Autotune The News Becomes A Billboard Hit
from the who-gets-publishing-rights? dept
Hopefully by now, you've come across the "Autotune the News" phenomenon, where various news clips are turned into sometimes brilliant music numbers thanks to the magic of autotune and some very creative individuals. However, it seems that they're now taking it to the next level. Their incredibly popular "Bed Intruder" song taking the statements of Antoine Dodson on a newscast about his sister getting raped, hasn't just gone "viral," but it's actually hit the Billboard Hot 100 and is selling really well on iTunes:In the meantime, however, it looks like the "Gregory Brothers," the team behind Autotune the News, have figured out plenty of ways to turn their success into something more. They're already working on a pilot for Comedy Central, among other projects...
From a cultural perspective, though, this whole story again shows how culture is changing in very interesting and powerful ways. When we talk about things like "remixing" and "mashups," we tend to hear from a chorus of folks who brush off such things as mere copying and not worthy of being considered art in itself. But there's a lot more to it than that. What makes culture culture is the shared experiences around that work. This song is not only musically interesting, but also calls attention to a horrible incident that happened as well. And, again, some will brush it off as being meaningless, but the power with which it has interested so many people is not something that should be ignored.
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Filed Under: autotune, autotune the news, culture, remix
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Operative word there being "me", I suppose...
White rock 'n roll was considered groundbreaking by many, but fans of the original black artists who were never allowed to hit the mainstream had heard it all before. Percussion rhythms were regularly imported from Africa or India and were considered "new" despite having been played for hundreds of years. Hip-hop made it to the charts over a decade after it became commonplace among New York ghetto kids. And so on.
It's really the same as it ever was. It's just that your own experience means that you know the music that the new generation of artists are using as influences better than you knew the influences of your peers...
Not only that, but the modern musical marketplace is rather homogenised and boring thanks to corporate control. Truly unique and groundbreaking music is out there, you just can't stumble across it on the radio in the way you have been able to 20 years ago.
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So all music up to the 90's was stunningly original??? I hate to burst your bubble and your brilliant friend's bubble at the same time but that's hardly the case. I'll give you two examples, the first one I've raised here before. Classic Blues artist Elmore James is often credited with a standard titled "Dust My Broom", however the same song was recorded by Robert Johnson in the late 30's, and a different version of the title can be heard in the recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson from the 20's. A contemporary of both Johnson and James, Son House, was heard to describe the song as being a cotton worker's spiritual from late 1880's. And so on. Oh, and tell me Elvis created his classics out of thin air. I'm not sure that he is in fact the author of any of his early work. And I KNOW he heard one or two of Johnson's shellacs.
Do a wikipedia search on "Greensleeves", you may be amazed to see how far back that song goes.
The point is, until this "Mine, mine, all mine" mentality art used to grow from the soil of earlier art. Illustrated by the number of cases we see of content industry producers copy writing as original content that they just stole from others. Good artists create, great ones steal, isn't that Picasso said?
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I kind of have trouble separating emotionally the terrible event and this video. I imagine this works much better for lighthearted news stories....
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Guy climbed a trash can and came through her 2nd story window. He attacked her, with the goal of rape in mind, but her brother heard the struggle and came into the room, fended the guy off, and he ran away (I guess he jumped out the window?).
It's hard to treat it too seriously when you look at the way the brother talks about it. It's funny, because if you listen to the song, it sounds like they must have edited the timing of it to sound like appropriate song lyrics, but then you listen to the original newscast and the guy really does just talk like that.
"hide your kids, hide your wife, and hideyourhusbandscuz theyrapineverybodyouthere"
But yeah, if you want lighthearted, just watch the double rainbow video instead. Now there's a happy, lovefilled video.
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Lessons for Los Angeles
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on youtube, autotune the news is kind of a big deal and has been for at least a couple of years. they have tons of "marketing" in that they have a pretty significant following.
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Or you set it to 'auto-tune' to the nearest 'acceptable' note. So if you sing a Middle A at 216hz (not quite an A), then auto-tune will 'correct' it to the proper 220hz... nothing very musical about it. In fact, those slight deviations from the 'proper' note are what most of us consider "musical." They're a part of what are called "transients" and capturing them is uber important to attaining a lifelike recording. For instance: Frank Sinatra consistently sang a quarter-tone flat (for example: between an A and an A# for the uninitiated); auto-tune would have 'corrected' that and we'd be left with a much less musical sounding performer.
It's all moot though, there is no "correct" in music. Led Zeppelin tuned ALL of their instruments down a quarter tone--supposedly to make it harder for people to play along with the records, but I don't know that that's totally true. More likely, Robert Plant's voice had greater flexibility in that range.
And in Mozart's era, a proper Middle A was almost a full half tone lower than what we call an A today. So that means that what Mozart would have considered an A, we would consider an Ab/G# (A flat and G sharp are different names for the same note, by the way)
Music is so simple!!! Plaese to allow everyone to understandz that they don't need to put any effort into producing it!
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This will be the next "club banger" in some locals
This is the best Autotune News I've seen, I'm familiar with the story and it has been the butt of many jokes, but this somewhat tasteful considering, and pretty well done.
This might be the first song I buy off itunes.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0D4oZwCsA
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It reminds me of TAM saying "you people can't create anything that is going to be on the top", I wish I could see his face now.
And I'm flabbergasted, the brothers got paid, people are buying even when they can get it for free on Youtube.
That can't be true, we are a bunch of low lifes that want everything for free, "What does that means?"(quote from double rainbow all the way)
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Is there any ephemeral music trend that you don't think is cool?
I mean, I know I come off as a snob, but on most forums that I frequent I am one of the ones telling the snobs that they are off base, that music has evolved, that sampling is a legitimate technique and so on.
But this place is extreme. I just don't have the stomach for it. You might as well call porn with a musical background a 'brilliant interpretive dance' as call this a 'brilliant music number'.
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I personally think the stuff that DJ Porter does is better than this Autotune the News stuff. Check some of his stuff out (Slapchop remix, Press Hop and You Play to Win are some of the best IMO):
http://www.youtube.com/djsteveporter
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Classic.
http://www.youtube.com/djsteveporter#p/u/8/Jf13MmZIcLs
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That, or has only heard stuff from the lazy "remixers".
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