The No. 1 Yankee fan of right now speaks on the ripple that “Death Of Autotune (D.O.A.)” caused, and how he was just trying to, like, save hip-hop from itself and stuff: “I really wanted to have the conversation, like ‘are we just going to sound like each other? Everyone’s going to sound the same? That’s what we’re gonna do? Don’t ya’ll know this is dangerous? And this is just how rock and roll got pushed from the forefront?’ We did this to rock and roll. Everyone was doing the hair-band thing on MTV with the tight pants. They all had the big hair, just different colored tights. It just became about more of a look and a sound than the emotion of the music. And that’s what hip-hop’s becoming. It’s losing the emotion — you can’t have emotion in the robotic voice. I can’t feel anything!” I like to think that when Jay-Z surveys the landscape (once it’s been scrubbed of his AutoTune-utilizing pals like T-Pain and Kanye, of course), a tear comes to his eyes, and all he can see is the video after the jump:
Ah, God bless a day that gives me an excuse to post Nitro. Because you know, both of them are into the whole acronym thing…
Jay-Z on DJ Hero, ‘D.O.A.,’ and His Future Career As a Bar Mitzvah Performer [Vulture; HT NovaSlim]
Nitro - Long Way From Home [YouTube]
this thing looks like that thing
Jay-Z Compares AutoTuned-Out MCs To Hairspray-Crazy Hard Rockers
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this thing looks like that thing
this thing looks like that thing
Wow, a new copy of that Nitro album is $75
‘We did this to rock’and roll’ - I think the irrelevancy of hair-metal or butt-rock owes more to Nirvana and grunge then the rise of hip hop into the mainstream. As far as autotune is concerned, until rap artist’s refine their vocal delivery, it will continue to be utilized. It’s interesting to note that when Zapp and Roger employed the harmonizer effect into their sound, it was an earmark of originality that thankfully didn’t percolate extensively into mainstream pop at the time, and imo has a classic sound in retrospect. I don’t think the adoption of the ‘autotune effect’ into current hip-hop will sound classically retro in ten years but will leave a rather distasteful mark on music history and resign itself to wedding/bar mitzvah playlist territory ala’ bad disco. I think all this electrotrash crap, which also employs autotune (lmfao, hypercrush, ect) will follow the same fate and will be buried even further into oblivion. Like Jay-Z said, ‘I can’t feel anything’.
You know who else didn’t need Autotune?
This guy.
To be fair to hair metal: Nitro were never popular.
Stryper didn’t need Autotune, either.
But if they did, it would have been OK, because it was all in the name of J.C.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PT2Zb97KXc&feature=player_profilepage#