The X-Factor has an uncanny knack for exposing modern music “warts” to their fans and creating media entertainment to launch thousands of new titles. This year so far we’ve had contestants vandalizing Simon’s villa in Marbella, the Home Office’s involvement in Gamu Nhengu’s right to stay in the UK and, unsurprisingly, we’ll soon be reading about the next inevitable one. fight for Christmas No. 1. Some say, “All press coverage is good marketing.” Actually?
It looks like music fans are finally catching up with what’s really going on on the show after ‘X-Factor’ bosses admitted in August that Gamu Nhengu, Shirlena Johnson and G&S’s auditions were altered in post-production with ‘Auto-Tune. ‘. Some critics of the opening show suggested that it calls into question the authenticity of the show itself. Many viewers were shocked by this hoax, and the heated debate over its use on the show became a hot topic.
So what exactly is Auto-Tune?
First of all, it is not that new and has been used in recording studios since 1997 after its release by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune has played a key role in selling millions of songs over the past decade or more. It’s pitch correction software devised by Andy Hildebrand that simply helps people sing in tune by adjusting any sharp or flat notes in a singer’s recorded performance. Naturally, recording studios just fell in love with this set of tools and apps. But in 1998, Cher’s smash hit ‘Believe’ exposed the studio’s secret. In general, studios don’t like to talk about what they’re doing. Instead of making subtle adjustments to the track, producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling reportedly reset the software’s “tune speed” and created a robotic shredded effect that spawned a global hit and opened the Auto-Tune lid wide. Starting to play with the studio team for a prank, they created what was later known as the “Cher effect”.
But Auto-Tune has pretty much become ‘normal’ in the world of pop and R&B. Faheem Rasheed Naim, better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer who used the software on many of his songs. This inspired others like Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne to do the same. In fact, Kanye West used the software and applied the technique to an entire album in 2008 with ‘808’s & Heartbreak’.
However, there have been some dissenters to the technology. Jay-Z aired ‘DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)’ in 2009, telling his fellow hip-hop stars it was time to ditch the technology.
So is this the last we’ll hear about Auto-Tune? It’s too good, that’s the problem, and some producers admit that they couldn’t complete a single song without it. Industry insiders claim that the software is used in a staggering 99% of all recorded music and can be purchased as an integrated tool within almost all song production software.
Like most things in the modern world, “integrity” is something that is always alluded to, but let’s leave that to the idealists.