The Wrath of Autotune

A few years ago, an acquaintance of mine who had a recording studio in Nashville was telling me a story about an experience he'd recently had in the studio. Every year, all of the smaller recording studios used to hold open houses on the same day, where artists and managers were invited to come and check out the facilities so they would potentially record their next project there. This guy told me that at one point during the day, several well-known country artists were sitting in a room in his recording facility, jamming together as a couple of them played guitar. What struck my friend at the time was that some of them could sing, and some of them really couldn't! He made a quip about how you could tell which ones needed Auto-Tune when they were recording and performing :-).

Some of you may have heard the word "Auto-Tune" before, but most, if not all of you have heard its effects if you listen to music. For those of you who don't recognize the word, Auto-Tune is a digital technology that corrects musical pitch. To simplify that, music producers use the software to "fix" the pitch of vocals or instruments so that they are perfect. Even the best singers can be slightly off pitch when they are recording or performing, so the software could save lots of time and effort by simply correcting it either while it is being sung, or afterwards in post-production.

The first time you might have heard Auto-Tune in its extreme was in Cher's hit song "Believe", recorded in 1998. It was used as an effect to make her voice sound robotic in a few places in the song's chorus, particularly on the line "do you believe in life after love?" If you remember that song, then you've heard Auto-Tune. But the fact is that Auto-Tune is used in pretty much every single pop song these days. Everything you hear in this genre has been "fixed" with Auto-Tune. In fact, if you go to a live performance, particularly pop or rock, rap or hip hop, Auto-Tune is used as part of the performance. At music awards shows, many "live" performances of songs are run through Auto-Tune. You don't hear the actual, raw, live voice of a performer.

You might think, well, what's wrong with perfect?

A few years back, there was a music awards show broadcast live on television where Taylor Swift did a live performance. She appeared to be one of the only performers who DIDN'T use Auto-Tune that evening. As a result, her voice was raw and real, and it was not pitch perfect. Immediately afterwards, social media came alive with comments like "Taylor Swift can't sing!" and other, more critical responses to her performance. At the time, I remember applauding her for her guts, but I think since then she has probably given in to the use of Auto-Tune in her performances.  The pressure to be perfect these days, has become too great.

From a performer viewpoint, anyone and their dog can "sing" now, and YouTube has had many, many videos with animals or public figures "singing" songs that they actually aren't, the creators using Auto-Tune and some fancy editing to create these videos.

But what has happened to listeners, particularly younger people, is that their ears are now conditioned to desire "perfect" sounds, and when they hear something that isn't, it's aurally offensive to them. Anything that is real and imperfect sounds like a mistake.  Not only that, but it becomes impossible to tell real talent from manufactured, certainly when it comes to recording.  And performers become so reliant on the software, they can't live without it.

There are, however, artists who refuse to use it and a campaign against Auto-Tune that is growing.  In a 2009 performance on the Grammy Awards, for example, Deathcab For Cutie wore blue ribbons to protest the use of Auto-Tune in the music industry.  Even some recording engineers and producers are now trying to wean artists off the thing in an attempt to bring "real" back into recordings and performances.

So what's wrong with perfect?  It makes everything sound the same.  Perfect pitch, perfect timing, perfect everything, creates perfect garbage.  And who needs more of that?  Let's keep it real!

IJ

Songs I Like - Get Lucky

The first couple of times I heard this song, it was just the chorus and it didn't strike me in any particular way.  But at some point later, I heard the pre-chorus, which is what piqued my interest.  It sounded familiar in some way, but I couldn't really figure out why.

Then, hearing it in the car on another occasion with my daughter present I realized what it was; she said "it's got that disco sound, doesn't it?"  Ah yes, the "familiar" I was experiencing was in the vocal harmonies in the pre-chorus and the guitar playing throughout.  It wasn't until I researched the song that I found out the guitar player that I heard was Nile Rodgers, a member of the 70's disco band "Chic".  Ah hah!

"Get Lucky" is, admittedly, not all that lyrically inspired as is often true with pop songs.  And, as is also often the case with pop, there is a repeated pattern of chords throughout.  In this case it's Bm7, D, F#m7 and E.  When Nile was recording his tracks, he basically just asked for the drums to be up front and the rest of the mix to be lowered, and he came up with his strumming pattern from there.

From a songwriting standpoint, the challenge of writing a song that has the same chord pattern repeated through a whole song is to find some way to create contrast.  Of course, that is often created in the production, which is used here, but the real contrast is created in the melody and meter, taking a different turn when it gets to the pre-chorus and then, even more when it gets to the chorus.

Have a listen to the song in the YouTube video below. Here are the lyrics:

Like the legend of the phoenix
All ends with beginnings
What keeps the planet spinning
The force of love beginning

PRE-CHORUS:
We've come too far to give up who we are
So let's raise the bar and our cups to the stars

CHORUS:
She's up all night 'til the sun
I'm up all night to get some
She's up all night for good fun
I'm up all night to get lucky
We're up all night 'til the sun
We're up all night to get some
We're up all night for good fun
We're up all night to get lucky
We're up all night to get lucky
We're up all night to get lucky
We're up all night to get lucky
We're up all night to get lucky

The present has no ribbon
Your gift keeps on giving,
What is this I'm feeling?
If you wanna leave I'm ready

[repeat PRE-CHORUS and CHORUS]

...and you pretty much get the idea :-)

So just as a comparison, here is that great 70's hit, "Freak Out" by Chic, and featuring Nile Rodgers on guitar:

https://youtu.be/aXgSHL7efKg?si=T3bnCA7i9eKPos3u

...see what I mean about that distinctive guitar sound? Below is the video for Get Lucky if you want to compare.

IJ

Five "Secrets" To A Great Chorus

I actually read an article elsewhere on the web which had a similar theme to this, so I decided to write my own.  No plagiarism here :-), just some of my ideas on what makes a great chorus.

1. The Lyrical Sum of the Song

Lyrically, the chorus of a song is its focal point, its summation, a kind of wrap-up of what the song is about.  In pop and country/pop especially, the chorus is everything.  You'll notice that many songs in these genres have choruses that are longer than the verses, and sometimes they are inserted at the beginning of the song just to let you know that this is what the song is all about!

The chorus should be the very centre of the song.  Make it stand out musically and lyrically (contrast) to the rest of the song.  Think about it as being the sun, with the verses representing the planets spinning around it.  Hmmm...I must be a songwriter...

2.  The Chorus is the Part They Remember!

When you're writing a chorus, you'll want to pay special attention to its memorability.  Often, the chorus contains the title of the song, and in many cases the title is repeated a number of times.  Often, the title is at the very beginning or end of a chorus which certainly helps people to remember it.  And if there's a melodic hook, the chorus is where you'll often find it.  How many times has someone had to sing a song to you all the way to the chorus before you suddenly recognize it?  Think about that!

3. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

I talk about repetition a lot in this blog because it's a critical point.  The number of times you repeat a melodic phrase or a lyrical one can make or break a song.  If it's too much, it gets boring, if it's not enough, it's meandering.  And how many times you repeat a chorus is also important.  Having the chorus after the verses is obvious, but how many times should you repeat it at the end?  The chorus is one of those places where you can effectively use repetition to drive the point of the song home.  Let me repeat:  the chorus is one of those places where you can...you get my drift :-)

4.  But The Chorus Doesn't Have To Repeat Itself!

If you've never heard of it, get to know the term "progressive chorus".  For the most part, a progressive chorus is one that reflects the verse before it...for instance if you are going from past to present to future in your verse lyrics, the chorus might also reflect this tense change with different wording:  "was", to "is", to "will be".  And sometimes to carry a song lyric along, the chorus needs to "update", if you will, according to whatever is happening in your lyric.  This can be a very effective tool in writing a great song lyric.

5.  Sometimes There Is No Chorus

Not every song requires a chorus.  In fact, a lot of song have simply what is considered a "refrain";  a line or a phrase that gets repeated at the end of each verse.  A good example of that is "The Times They Are A Changin'" - an old Bob Dylan song.  And guess what?  The refrain is the title of the song!  That's because it is repeated, and because it is the whole point of the song, so it does the job of a chorus without actually being one.  If you're more of a folk songwriter, you already know this.  Folk is one of the oldest song forms, with only verses:  A, A, A, A.

And those are my five "secrets".  Not secrets at all, of course, but they might make you think more about how to construct a chorus in future.

A little background when it comes to choruses for those of you young punks :-).  Up until only a few years ago, songs were discovered mainly on the radio.  In some cases the DJ would either introduce the song and/or artist before or after it was played.   But sometimes you would catch a song in the middle and not hear the introduction, or songs played back-to-back so they weren't identified.  If you really liked a song, it became particularly frustrating if you didn't know its name or the artist's name.  Songwriters paid a lot of attention to this, which is why popular songs often had a lot of repetition especially in the chorus, or at the very least, something very memorable that could be identified by listeners when they were going to a record shop to try and find a song, like a powerful melodic hook.

The digital era has made it a lot easier to identify songs as you're hearing them, but the old idea of a hook and a powerful chorus is still relevant.  If your plan is to pitch your songs, or at the very least, write memorable ones, then spend a lot of time working on the chorus, if there is one.

One last point:  you probably already know that the dictionary also defines a chorus as a "group" of singers.  So why not think of your song chorus in terms of what it sounds like when a group is singing together, and the verses as the soloists?  Just another way to think of it :-)

IJ