Whether he's destroying paparrazi cameras, telling America, "President Bush doesn't care about black people," or ruining a first time Grammy Award Winner's moment in the spotlight, one thing is for certain: Kanye West can't even sing.
What has been the crutch of so many mainstream artists these days has been kept a secret for so long by producers. Let's let the cat out of the bag - the secret is called the Antares Auto-Tune computer program. The first artist to pioneer this program was Cher in "Believe", her #1 selling hit of all time. She used this program on her chorus vocals, which actually added some depth and originality to the song. Low and behold the double-edged sword: technology.
Antares Auto-Tune is used by artists to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without the need of singing in tune, as well as in the recording studio. While its main purpose is to slightly bend sung pitches to the nearest true semitone, Auto-Tune can be entirely programmed to bring a voice to a specified key controlled by a keyboard on or off the stage - while the singer attempts to sing, the keyboardist plays the notes of the voice that will be heard in a computerized version - hence the robot sounding voice. You'll notice that a lot of mainstream rappers are beginning to sound like robotic cousins as they use this program to its limit in every vocal and every note that they try to bend from their off-key melodies. We all cringe when we hear that our favorite athletes have been using performance enhancing drugs, but seriously, in the music business - technology can become a drug for many artists. In fact, a couple artists who are Auto-Tune addicts are T-Pain & Lil Wayne. Kanye West, Jamie Foxx and even Jay-Z have dabbled with the Auto-Tune in the studio and during performances. People are growing sick of this sound as it takes the musical talent out of the performing artist. What you have now are producers playing major back seat roles in their artists' music, like puppeteers pulling strings literally. What could simply be a boring Ben Stein vocal could instantly have Simon Cowell's mouth watering with the Antares Auto Tune program running in the background. What hurts America as a culture are artists who use Antares Auto Tune and are also winning awards. Antares Auto Tune is a fad, and it will die out quick, and we will once remember when 25% of the pop music on the radio was Auto-Tuned because we thought it sounded good. One thing we won't remember is whose auto-tuned voice that was, as over time they will begin to sound all the same.
Don't believe me... This video will have you laughing like never before. Some innovative producers decided to spice up C-SPAN with the Anatares Auto-Tune program and demonstrate how you can turn any ordinary voice into a #1 hit.
For a guaranteed hour of laughter, view the entire Season 1 of Auto-Tune the News, click here.