What was the first-ever song to use Auto-Tune?
Since its creation, the music world has been divided about the merits of Auto-Tune. Although the plugin may have been an easy creative tool to get the perfect tonality from a singer, many others tend to see the technology as a way of cheating music, trying to get the most technically perfect sound without any real soul behind the vocals. While the practice may run rampant in the music world today, it wasn’t until the 1990s that it truly began to take over the world.
Of course, using robotic sounds for the human voice is nothing new in modern music. From the first time the synthesiser was invented, artists saw the new technology as a creative tool. The Beatles were one of the first trailblazers for the technology in popular music with songs like ‘Here Comes the Sun’ from Abbey Road.
From there, bands started using other technologies to sound more robotic than before. Creating the talk box, guitarists suddenly had a way of turning their average guitar solos into stunning works of art, with many aspiring musicians spending hours with the robotic tube in their mouths trying to make their guitar speak. While many artists would use the talk box, from Bon Jovi to Peter Frampton, it became a completely different world when working in the confines of Pro Tools.
No longer having to live and die off the power of the tape machine, artists were known to put anything onto their tracks to simulate what they wanted, from adding copious amounts of reverb into the mix to creating different delayed sounds that made any studio feel like a dense cavernous space.
Now that everything was on the computer, artists were also becoming aware of Auto-Tune. Breaking down the essential elements of the human voice, the technology is known to take any notes that would be considered out of tune and put them on the grid to sound perfect. While many artists were happy to engage with the program, it wasn’t until Cher recorded ‘Believe’ that it started to take over the world.
Having been a living legend for years, Cher had started making her way back into the mainstream with this dance-rock classic. Although Cher may have been pitchy on the song’s rehearsal tapes, the track perfectly blends her signature vocal tone and the new technology of the day.
While fans may have been outraged, the song’s success sent shockwaves through the music industry, with many artists wanting to use the technology in everything they did. Being used by everyone from Metallica to Travis Scott, every mainstream record now tends to have a little bit of electronic assistance, pushing the melody in the right direction to become a modern classic.
Despite some arguments that Auto-Tune takes away from the song’s authenticity, it all comes down to how you use it. Just like the distortion pedal was decades prior, Auto-Tune is just another tool in the musical toolbox, and when it’s used tastefully, it can make for some of the greatest music one could ask for.
