The problem with using autotune to correct pitch, is that it is inherently unethical. There are myriad sonically cool and creative uses for this tool, I’m certain. But in terms of altering (“improving”) a singer’s performance, it then becomes like using performance enhancers in the olympics or airbrushing human models in advertising images. It has grave, and insidious socio-political implications. A performer is presenting something that is fraudulent and gives the false perception that they are “perfect”, when they are indeed human and fallible like everyone else. The singers stop learning proper technique because they begin to rely on the technology to “take care of it”. They get lazy, instead of figuring out why their pitch might be suffering, and working it out technically. Or it ceases to allow the subtle gradations of pitch to be governed and artistically chosen by the singer, who needs to be carefully considering the style, genre and character of the music, the time and the place. So then the next generation of singers is falsely influenced and believes that they must shoot for a standard of performance that is actually an illusion and impossible to achieve without conforming to the same crutches as those who came before. Then we also get the problem that is rampant in today’s music culture, which is that many people in the industry don’t respect what it takes to sing well, and many young singers don’t thoroughly train or commit to the long process required to truly KNOW this art form. Furthermore, it is damaging in more ways than just within the professional milieu. I’ve seen how it effects some of my students…how it stifles them. This so-called “ideal”, takes a lot of the pleasure and delight out of amateur singing due to social expectations, self-consciousness and fear that a person can’t “measure up” to this perceived, false standard of perfection. But then, perhaps we should also be asking ourselves what is perfection and beauty all about anyway?
Of course, I am posting from a particular bias…as a fully trained, professional singer of 35 years and a voice teacher of 18 years. It stands to reason that producers and engineers love auto tune. Saves money and time. But it makes singers sound whiny, shallow and generic, merely reflective of so much of the current top 40 aesthetic and industry “standards” out there. Depth and colour in the tone of a singer is paramount, and ironically, autotune, steals this very thing. Some of the singer’s most important, identifying characteristics are being forced by a piece of technology to bow down to that fascist bitch, pitch.
All this begs the philosophical and political question, “Why do those with the power and wealth wish to homogenize, white-wash and take all the unique particularities and expressivity out of the artist’s voice?
We are currently living in the era of the producer, so that is where advances are being made and money is being spent. That’s alright, we singers too will have our day and our say and our way… We WILL reclaim our unique voices and individual expression. Mark my beautiful, lovingly and patiently trained, thankfully un-auto-tuned voice! ~AG