Something To Blog About

I tried to listen to the radio again. As a songwriter, you're told that if you want to write a hit, you need to listen to the radio. There are a couple of things that I hear when ever I do. Granted, if you you've only been listening to the radio for only the last fifteen years, you probably don't think that there's anything wrong. And, maybe there isn't. But, I think that if you're fifteen years or more older, there's a good chance that you know what I'm talking about.

The first thing that I noticed, when I listen to top forty especially, is the increasing number of songs that make use of what's become known as, the auto-tune effect. The auto-tune effect is essentially the robotic sound that used to be created with a vocoder or talk box. Now, pitch correction gear made by such companies as Antares can, if adjusted just right, produce the same effect. For many years, vocal tuning was was the recording industry's biggest and best kept secret. That is, until a very well know and popular pop singer released a song in 1998 where the vocals were tuned until the sound of her voice became robotic and mechanical.

Since then, the use of pitch correction hardware, and now software, has been growing at a steady pace. I won't lie to you, I am not against the occasional use of such gear. In cases where studio time is at a premium and/or deadlines have to be met, this hardware and software can save countless hours, days, months, or maybe even years, trying to nail a particular vocal line or phrase. But, when many fellow artist and producers start to decry its over use, maybe there's something to what they are saying. Tune into any Urban or Hip Hop station and it seems like every two or three songs is making use of it. God forbid if auto tune gets turned into its own genre.

The second thing that I noticed, is that melodies are getting weaker and weaker as rhythm is taking over. It seems, and this is just my opinion, that more songs feature the artist sing/talking, nearly rapping their lyrics. And, at times it sounds like they're squeezing more and more syllables into every line. I've said this before, there is more than one way to write a song. But, I've also said, that there's nothing that makes a song more memorable than a good melody.

Some Neo Soul artists are beginning to put more emphasis on real instrumentation, but they are merely going for a retro feel while maintaining their Urban or Hip Hop sensibilities. All they would really have to do is sit down with a piano or keyboard, write a melody first and then fill in the rest.

Maybe it's just enough to pass the whole thing off as changing times. But, what will happen when the latest hit song is a patch work collage of bits and pieces of other songs, while someone talks over it? Sound like the makings of a classic to you?