#573. Anxiously awaiting AutoTune to infect Christian music.
Jul 6th by JonIf you listen closely, if you place your ear to the ground and hold your breath, you can hear it softly in the distance. It’s a slow rumble, an almost imperceptible sound growing stronger. There can be no resistance. There is nothing that I can stand in its way. I fear this post comes too late.
AutoTune is on its way to Christian music.
If you’ve never heard the word “AutoTune” allow me a quick explanation. According to the webscapes, AutoTune or AutoTuner is “the process of correcting the intonation of an audio signal without affecting other aspects of its sound.” Or in other words, it’s an audio program that makes your voice sound all roboty and hides any pitch problems you might be having. Done in moderation, it’s a great technique that adds a lot of fun to an album. Done in excess, it feels like RoboCop produced your music.
T-pain made it famous as of late. Britney Spears has used it a lot. Kanye West’s latest album, 808s & Heartbreak, uses AutoTune on every song. Even a new Wendy’s fast food commercial employs it. But recently, Jay-Z released a song called “DOA” or “Death of AutoTune.” And since popular mainstream culture is done with it, the next stop for AutoTune is probably going to be Christian music. There is a growing fear that it will soon infect every one from Amy Grant to Yolanda Adams. (If there was a Christian musician with a name that started with the letter “Z” that A-Z statement I just attempted to make would have been slightly more awesome.)
How’s it going to happen? How will the virus of AutoTune spread to Christian music?
Here are the steps you need to be ready for:
1. Someone will spoof it.
Like most musical monsters, (see the Macarena), it’s all fun and games at first. “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we used AutoTune during a concert? Let’s bust that out some night and have fun with the crowd.” The first spotting of AutoTune will come in the form of a joke played during a live show. My money is on the David Crowder Band. They covered the Sonseed song, “Jesus is my friend” live and although I don’t personally know them, they seem like they have a great sense of humor. This is how it will begin.
2. TobyMac employs it in a song.
I don’t have all of TobyMac’s music so it’s possible this has already happened. I do sincerely dig the song, “Made to love” and like TobyMac. But at some point in the next three months, as the only Christian musician currently saying things like “I feel the haters spittin’ vapors on my dreams,” TobyMac will almost be obligated to use AutoTune. I’m not saying the Dove Awards people are going to force him to use it, but they might. They’re a powerful lot.
3. Having seen TobyMac try it, other pop Christian bands will give it a whirl.
Once the Mac Attack has used it to and been successful, other pop Christian groups will jump on board. Teen girl bands and boy bands of emo descent will find ways to incorporate it. You won’t be able to turn on Christian radio without hearing someone stretch out the word “Jesssssuussss” with the robotic rhythm of AutoTune.
4. Your worship leader will use it in church.
Out of nowhere, in the middle of a praise song you’ve song for years, a bit of AutoTune will make a cameo during church. “Did that just happen?” you’ll say? Yes, yes it did my friend.
5. Someone will do a “Father Abraham” VBS remix with AutoTune, officially putting the final nail in it’s coffin.
Although I would pay money to see this, this will mark the end of the AutoTune cycle. Having traveled from rap to spoof to TobyMac to general acceptance to church service, AutoTune will now arrive in the VBS final performance night. And 6 year olds will do a dance routine to an AutoTuned rendition of Father Abraham. It’s over.
Has this already happened? I recently heard a song about prayer that seemed like it had a little bit of AutoTune in it. Am I too late? I’m horrible at keeping on top of trends, so maybe my words are more pathetic than prophetic.
Is there another trend in popular music you think is headed our way?
What song would you love to see remixed with AutoTune?
Comments
well, i'm not sure if anyone has said this…but Mary Mary uses AutoTune some in their song "The God in Me."
http://www.imeem.com/marymarymusic/music/fTkhCozE/mary-mary-feat-kierra-kiki-sheard-god-in-me/
Whoo to the hoo! I say BRING IT ON! Just exchange "shawty" with "Jesus!" and you're already going in the right direction. We just did a song for our kids and added a little T-Pain flava. I just hope Jay Z is wrong.
oops. Repost due to a typo.
T Payne levels of autotuner would be enough to make me want to plug my ears up forever; however, the electro pop trend should definitely make it's way to Christian music. Nothing better for, say, a southern baptist like me than music that will make me want to get up and dance.
Plus I want a christian musician to find the Jesus equivalent of "disco stick."
We already used it, playing a mash-up of Here is Our King and Marvelous Light in the form of Angels and Airwaves "True Love", we sang "Majesty" in auto-tune. http://www.thirdformat.com... we're where it's at!
Didn't Cher start this whole AutoTune thang?
The Vimeo video is HILARIOUS! Thanks for sharing the link, Tom.
If you listen to WAY-FM's Mornings with Brant for Club Awesome some Friday mornings, you'll hear it.
as i was reading, i was preparing to comment that i think DCB will probably bring it back as a joke…and then it'll catch on…but you beat me to the punch.
great post, even funnier youtube links…
I have to say at first…this wasnt one of my favourite ones, But similar to the secret toilet one that I told you about, it was a premonition of things to come, Lol.
I work in a christian bookshop and decide to play the latest Steven Curtis Chapman in the shop and what do I find… Auto tuning on his song crazy :::) I had to laugh and tell all my collegues about this post…
Also went to visit another church in my town. On the way, my friend sms's someone else to save us seats
we get there and the 2 couples in front of us are massaging each other 
What's sad is that it really is true that Christian bands usually scoop up the secular bands sloppy seconds. Not too much original sounding music going on in CCM, I'm afraid.
wow, i was ACTUALLY thinking about this in church last sunday, as i endured the two chord changes employed by our guitarists (note the plural: it's essential that all contemporary churches have at least 5 on stage at any given moment). As we crooned our way through "How Great is our God" for the thousandth time, I wondered how long it would take us to catch up to modern "music" such as rap and autotune. and then presto! you write about it here. win.
Hmm, I too was going to mention FF5, but I guess they've already been called out a few times on it. Not my cup of tea, to be quite honest.
eleventyseven and family force 5 have used the autotune, but I think most people are sick of it. bands like brokeNcyde and the millionairres are so terrible that they are ruining autotune for everyone (which should have never been more than a cheap trick for garage band users).
Christian musicians have come a long way and have some of the most creative bands around, like underoath, anberlin, emery, paramore, flyleaf etc that can play along with their secular cohorts. shoot, underoath pretty much defined metalcore as almost everyone in the genre rips them off.
sure, there are still labels that go for "this sounds like this" or "if you like Green Day, you'll be sure to love…", but Christians aren't as big on rip offs these days.
Autotune is so old. A lot of times you won't HEAR autotuning, unless it's been made to be heard (as with electro-pop sounding stuff like cher and britney spears)
There are very few albums produced without it anymore, and when they are it's so much work that it is almost always specifically stated.
Yeah, everybody who's recorded in a professional Nashville-esqe studio in the past 20 years has used it. You usually can't hear it, but it's on EVERY album you've heard in the last decade. Seriously. All of them. Most producers are good enough with it to let a few bad notes through so that you can't tell it's being used, but it is always in use. If you tweak the parameters enough, you get the course robot-like sound of Cher's song from years ago, which sparked all the newer stuff you're talking about.
I'm sure you're correct about CCM using it next. Why is it that we as Christians so enjoy copying outdated junk?
The song Shackles by Mary Mary employs AutoTune on at least one of the verses. That song's been out for a while. Christian music is always trying to catch up to the pop mainstream sad to say.
@Joseph Cotten
Re: "Why is it that we as Christians so enjoy copying outdated junk?"
Eek! Don't say that, Joseph! I'm hearing the answers the atheists might give already! (Misguided though they are.)
Humourous post, as always, Jon. Thank you.
P.S. Only deleted original comment as I had a typo that changed the meaning.
i'm still waiting for originality to infect christian music
good post!
=]
Not sure its the same thing, but I remember Petra doing a "Jesus Loves You" thing back in the early 80's. Coolest thing ever back then.
let's autotune awesome god and some michael w smith songs.
I think "Via Dolorosa" would be the new hotness.
Viktory, Mark J, Washington Projects, and tons of others are using AutoTune now. Just browse around dasouth.com and you'll see every other artist using it.
There you go, christian rock with autotune all over. She's french though.
Notice also the abuse of compression in the vocals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNfy5fut1Aw
Also Vimeo guys are using vocoder, not autotune, and Zao are (were?) a christian band.
Here's some autotune silliness on a hymn remix I did earlier this year. My goal? Remix an old hymn in the most unorthodox way (to me) possible. Use something I would never ever use. Enter the overuse of autotune. Wheeeee!
Nothing But The Blood Remix
I've worked in the studio on Christian and secular music for many years. As Anonymous mentioned, Auto-tune is standard in the production toolbox. As for usage, there are two camps: abuse it and make it an effect (Cher) or try to retain as much of the character of the original as possible. I typically fall to the far end of the latter group.
For lead vocals, I put down what we call a "base-coat" with a gentle processing engaged. After that, if there are still any problematic notes, I go in for surgery with heavier settings, typically on specific notes or words. Sometimes, for the sake of retaining the character of the singer, I may even selectively bypass the effect.
Like Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 6:12 – "“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything."'
IMHO, the more the user hits the auto-tune without discretion, the more noticeable and artificial the effect, almost making voices sound "glassy."
How to identify if it's in use on your favorite CCM tune? – "If it sounds weird, it is weird and they probably used it."
Your post is frighteningly accurate.
Just today, our own Wally, of 88.7 WAY-FM's Total Axxess in Nashville, welcomed tobyMac on his show.
toby brought with him three new songs to debut, the first of which was a ballad.
I don't remember the name of the song now, but I distinctly remember the AutoTune.
Yes, I believe Rebecca St. James busted out the "Auto Tune" years ago.
You are late. It's already been done by Christian music. Mary Mary's "God In Me" is produced by T-Pain and uses autotune. There is a lot of talk about the song good and bad because of the secular use of autotune and the music. Personally, I love the song and think it has a great message!
I don't know if anyone said this already, but members of the David Crowder band actually did use auto tune in a video spoof called B-Wack be Creepin'. Look it up on youtube.
unfortunatley AutoTune has been around in Nashville for many a year.. CCM has it on the normal [but not the vocoder extreme] by default with their ProTools rigs.. oh for the warmth of tape..
Its amazing how this post is still receiving comments, I think the christian musicians should join the talk….
John,
Autotuning in Christian music has occurred already
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmGxUnyxw9g
search "david crowder tpain dance" in youtube and you will find crowder using a tpain iphone autotune app in his concert.
Now we're even autotuning the preachers!
[youtube hGcPSIuXZ30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGcPSIuXZ30 youtube]