The other day I heard a pop song in a restaurant or in a store that was clearly reacting to the overproduced, slickly auto-tuned sound that is pervasive right now.
Their reaction – sing without pitch correction. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough. To my ear, they were intentionally singing out-of-tune as a sort of statement about pitch correction.
I understand the motive; there’s a lot to be gained from a subtler understanding of intonation than is provided by the software tools. BUT the opposite of auto-tune isn’t out-of-tune. It’s sophisticated, nuanced, in-tune singing.
The great singers always display a fluidity to their understanding of pitch that is equally ignored by both auto-tune and intentionally tuneless singers.
Let’s find our way back to that.
P.S.: I failed to get the name or artist of the song. If you have a guess, please let me know!