Tuning the human voice to the sound of technology: A cultural history of pitch-correction software in 21st-century popular music

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

With this project I am exploring the increasingly close relationship between pitch-correction software and vocal techniques in popular music.Applications such as AutoTune and Melodyne enable a broad 'tuning' of the human voice-not only in terms of its pitch accuracy, but also in terms of an idealized timbral perfection. Because pitch-correction technology has been used in popular music production with increasing regularity since 1997, I hypothesize that singers are now beginning to imitate the sounds 'perfected' by this software. I situate pitch-correction software-and this more general 'ideology of perfection'-within a larger cultural history of music technology, joining scholars such as Sterne (2003) and Katz (2005) in their attempts to write the history of sound and music according to the technologies which have worked to produce them. More pressingly, in musicological scholarship to date, there has been no comprehensive history written of pitch-correction software. Instead, several small studies have considered 'AutoTune' in localized contexts (Danielsen & Brovig-Hanssen, 2016; Hein, 2017; Ragona, 2013; Marshall, 2017, 2018).I will also consider pitch-correction software in relation to a relatively new school of thought which contemplates the increasingly reciprocal relationship between the human body and its technological Other (Hayles, 1998; Latour, 2005, 1998)-an issue which sits at the forefront of many musicological studies (Prior, 2009, 2017; Stanyek & Piekut, 2010). The burgeoning importance of this work is becoming ever clearer as we see the increasing use of terms such as 'post-truth' in contemporary society-in this deeply philosophical and highly politicized cultural climate, I perceive an urgent need for scholars to strive to make sense of this so-called breakdown of the 'real'. I hope to develop a critical musicological approach to this blurring of the 'human' and the 'non-human', teasing out whether pitch-correction should be understood as a non-human, transcendental technological power, or as the product of a unique cultural-historical, and essentially human, moment. Given this context, I will seek to examine how the widespread use of pitch-correction software is related to the way that popular musicians sing. I will refer specifically to how the historical development of music technology is implicated in this relationship, and will also consider the role that this relationship plays in the broader interface between humans and technology in an increasingly 'posthuman' world.To consider these matters in detail, the initial stages of research will consist of a comprehensive internet ethnography of particularly salient audio and visual sources which illuminate key issues relating to the research questions. I will use these sources to develop a coherent method for the analysis and transcription of the technologically refined voice, simultaneously engaging with debates surrounding pitch-correction. I also plan to delve into the computational details of pitch-correction software itself, consulting the scientific literature to understand how the cultural goals of the software are implicit in its design. Following this, most of the research will be interview-based-gathering information from singers, sound engineers and vocal experts. Here, I hope to find out exactly how voices and singing techniques have developed over the past 20 years, and the role of pitch-correction technologies in this development.My research method therefore combines internet ethnography, the close analysis of two main sources (music and software), and interview-based research. I employ this tripartite method because a network of music, software, and human values (located in both internet discussions and practical, work-based situations) produces the highly nuanced and culturally fraught position of pitch-correction software in contemporary society.