As well they should be!
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As well they should be!
C
CAVEMANager
Guest
This opus just came out and it says it all a lot better than I can:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PK2US-Nj_k9oOVSNLOxQNBHLhLJFtsd5/view
It's a little like "Murder on Music Row" by Alan Jackson and George Strait.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PK2US-Nj_k9oOVSNLOxQNBHLhLJFtsd5/view
It's a little like "Murder on Music Row" by Alan Jackson and George Strait.
Regardless of lyrical content, country music doesn't even sound "country" anymore. There are no more steel guitars, fiddles, or banjos. It's all the same electronic drum loops and overdriven electric guitars that they use in pop music, just sung with an Auto-Tuned Southern drawl. Country hasn't sounded this un-country since the late '80s when it was full of Yamaha DX7-laden ballads.
Do you know for certain that today's country singers are all using Auto-Tune or is that just an assumption rooted in your dislike of the current style? And the late '80s were the heart of the New Traditionalist movement, with Keith Whitley, Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis, etc. moving country music back to where it sounded more like country than it had for years.
Really? Have you actually listened to a Keith Urban record? He PLAYS the banjo. On the other hand Johnny Cash never used fiddles, steel or banjo in any of his music. Neither did Buck Owens. Florida Georgia Line's current hit features all three: Fiddle, steel, and banjo. No drum loop.
I have heard a large percentage of current artists in concert and find no evidence that they need to use Auto Tune as they sing beautifully live (and without using voice tracks). Except for the occasional improvisation, these artists can sing live so well that they sound just as good as the recording... sometimes better because of the energy of performing in front of a cheering crowd.
While the music is changing in some ways, and not every song has a fiddle or steel or a banjo, that was not necessarily part of all traditional country music, either. I find there is a lot of variety, too. When you have stage duos like Keith Urban with Dwight Yoakum (Stagecoach this year) you see that tradition mixes well with today's music.
While it's not all Minnie Pearl and Cowboy Copas, pop music is not all Danny & The Juniors and Bobby Vinton, either.
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I attended many country shows as a fan and a music reviewer in the '80s and '90s and can vouch for the singing talents of every act I saw -- from Merle Haggard to Travis Tritt to Randy Travis to Garth Brooks, from Reba McEntire to Tanya Tucker to Wynonna Judd to Kathy Mattea. Except for Garth's and Reba's, the shows were pretty basic, with none of the flash and sizzle of today's concerts. But the voices of all sounded natural, unprocessed and great.
James Otto Sweet Heart
Banned
In my opinion, music that is country is still out there and it is still being played a good deal on country radio. To me, the High Valley duo are the most country of the newer singers.
God bless you and them always!!!
Holly
P.S. "Love You For A Long Time", "Make You Mine", "She's With Me" and "Dear Life" are their stand outs.
This seems to be more and more common. Not that this is related to country music since Taylor Swift went pop, she liked something Right Said Fred did on "I'm Too Sexy", or at least someone figured out that's where it came from or sounded like, and they get credit on one of her new hits.
Taylors still hitting country charts though - shes part of a duet at #20 this wk.
Didn't know that. She was honored for writing or co-writing a country song this year.
I finally got around to watching some old "Jeopardy" episodes on one of my TiVos. This commercial kept running on those which showed her with her glasses on from the "You Belong with Me'" video. I suppose she thought she was nerdy but they look great on her.
Nashville was one of the biggest users of Auto-Tune when it first came out. Especially with female singers. How do you think the Dixie Chicks got their harmonies to be so flawless?
They're on the list of the 10 worst examples of Auto-Tune abuse, along was Rascal Flatts:
http://www.hometracked.com/2008/02/05/auto-tune-abuse-in-pop-music-10-examples/
And there's a version of Auto-Tune which can be used live, too. So just because a artist sounds on-key when they're singing live doesn't mean they're not using it.
If this isn't more internet hokum, then it's a big surprise. The Dixie Chicks had a stellar reputation in bluegrass before flipping to mainstream country. Nobody Auto-Tunes when recording bluegrass music.
I know facts are ignored in these kinds of things, but the Dixie Chicks album on this list was not recorded in Nashville. It was produced by Rick Rubin, a very well known pop and rap producer. This album came after their blow-up over George W. Bush, so it never received any country radio airplay. And for his efforts, Rick Rubin won a Grammy for Producer of the Year, and this particular album won a pile of Grammy awards that year. I have no idea if auto-tune was used, but obviously no one cared, and none of it had anything to do with Nashville or country music.
Didn't Rubin produce Johnny Cash's last couple of albums? Please tell me THOSE weren't Auto-Tuned! If they were, the thing sure wasn't working right.
I agree with that. Let's face it: Vocals have been processed in many ways since the 1950s. Once there was a way to process the voice, it became commonplace, and expected. So it happens a lot. The Beatles processed their vocals. Listen to Strawberry Fields. When Cher used Auto-Tune is her hit "Believe" 20 years ago, it really changed the way the technology would be used moving forward. Why? Because it was cool. I've heard several records where the device was used the same way, and it was strictly for the effect, not to correct any deficiencies of the singer. But I get it...for the musical purists out there, any device that alters performance is as bad as PEDs in sports. Still, music is as much a business as it is an art, and if an artist becomes popular despite using various technologies, who are we to say that those fans should be deprived of their favorite musician?
I actually think the auto-tuning can sound good, in smaller doses. It gives the vocals an almost artificial, ultra pure tone to it. Combined with other more subtle studio effects it sounds pretty cool.
I hear you on the Beatles, who used ADT and pitch-shifted recording to give the voices an almost plastic, unearthly feel, on Revolver and afterwards.
I hear you on the Beatles, who used ADT and pitch-shifted recording to give the voices an almost plastic, unearthly feel, on Revolver and afterwards.
C
CAVEMANager
Guest
This thread really isn't about "auto tune". I think that the person who mentioned it first was trying to make the point that the recording companies have created phony stars with little in the way of vocal talents and who are selected mostly on the basis of their visual sex appeal. When's the last time you saw a female country star who lacked an hourglass figure and who had a mole on her face or a crooked tooth? Can't be that the best singers are all knock 'em out gorgeous? I'd like to see just one who is a pound or two overweight. Or maybe a new star who is over the age of 20. The music is coming from big corporations, not the hills of Tennessee.
So what? What else is new? When the people have the chance to pick stars on reality TV shows, are they all that different?
People like what they like. You can't force people to like something they don't like.
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