Posts Tagged ‘Auto Tune’
Jay-Z’s War On Auto-Tune
Despite delayed release dates and his split from Def Jam, one upside to HOVA’s much-anticipated Blueprint 3 (follow-up to Blueprints 1 and 2) is that the album promises to be free of Auto-Tune–the software responsible for T-Pain and Paris Hilton’s musical careers. Kanye West, one of the album’s many producers, told MTV News, “We actually removed all the songs with Auto-Tune off of his album to make the point that this is an anti-Auto-Tune album, even though I released an album that has all Auto-Tune.”
Current Events in the Key of C: Michael Gregory and his Auto-Tuner (With Video)
Is there a formula for a successful viral video? What does Charlie Bit My Finger have in common with Daft Hands? At what mysterious coordinates do the Harry Potter Puppet Pals intersect with David After Dentist?
That’s a tough one. The question of what makes a successful viral music video, however, may be easier to pinpoint. If the Lonely Island boys–those princes of the status-update link–have taught us anything, it’s that people love goofy white dudes, catchy beats, and auto-tuning. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, meanwhile, have demonstrated for years the comic power of transforming talking-head gravitas into absurdity via clever editing.
The alchemy of Michael Gregory, a Virginia native who now resides in Brooklyn, combines these elements, leaving one to wonder why none of his satirical A.V. compositions went viral until yesterday. Mr. Gregory, who began making newsmakers sing during last year’s election season, has loitered on the fringes of notability for some time. He plays in an up-and-coming folk-’n'-soul band with his brothers, Andrew and Evan, and occasionally subs in on drums for another band, Sarah & the Stanleys. He was even on American Idol once.
The first time I spoke to him, it was when he crashed on my couch two years ago after a show in Maine. The second time was last night, after his latest installment of “Auto-tune the News” got picked up by Boing Boing, Reddit, Fark, Gizmoto, BuzzFeed, Digg, The Daily Swarm, and CP City Lights editor Mike Riggs’s Gchat status.
Portions of our conversation, below, have been edited for length.
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Death Cab vs. Kanye
Why were Ben Gibbard and his fellow Death Cabbers donning electric blue ribbons on their lapels at Sunday’s Grammy Awards? To launch a campaign against Kanye West’s darling studio trick, of course.
