In "honor" of Kayne: X-posted
I don’t want to sound like I’m knocking Kayne West, because if 808 and Heartbreak is a flop, it will be the kind of failure that will probably inspire a whole sub genre five years from now. That aside, ever since Cher’s ‘Believe’, we’ve had to live with auto tune front and center in mainstream pop. It’s hard to think of instances where it’s been used well, and it’s at its most obnoxious when used discreetly (to obvious to ignore). The soulless perfection of machine pop from the eighties onward, tends to grate and demean the performer. There’s that ages old question, why pay to listen to a singer that can’t sing, especially when non traditional warblers, from Bob Dylan to Biz Markie, Louis Armstrong to Andre 3000, are often enthusiastically embraced and fondly remembered for their quirks?
Every now and then, though, overt vocal modulation is done right, in a way that enriches that enriches the song. For the list below, I’m choosing from obvious examples of vocal modification in song. You could make the case that every Portishead, or Massive Attack song was steeped in treated vocals, or that the Strokes distorted vocals were every as much of a shock to the system in 2000 as Cher’s autotunery in 1998. I wouldn’t argue either, but to make this list the vocal effects needed to be at least a little bombastic, in the context of the artist’s body of work or the particular song itself.
1. “Iron Man” - Black Sabbath
The primitive distorted vocal that signals “I am Iron Man!” sets the perfect tone for the comic book horror story parable that remains Black Sabbath’s best song.
2. “Do You Feel Like I Do?” - Peter Frampton
Vintage stadium rock was terrified of the mouse that was mid seventies synthesizer technology. Ironically, the same artists who proudly declared “No Synthesizers” attached no stigma to effects boxes, ebows or studio trickery. Peter Frampton’s vocal box guitar solo survives its era due more to the crowd’s rapturous reaction than the tech or the songcraft. This was the highlight of the show, and something entirely new at the time. Bon Jovi would take a vocal box back to the top of the charts with “Livin on a Prayer”, but Peter Frampton remains the best practitioner of the “art”.
3. “True to Life” - Roxy Music
The last proper song on the last Roxy Music album, True to Life rests on a rhythm built on calm, undulating synths. Brian Ferry croons wistfully throughout the verses, but on the chorus his vocal is run through a delay to match the electronic rhythm.
4. “If I was your Girlfriend” - Prince
Prince never shied away from vocal modulation technology. Listen to “1999” which nods to “Iron Man”. However “If I was your Girlfriend” might be Prince’s magnum opus. Around this time, he ramped up experimentation with pitch modifiers, speeding up and slowing down vocal tracks.
Every vocal in “Girlfriend” has been modified, with the lead vocal sped up to achieve a more “feminine” range and the backing slowed down to resemble doo-wop. The final performance feels askew, the prefect setting for the fairly creepy subject matter.
(Prince has thus decreed that his music, none shall hear for free!)
5. “Sexy Boy” - Air
The mid to late nineties electronica and trip hop scenes were entirely too self serious for their own good. The best of the lot were anointed geniuses and saviors of music and responded to the acclaim by reducing themselves to tormented brooders. Air were a different lot, dare I say more French.
While the group employed a genuine trip hop vocalist, Beth Hirsch, for some somber tracks on their debut LP, when they wanted to lighten things up a bit, they’d twist their own vocals into an elctro femme d’argent. “Sexy Boy” is all nonsensical bombast and pomp. Exactly what was need in circa 1998 alternative music.
6. “This Little Piggy” - Brainiac
In lieu of putting their entire discography (and Enon's too) onto this list, “This Little Piggy” will have to suffice. An effective layering of straight vocals over properly metered, emotionless electronic vocals. These days “Lyrics Born” is known to pull the same trick without the aid of machinery.
http://www.last.fm/music/Brainiac/_/This+Little+Piggy
7. “Believe” - Cher
Since I had to live in Cher’s America when this song was released, I’m pretty much through with it. Over saturated on radio to a scale which is nearly impossible to even appreciate today, I imagine that my opinion is shared with many others. Over the years I’ve built up a begrudging respect for the track. Of the two most successful comebacks of sixties era performers in recent years, “Believe” feels more of a genuine statement of the artist than Santana’s “Smooth” where the guitarist was basically a session player on a Rob Thomas’s hit.
For better or worse, actually pretty much just for worse, Cher brought brazen auto-tune to pop’s mainstream. You’d wish that other musicians and producers would have left this solely to Cher, a trick that worked for one performer on one performance. Of course it didn’t work out that way, and pretty much everyone from Lou Barlow (!) to Kayne has made a genuine stab at the pop charts with the same stale technique.
(Do you really need a link to this? You've heard this song a thousand times)
8. “Windowlicker” - Aphex Twin
A symphony of twisted and distorted voices that congeals into a seemingly light California funk. A fuck you track-the only kind of single Aphex Twin ever made-that mocks the accessible pop song at every turn.
9. “Kid A” - Radiohead
Radiohead experimented extensively with vocal modulation throughout the Kid Amnesiac sessions, but “Kid A” emerged as the strongest of these. A barely decipherable tale that transforms the Pied Piper legend into a tale of self loathing and doubt ("The rats and children follow me out of their homes"). The electronics buff all of the human elements out of Thom Yorke’s vocal and leaves a sharp mirror sheen.
10. “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” - Broken Social Scene
The human heart at the center of Broken Social Scene’s very fine second album. One of those bittersweet growing older type deals.
Every now and then, though, overt vocal modulation is done right, in a way that enriches that enriches the song. For the list below, I’m choosing from obvious examples of vocal modification in song. You could make the case that every Portishead, or Massive Attack song was steeped in treated vocals, or that the Strokes distorted vocals were every as much of a shock to the system in 2000 as Cher’s autotunery in 1998. I wouldn’t argue either, but to make this list the vocal effects needed to be at least a little bombastic, in the context of the artist’s body of work or the particular song itself.
1. “Iron Man” - Black Sabbath
The primitive distorted vocal that signals “I am Iron Man!” sets the perfect tone for the comic book horror story parable that remains Black Sabbath’s best song.
Click to view2. “Do You Feel Like I Do?” - Peter Frampton
Vintage stadium rock was terrified of the mouse that was mid seventies synthesizer technology. Ironically, the same artists who proudly declared “No Synthesizers” attached no stigma to effects boxes, ebows or studio trickery. Peter Frampton’s vocal box guitar solo survives its era due more to the crowd’s rapturous reaction than the tech or the songcraft. This was the highlight of the show, and something entirely new at the time. Bon Jovi would take a vocal box back to the top of the charts with “Livin on a Prayer”, but Peter Frampton remains the best practitioner of the “art”.
3. “True to Life” - Roxy Music
The last proper song on the last Roxy Music album, True to Life rests on a rhythm built on calm, undulating synths. Brian Ferry croons wistfully throughout the verses, but on the chorus his vocal is run through a delay to match the electronic rhythm.
4. “If I was your Girlfriend” - Prince
Prince never shied away from vocal modulation technology. Listen to “1999” which nods to “Iron Man”. However “If I was your Girlfriend” might be Prince’s magnum opus. Around this time, he ramped up experimentation with pitch modifiers, speeding up and slowing down vocal tracks.
Every vocal in “Girlfriend” has been modified, with the lead vocal sped up to achieve a more “feminine” range and the backing slowed down to resemble doo-wop. The final performance feels askew, the prefect setting for the fairly creepy subject matter.
(Prince has thus decreed that his music, none shall hear for free!)
5. “Sexy Boy” - Air
The mid to late nineties electronica and trip hop scenes were entirely too self serious for their own good. The best of the lot were anointed geniuses and saviors of music and responded to the acclaim by reducing themselves to tormented brooders. Air were a different lot, dare I say more French.
While the group employed a genuine trip hop vocalist, Beth Hirsch, for some somber tracks on their debut LP, when they wanted to lighten things up a bit, they’d twist their own vocals into an elctro femme d’argent. “Sexy Boy” is all nonsensical bombast and pomp. Exactly what was need in circa 1998 alternative music.
6. “This Little Piggy” - Brainiac
In lieu of putting their entire discography (and Enon's too) onto this list, “This Little Piggy” will have to suffice. An effective layering of straight vocals over properly metered, emotionless electronic vocals. These days “Lyrics Born” is known to pull the same trick without the aid of machinery.
http://www.last.fm/music/Brainiac/_/This+Little+Piggy
7. “Believe” - Cher
Since I had to live in Cher’s America when this song was released, I’m pretty much through with it. Over saturated on radio to a scale which is nearly impossible to even appreciate today, I imagine that my opinion is shared with many others. Over the years I’ve built up a begrudging respect for the track. Of the two most successful comebacks of sixties era performers in recent years, “Believe” feels more of a genuine statement of the artist than Santana’s “Smooth” where the guitarist was basically a session player on a Rob Thomas’s hit.
For better or worse, actually pretty much just for worse, Cher brought brazen auto-tune to pop’s mainstream. You’d wish that other musicians and producers would have left this solely to Cher, a trick that worked for one performer on one performance. Of course it didn’t work out that way, and pretty much everyone from Lou Barlow (!) to Kayne has made a genuine stab at the pop charts with the same stale technique.
(Do you really need a link to this? You've heard this song a thousand times)
8. “Windowlicker” - Aphex Twin
A symphony of twisted and distorted voices that congeals into a seemingly light California funk. A fuck you track-the only kind of single Aphex Twin ever made-that mocks the accessible pop song at every turn.
9. “Kid A” - Radiohead
Radiohead experimented extensively with vocal modulation throughout the Kid Amnesiac sessions, but “Kid A” emerged as the strongest of these. A barely decipherable tale that transforms the Pied Piper legend into a tale of self loathing and doubt ("The rats and children follow me out of their homes"). The electronics buff all of the human elements out of Thom Yorke’s vocal and leaves a sharp mirror sheen.
10. “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” - Broken Social Scene
The human heart at the center of Broken Social Scene’s very fine second album. One of those bittersweet growing older type deals.