rather than being a "tool".
No comments:
Post a Comment