Autotune Vs. Lyricism

There are many artists that utilize digital recording in a unique way and I bet that you as a reader like at least one song that has gone under this manipulation. That manipulation is auto-tune. Auto-tune alters the singers voice, making it a much more robotic and higher pitched sound. It has become very popular in music today, including many artists utilizing it such as Lil' Wayne and T-Pain.

T-Pain's first hit single, was of course, using auto-tune. It a song called "I'm 'N Luv (Wit a Stripper)", I believe the title is self-explanatory. T-Pain's central focus upon making music is to make songs that people can dance to. There is nothing wrong with that, but the lyrics which are quite rude and obscene shouldn't be something that every single American child hears on the radio. Not to mention him dressing himself in a red leather jumpsuit and a top hat that frankly makes him look ridiculous.




Lil' Wayne has been on the "rap scene" for around a decade, but he doesn't sing solely about partying. The subjects of his songs range from finding his place in the world, becoming strong, and even highly condoning marijuana usage. Lil' Wayne may use Auto-tune in his music, but there is a real sense of lyricism within his music that has created for him a loyal fan base.

These aren't their real voices, but where is the line drawn between auto-tune and lip sync? Many artists believe that auto-tune is like cheating in math class, it allows people who do not have a quality singing voice to become famous.
When does it stop being about the music and more about the lyricism within the music?



Now on the other hand, there are rap artists who are entirely against the use of auto-tune and have made their careers solely with their pure voice and their "flow". A rappers "flow" is the way the pronounce and group words together to create a certain style for themselves or a particular song. Jay-Z is a very well known East Coast/Brooklyn rapper who has not only made his name as a rapper, but as a business man and music producer as well. Jay-Z retired after releasing his world famous "Black Album", but has come out of retirement in recent years with a new stance upon rap. Take a listen to the video which does not use any auto-tune at all, just his pure god given voice. I bet you can easily figure out his stance upon the usage of auto-tune.