The History Of Auto-Tune | Genius News

Since its development in 1997, Auto-Tune has made its way into almost every genre of music. While the talkbox and vocoder give songs a retro feel, Auto-Tune was originally used on futuristic pop hits. In 1998, Cher’s “Believe” was one of the first commercial recordings to use the effect. In 1999 Jennifer Lopez released her No. 1 hit “If You Had My Love.” Inspired by J. Lo, T-Pain took Auto-Tune to the next level.
On his 2005 debut, T-Pain used it to distort his vocals, rather than just pitch-correct them. In 2007, Snoop Dogg embraced the effect on “Sexual Eruption.” In 2008, Lil Wayne adopted the technique for 'Tha Carter III.' Later that year, Kanye dropped his Auto-Tuned '808s & Heartbreak.' But then in 2009, JAY-Z announced his desire to kill the effect with “D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune).” Since then, there have been protests… but the effect has persevered.
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[@shadypikachu4475]

that taylor shade lmaoo

[@TheJayWay]

LETHAL 💀💀💀

[@hussein6173]

Genius dont fuck with the snake

[@jinpaperr]

Shady Pikachu RIGHT 💀

[@jiaaaxuuuaan9509]

Shady Pikachu haters gonna hate

[@kauann4096]

Exactly lol

[@yung_legna]

Was that a Taylor swift diss at the end 💀 genius really for the culture 😂

[@Ngasii]

LEGNA HAHAHAHA I actually liked that part😂😂😂😂

[@Keyz-pz5xy]

LEGNA I made that bitch famous

[@vlonethug4813]

X has a cancerous fanbase

[@IMMASICKKKFUCK]

DEADASS 😂😂😂😂

[@clutchcakes3946]

Culture?? nigga stfu

[@lb0819]

It's lit Straight up Yea yea

[@kingoftalkingshit8694]

LA FLAME

[@theresasnakeinmyboot6418]

TRAVIS SCOTT

[@joaquinlopez2612]

Yung Nardo they forgot him damn smh

[@Dontcrybebetter]

BigBlood 50 La Flaaaaame

[@supergremlin1494]

Pop it, pop it

[@mosesdevadass6056]

Genius finally making some interesting vids.....

[@Tr-vi2yz]

Moses Devadass if u remove the v in ur last name it say "Deadass"

[@88ights]

Tr Bruh Deadass 😂

[@HXXDIEBOY]

Moses Devadass once letty is back it will get better

[@khalil7149]

they always did

[@omarsabir1210]

Moses Devadass they always do

[@babyslimeargo]

Who else used electric fan auto-tune?

[@DonTheking]

Christian Jones me 💯

[@princylady1]

Christian Jones yessir

[@paulc8147]

That's a gate effect 8)

[@shandajohnson8825]

Yes!!

[@randm-5281]

T-Pain, Travis $cott & Kanye West use autotune the best.

[@jonastheproducerjojoondabe5586]

Randøm - cudi too

[@welcome14783]

Randøm - nigga what about quavo

[@marcosadriano7764]

Randøm - lil wayne

[@jobcarando7715]

Randøm - Bon Iver!!!!

[@UmarFarooq-lm6zu]

Future

[@cartersheehan7440]

You cant talk about autotune without talking about T-Pain. He made it what it is today

[@plugomarno1709]

Carter Sheehan they had him in the video

[@cartersheehan7440]

PLUGOMAR NO1 I know, I'm just saying

[@fresh2cool957]

Carter Sheehan true that a lot of rappers today thinking they tpain

[@AbhyudayGaur]

I fucking love 808s & Heartbreaks.

[@AbhyudayGaur]

I too hated this and Yeezus at first but I came to love them. They're so unique and production wise very pleasant. 808s has a calm vibe to it, the production is what makes it so awesome and soothing. Just give it another try sometime.

[@tinuthomas531]

Son Goku you probably listen to trap

[@tinuthomas531]

hannibal_007 yeah I didn’t like 808s & Heartbreak and Yeezus until recently. I still don’t like Heartless as much as anything else but the other songs are really good. Yeezus on the other hand is fucking great. I honestly got the album just because it was kanye and I wanted to get all 7 albums, but I never cared to listen. One day I was just playing through them and when I listened to all of New Slaves and got smacked in the face with that god tier outro, I realized the art of the album and fell in love with it. Guilt Trip is my personal favorite though

[@AbhyudayGaur]

Tinu Thomas Even I don't like heartless that much but the others are extremely good.

[@Mitra-jf3xy]

This album was of Kanye West but T-Pain was involved in this

[@sethmartin6469]

0:31 They spelled "files" wrong

[@genius]

damn, good eye.

[@juniorxox5741]

Lmfao😂

[@Ma4Vin]

Genius resultado = resultado + " "

[@carlosrrrq]

fies

[@oniglock]

W

[@OMGItsGuppey]

People think Auto-Tune makes the singer, when it doesn't. To use autotune, you have to already have prior knowledge of what notes to hit and what key to sing it in. Sure, you can make noise into autotune, but autotune won't automatically just make it sound magical, especially if you're not singing the correct notes. Autotune was made to help you hit notes perfectly, not the correct note. So, for instance, if you hit a flat note, and a flat note is within that key range, autotune is gonna help you hit that flat note perfectly. This is coming from someone who has used autotune for over 8 years. So if you hate autotune, because you think it helps people sing that don't know how, that is completely false.

[@LLTMANSA]

Thank you! Ive been trying to tell people that. You still have to have some sense of pitch knowledge when using auto tune!

[@TheFreshPrince261]

Cereal Chaser nope... this is Melodyne!! Melodyne makes magic, autotune NO.

[@OMGItsGuppey]

Cereal Chaser, there are ways to manually correct someone's pitch, but that is not autotune. Autotune is bascially the computer doing it for you, which does not know exactly what note you are trying to hit, but it rather guesses and assumes by helping you hit whatever note you're trying to hit, regardless if it's an incorrect note or not. Like ESSJ021 said, that's not autotune, that's Melodyne, flex pitch, or whatever manual pitch correction is called in your DAW.

[@albanyrebelion]

no one thinks that and i still hate auto tune to an extent, tpain did it well, now its just over done

[@OMGItsGuppey]

Spencer, People do think that, I've heard it plenty of times personally. People have complained about me using auto-tune in my songs simply because they believe it "makes the singer be able to sing when they really cant." I don't see how you could like the way T-Pain used auto-tune, when he basically over did it, using the effect at full settings to sound almost identical to a robot, but you hate when other's do it because somehow, some way, they over did it way more than T-Pain did. Makes sense.

[@zephaniahmcdaniels]

Glad they're giving Roger Troutman proper respect for the talkbox

[@shoba7665]

The talk box is one of the coolest sounding things in music

[@Slumberyelm59]

Slim Cognito I agree and vocoder too

[@KMR136]

Autotune is fine just don't abuse it

[@flam3129]

KMR_136 travis scott and migos are the best when they use autotune

[@JavachipVMN]

migos are way better when they don't imo

[@TheCobCAP]

VMN_28 migos know how to use autotune, but quavo sometimes overdoes it and it gets annoying

[@shammyboy207]

autotune is not a talent man grow up guys

[@legacy5907]

@@shammyboy207 but like people been using autotune hella singers from the 00s used it 😐

[@jeanclaudelindem9786]

T-pain = God of auto tune.

[@mohamedboualem3273]

The autotune of Roger Troutman is SICK

[@francisbawasanta6310]

Talk Box... Roger Troutman, Teddy Riley. Autotune is T-pain and Ye. Vocoders have been used in Electronic bands and some old New Jack...

[@sonikku956]

Francis Bawasanta New jack swing loved using it, since it was heavily influenced by electro funk music

[@-SUM1-]

*talkbox

[@Destinationreached]

Gosh the memories with the music

[@drummerAVA]

alex game 2008 Lil Wayne got me lol

[@Jaybae0416]

if we did not have auto tune future would've been screwed. LOVE YOU FUTURE

[@Jaybae0416]

Blac Youngsta Take a joke dude 😂😂😂

[@Jaybae0416]

yes and it's really not that serious man

[@fullysemiautomatic5618]

Batman Jay funny that he no longer uses autotune

[@Jaybae0416]

yeah he never use no auto-tune in the congratulation remix, mask off, and his recent album HNDRXX. You are so right

[@cobrexu]

thats why he was shit before compared to now? cuz of autotune not making a huge difference? heh

[@Ninjagamer69]

T pain started the sound, Kanye innovated the sound, and Travis Scott mastered the autotune sound

[@CourtneQuintae]

Garian idk about mastered. Mastering the sound would consist of not even hearing the autotune

[@Killius]

Travis uses vocoders, melodyne and auto tune

[@ririschannelx]

Garian t pain didn't invent the sound. It's been around for decades lmao did you not bother watch the sound. Why do people act like these recent artists invented everything? Everyone is always inspired by something

[@ohhKilla]

T Pain mastered it.

[@Lizard1582]

Travis is the goat

[@MB-nomada]

T-pain and Kanye West the best using it

[@rockytiafau1624]

Emmanuel BH heeeelll naw. Zapp and Roger are the best ones ever!!!

[@itsultimate3108]

Travis Scott has finessed a good sound with it

[@ggthewhale]

Bon Iver

[@upsidedownnigga952]

we talking bout hip-hop artists

[@oldhead2854]

Rocky Tiafau thats a talkbox dumbass

[@MaxAires]

everybody seems to forget Roy Vedas's 1997s 'Fragments of life'

[@marcelwajar7487]

How can they make a auto tune video and not mention Travis or Young thug ???

[@zclan4130]

Marcel Wajar because it was the history of autotune?

[@marcelwajar7487]

Zach Clanton okay but how does Future have to do with it .. I mean if you gonna show Future atleast show Travis and Thug

[@superd0g1]

pretty sure future has been around longer that Travis and thug

[@jonaschisolm1368]

Because mask off is a bigger song than any of them have ever had so it makes sense

[@rager3636]

+Jonas Chisolm No nigga goosebumps is bigger than mask off

[@jaspaldeora8572]

YOU DONT GOT THE ANSWERS

[@karimd88]

Sway in the morning I know I ain’t got the answers that’s why I am asking you

[@Oxytocin_]

Sway in the morning -SHOULD'VE BEEN AUTO-TUNED-

[@user-jp4ci5ny3v]

Incredibly well done video. Great job guys

[@Joeyblondewolf2]

This is a work of art!!! I just wish some artist didn't over use it and used their natural voice too. Like don't just depend on it

[@jack-bx1xh]

Nah the more auto tune the better

[@pradabears]

@@jack-bx1xh - drainer

[@gilespeterson6832]

Roger Troutman and Zapp the Talkbox 🐐s

[@soulassassin0g]

The fact that T-Pain can sing even without auto tune is a testament to his talent.

[@aceman0000099]

The fact that he can drink tea without needing Paracetamol is a testament to his resilience

[@Lidanza]

Bro like this videos MUST HAVE more audience... i love what u doing genius please dont change

[@spencerpease7144]

Rodger was a legend and was also the singer on California Love

[@whitefang4019]

I dont usually comment but when i do......

[@whitefang4019]

I comment twice

[@joepassive]

but when you do it's in auto-tune?

[@hakanozsi]

Kanye is autotune god, he uses the effect in the best way.

[@kellylengombouala6392]

Yep him, T- Pain, Travis are the autotune goats

[@nicklam5234]

Kelly Lengo Mbouala fr

[@user-bp1be1yg2h]

Maybe in 808s but in yeezus he failed miserably except blood on the leaves

[@fresh2cool957]

Naw mostly T-Pain

[@Monomonmamon]

The more I dig through these comment seeing not too much Bon Iver I feel sad :/

[@AfricanGirl]

Good video. especially at the end lol

[@touyakun3614]

Travis the GOAT when it comes to good sounding autotune

[@tomasv26]

Touya Kun tpain

[@CK-ve5oo]

Touya Kun bruh you must've just started listening to rap in the past year

[@touyakun3614]

C K nah i just really feel travis' autotune the most i vibe so hard to it

[@coeptan8094]

Travis fucking fire, rodeo top 5 album all time, hyped af astroworld 3 August

[@asongaboutafriend2592]

tpain Is More Of a Auto-Tune Goat Than Travis

[@NostalgiCrazy]

People love to hate it, but it always makes songs and voices sound cooler and more interesting. Sure, artists shouldn't abuse it or try to pass it off as their actual voice. But I don't think it should die it's just like any other instrument or effect.

[@GizmoGonzo]

Lmfao BUT WHERE'S TRAVIS SCOTT'S PART OF THE VIDEO

[@TheMix7000]

When "Woods" came on, I got goosebumps!

[@DIRBYFRAXILLE]

Genius, you do your thing! Love these videos.

[@fitnessbuff8740]

That Cher song "Believe" and Eifel 65's "I'm Blue" low key hit tho....

[@suiuzi2054]

0:46 only frank ocean fans will know....

[@robbynickgallardo6637]

close tooo yooouu

[@gagewood9169]

SUI UZI I caught that so fast and was hype asf

[@kevtalks5432]

Thanks for making educational contents @Genius

[@ricojonz3]

Travis scott,T-Pain, teddy Riley and Roger Troutman the best to ever use auto tune not debatable

[@zclan4130]

ricojonz3 quavo, future, Tory Lanez, and Wayne do it cool

[@denzelperry7024]

Apart from the fact Teddy and Roger never used autotune in their whole careers .......

[@FosterMinotaur2]

Migos?

[@nagboinfi]

future autotune is shitty. Kanye is right next to T-Pain in the use of auto-tune

[@texaco9159]

Hov kinda took an L with doa everybody and they mama use it. T-Pain the most under appreciated under rated artist of all time #arguably

[@etgohomeplease]

Who's gonna talk about Bon Iver and his role in auto tune??

[@Cozy_Infamous]

0:46 just amazing

[@GamingWafflez]

Immediately thought about Daft Punk when I heard the vocoder, was happy they got mentioned after in the vid :)

[@doranabdi2170]

How is there no mention of travis in this entire video. He took auto tune and modulations on the voice to another level especially in hip hop

[@albertmorales7965]

yo Genius , you the best channel ever

[@commentingaccount122]

these vids are always fire

[@moumoutou]

Where i can see the full video of this version of arround the world??? Please

[@ovoxoclub]

It all started with Cher

[@oxymoronic-ephiphanies]

Max Mavam yup

[@MrMinusguy]

1:26 "The vocoder is a synthesiser that transforms the human voice into digital sounds" What? That not what digital means. Vocoder was invented in 30s when there was no digital technology, like, at all.

[@theoriginalrhythm]

More of this content please

[@mikejc96]

Damn that throwback

[@lailah1232]

I actually enjoyed the use of auto tune. I found that it influenced the meaning of songs a lot of times, or just brought a fun feeling to them. Now it does get annoying when it's overused, but that rarely happens out of fear of losing profit

[@EastAfricanSniper]

How are you not gonna have Travis here smh

[@gerald_the_science_guy]

Short and sweet, i like it.

[@kaylabey]

Could you guys do the most famous types of flows in hip hop? I think that would be very interesting

[@real_Hamilton]

I think Kanye uses autotune better than anyone. But with him it's not just autotune, he also uses a lot of distortion like a rock guitarist

[@cartell1127]

I remember on the boondocks , that dude thugneficent was falling off and he turned to auto tune and that one kid was like "that's gay"

[@oxymoronic-ephiphanies]

I love talkbox and vocoder sounds. I just love it

[@Eliik]

Yo, thank you Genius for uploading such interesting content regurlarly. Genius > Complex

[@mfwhom5214]

808's and Heartbreak is the most influential album in modern history.

[@codypower4298]

MF Whom ? kinda

[@BachiMeansBee]

MF Whom ? do you mean influence in music in general or influence in hip hop?

[@mfwhom5214]

-Simão Barbosa- hip-hop

[@BachiMeansBee]

MF Whom ? well, it's one of the moat influential albums in hip hop, but i don't think it's the most influential, i believe 2pac's discography has been more influential in modern hip hop than kanye's

[@BachiMeansBee]

and i'm pointing 2pac as an exemple, not saying he's the most influential artist that hip hop ever had

[@itseli2475]

T-Pain, Travis Scott, and Kanye West. The father, the son, and the holy spirit.

[@cameronrollinson]

Genuine also used it in "Differences" in one line. that's when I first heard auto tune.

[@Nolongerningen]

1:27 me:shush doctor who is about to start

[@itszgab]

THAT TAYLOR SWIFT SHADE AT THE END LMAOOOOOOOOOO

[@klaws3522]

How you not gonna put Travis in this video tho

[@views-lr8gk]

badneighbor... he's not bigger than the other artist they showed in this video.

[@oscarericsson8300]

1,000,248 views He is tho

[@klaws3522]

1,000,248 views HE IS DIPSHIT

[@pjpfeiffer4495]

Travis Scott sucks that's why...

[@klaws3522]

PJ Pfeiffer ok PJ

[@ashleychurcher]

this is a great video. more about autotune please!

[@punchyheadgxl]

The greatest use of auto tune was on John Legend in Kanye West's "Graduation Day". Waaaaay ahead of its time.

[@LilTubeBoi]

So JLO helped shift Hip-hop and the music world by influencing TPAIN lol.

[@benvc7617]

how u gon talk about auto-tune without mentioning travis

[@official.kingmikez1408]

Cause Travis is not originals like tpain and the other early 2000's artist

[@skrboi02]

dis chanel always lit

[@Dacheddaman]

That YELL at the end.... 😂😂😂

[@c1llacy8n]

Travis Scott is the only person to make Auto-Tune sound good.

[@zclan4130]

Mehki & Cam you a damn fool shut the fuck up

[@1bashidoblade]

JEFFERY*

[@shutyobtchassup1641]

T pain and Travis are the greats. Can't say Travis isn't cause pain even said he was better

[@Jsg518]

Mehki & Cam Kanye made it sound good too

[@shutyobtchassup1641]

Mehki & Cam and ye

[@jeromem.evardome10_kr15]

autotune destroyed the meaning of "singing".

[@Haydn_]

I love this video ive watched it like 8 times already

[@Thelofiguy]

the funny thing is that when i started the video i was actually listening to kanyes heartless lol

[@m15try45]

auto tune is cancer rn in hip hop sounds awful

[@gt_slattt2494]

Unless you know how to use it.

[@m15try45]

Stewie Griffin kanye's use of it in 808's was decent at least he wasn't mumbling

[@ogarrt]

Nikhil Mistry you too behind catch up

[@m15try45]

Bodhicitta i just can't get into it if it's used correctly and with a bit of class then yeh but if it's just an overload of autotune in every song then it's too much like i cba with travis scott or future etc

[@0piumaeternum]

Nikhil Mistry fam how do y’all just sit there without thinking of Travis scott

[@NytzInAllWays]

insightful

[@captainsquirrel0500]

ELO uses the talkbox super well

[@itsallgood5314]

T-Pain the legend himself.

[@howtointernet7364]

0:46. Close to you by Stevie Wonder

[@longlivebarry2295]

That Buy You A Drank is a classic

[@anthonypence2116]

Surprised that there wasn't a mention on Kanye using a vocoder in "Runaway" that shit blew my mind when I first heard it

[@irocjared]

1:42 Eiffel 65 didn’t use autotune. They wanted to, but they couldn’t, so they used a vocoder.

[@rift0tripper]

T-Pain is the one who brought it to us where we knew it was autotuned, but he made it sound so good, and we didnt mind.

[@alzoraig]

Daft Punk Had Their Talkbox and Vocoded Vocals Since Their Song "Around the World" and Their Second Album "Discovery".. But Did You Know That Romanthony Only Used Autotune in Daft Punk's One More Time? In Fact: Romanthony Actually Did Some Tracks for Daft Punk, Especially for Thomas Bangalter's Label. Three Of Daft Punk's Songs Featured Romanthony: Too Long, One More Time and a Version of it from Their Daft Club Album. Hold On was The Only Romanthony Song to be Distributed by and Released on Roule, Despite The Fact That it Was First Released on Another Label Before Roule.

[@ZeuzMakesMusic]

The Anteres warehouse is in my city......

[@CordIsBored]

3:10 LOOOL TAY-TAY DIS THOE

[@SquareLens]

I was watching this infotainment video to actually learn about this, and then at the end 🔥🔥🔥 GODDDD! People could probably survive in a desert will all that shade Genius dropped on Taylor! 👀

[@user-vg4mi1ww6i]

3:15 lmao

[@MyNameisDC]

That Taylor shade at the end though

[@sanchezproductions87]

Love the Talk Box.. not crazy about the way autotune is used in mainstream music but at the same time pitch correction plug-ins are just like any other tool in an engineer's arsenal like EQ and compression. It's all done to taste..

[@mirela2755]

thank u Cher for making it popular

[@juanjara8621]

whats the name of the song at 1:39 ?

[@winston123iez]

This video deserves a like

[@jobcarando7715]

what song is that at 0:48?? that sounded so gooooood!

[@jobcarando7715]

TheGamingWaffle thanks breh

[@clickbad]

The Taylor Swift shade at the end. I didn't see that coming!!! 😂

[@anaidhd]

Sorry I'm late to the party (should've commented the moment this video was uploaded) If T-Pain is the king of auto tune, then Kesha (Ke$ha, if you will) is the queen. I feel like she could've just at least gotten an honorable mention here, even if she doesn't really use it anymore, but still, great video!

[@ERGSEG]

LMAO the Taylor shade at the end. 😂

[@MoFiTheMagnificent]

What's the song at :40. They just said the name of the movie but not the song