As we near the end of of 2008, it’s been very clear that the use of key-specific autotune or the Vocoder effect has been a huge hit, and at the forefront of it all has been T-Pain. Whether you like him or not, I think the following comments are fair:
- T-Pain has the vocoder on too strong, and his voice ‘wobbles’ at the end of notes, rather than a nice crisp finish
- He’s delivered something relatively traditional (see California Love or One More Time) and repositioned it with main stream audience.
As previously discussed, auto-tune has a lot of stigma attached, but when used well, it can be a really interesting and colourful effect. Although it might be hiding T-Pain’s real talent.
So here are the biggest hits for 2008 featuring the vocoder effect, including T-Pain’s new video “Can’t Believe It” — the first innovative hip hop clip I’ve seen in a long time.
- T-Pain ft. Lil Wayne – Can’t Believe It
- Rhianna – Disturbia
- Lil Wayne – Lollipop
- Lady GaGa – Just Dance
- Chris Brown featuring T-Pain – Kiss Kiss (I love this track because T-Pain swaps his Vocoder with Brown)
- Chris Brown – Forever (I really fucking hate this song)
- T.I. Feat. Rihanna – Live Your Life
- Kanye West – Love Lockdown
Tags: auto-tune, chris brown, kanye west, lady gaga, lil wayne, vocal effect, vocoder
Word!
Vocoder can be great but it’s def been overdone in 2008. Kanye’s obsession is the most worrying.
Makes me wonder though, what was the defining “trick” of 2007? Vocoder def owns 2008, but what’s gonna be big in 2009?
There are so much better uses for vocoder, I’m experimenting with a few myself with a solo trip hop thing I’m doing.
HipHop in 07 was when everything got a bit more big beat, and gangster. 05/06 everything was lil jon.
who knows. i think we’ll see more like ‘forever’ kind of stuff. hip hop is leaning a little more on dance these days in my opinion. but i think it’s too hard to call.