ICYMI: Do You Believe in Life After Autotune?

Switched on Pop

Vox Media Podcast Network

Music Interviews, Music History, Music, Music Commentary

4.6 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2020

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Auto-Tune may be the most divisive effect in music. Artists have protested it publicly at the Grammys, and critics have derided the effects for its inauthentic reproduction of the voice. And yet, nearly a decade since Jay-Z prophesied the death of Auto-Tune, the sound is alive and thriving in contemporary pop and hip-hop. Journalist Simon Reynolds has written a definitive history of Auto-Tune for Pitchfork that fundamentally changed how we hear this sound. This deep dive criss crosses geology, technology, and the evolution of pop as we know it. Songs Discussed: Cher - Believe Katy Perry - Firework Rihanna - Diamonds Future - F*ck Up Some Commas Emma Robinson - Stay (Cover) Imogen Heap - Hide And Seek Zapp & Roger - Doo Wa Ditty (Blow That Thing) T. Pain - Chopped N Screwed ft. Ludacris Lil Wayne - “How To Love” Kanye - “Heartless” The Black Eyed Peas “Boom Boom Pow” Jay-Z - Death Of Auto-Tune Elvis - Mystery Train The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows Whispering Jack Smith - Baby Face Kesha - Tik Tok Bon Iver - Woods Future & Juice WRLD - Jet Lag ft. Young Scooter Shek Wes - Mo Bamba The Carters - Apeshit Further Reading: Simon Reynolds - “How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music" Simon Reynolds -Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today on Good Different News, reality TV star admits it's nothing like reality.
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0:39.4	Welcome to Switched On Pop.
0:43.7	I'm musicologist Nate Sloan and I'm a songwriter Charlie Harding.
0:47.9	We have a very special guest with us today, the author of a recent article in pitchfork called How Auto Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music.
0:59.7	Do you mind introducing yourself?
1:01.4	Hi, it's Simon Reynolds here.
1:03.3	We have Simon Reynolds in the studio and we're so excited to go through this incredibly in depth.
1:11.0	Probably the most encyclopedic thing that's been written on auto tune up to this point.
1:16.3	It's great for us because this is a feature of pop music that is so ubiquitous that maybe we've never really actually paused to delve into it.
1:24.6	Now here's our chance to begin.
1:27.6	We have to go back two decades to the birth of auto tune which was of course in shares 1998 single believe.
1:37.6	Is it crazy that what I hear in that is the producers of Britney Spears Toxic probably took that little guitar line?
2:04.3	No, I don't think you're crazy.
2:07.8	I think the song is a or source for so much pop music to follow.
2:11.8	That's all over here.
2:13.4	So Simon, even though this was maybe the first use of auto tune in a pop single, the producers of this song did not want to disclose that fact.
	...

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