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20 Years Of Cher's 'Believe' And Its Auto-Tune Legacy1
(SOUNDBITE OF CHER'S "BELIEVE")
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Those are the opening notes of Cher's hit song "Believe." Believe it or not, the dance anthem2 has just turned 20 years old.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BELIEVE")
CHER: (Singing) Do you believe in life after love?
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE3: I can just say the words Cher, "Believe," and then the vibrations4 of this song that already existed on the wind will reverberate5 in your head, and you'll immediately hear that (singing) lee-la-la (ph).
CORNISH: That's NPR Music's Stephen Thompson. He says "Believe" did so many things. It kicked off a Cher renaissance6, one of many. It cemented her role as a pop icon7. And it popularized a controversial fixture8 of pop music today - Auto-Tune. Here's Stephen.
THOMPSON: There's a long history of artists using different vocal9 modifications10, but it had always been disguised. You used it in ways that you would hope the audience wouldn't notice, just to make a vocal a little cleaner and clearer and more on pitch. This song brings the Auto-Tune front and center so you hear those modifications.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BELIEVE")
CHER: (Singing) Oh, do you believe in life after love?
THOMPSON: And it could easily have just been a gimmick11. Instead, Auto-Tune became a very prominent tool in a lot of pop, R&B and hip-hop production.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BUY U A DRANK (SHAWTY SNAPPIN')")
T-PAIN: (Singing) I'm going to buy a drink. Then I'm going to take you home with me. I got money in the bank. Shawty, what you think about that?
THOMPSON: To me, Auto-Tune sounds sort of like digital stretching or flexing12. You're hearing a singer kind of slide up and down the register in a way that doesn't sound natural. But Auto-Tune can amplify13 an expression of passion in - or emotion in a singer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HIDE AND SEEK")
IMOGEN HEAP: (Singing) Where are we?
THOMPSON: I think of a song like "Hide And Seek" by the singer Imogen Heap, who became really, really well-known for using this effect.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HIDE AND SEEK")
HEAP: (Singing) The dust...
THOMPSON: And you hear "Hide And Seek," and the way they're using Auto-Tune to manipulate her voice, you really feel the emotions that that song is expressing. And I don't know too many people who would hear that song and say, like, ugh, Auto-Tune.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HIDE AND SEEK")
HEAP: (Singing) They were here first. Mm, what'd you say?
THOMPSON: So what you've seen in the years since is Auto-Tune being used in kind of exciting and innovative14 ways. And it can be misused15 in ways that can bleach16 the emotion and love out of a performance. Like, The Black Eyed Peas had a lot of these, like, very overdriven party-hearty sounds. And I would describe their sound as, like, the music robots make when they're trying to sell products to other robots.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOOM BOOM POW")
THE BLACK EYED PEAS: (Singing) Got to get that boom, boom, boom. Got to get that boom, boom, boom. Got to get that boom, boom, boom. Get that boom, boom, boom.
THOMPSON: So it's sort of amazing that all of this Auto-Tune stuff really began in the pop music (laughter) landscape with this one dance pop song from almost exactly 20 years ago. When that song originally came out, all the people involved with that song actually tried to hide from the public the method they used to create that song because they didn't necessarily want people to imitate it. It was like, this is our gimmick. And now, it's just so funny to see all the different permutations of what seemed at the time like this total throwaway song.
[POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: In the audio of this story, we incorrectly say that Imogen Heap used Auto-Tune in her song "Hide and Seek." She actually used a Vocoder.]
1 legacy | |
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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2 anthem | |
n.圣歌,赞美诗,颂歌 | |
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3 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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4 vibrations | |
n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 );震动;感受;(偏离平衡位置的)一次性往复振动 | |
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5 reverberate | |
v.使回响,使反响 | |
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6 renaissance | |
n.复活,复兴,文艺复兴 | |
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7 icon | |
n.偶像,崇拜的对象,画像 | |
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8 fixture | |
n.固定设备;预定日期;比赛时间;定期存款 | |
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9 vocal | |
adj.直言不讳的;嗓音的;n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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10 modifications | |
n.缓和( modification的名词复数 );限制;更改;改变 | |
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11 gimmick | |
n.(为引人注意而搞的)小革新,小发明 | |
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12 flexing | |
n.挠曲,可挠性v.屈曲( flex的现在分词 );弯曲;(为准备大干而)显示实力;摩拳擦掌 | |
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13 amplify | |
vt.放大,增强;详述,详加解说 | |
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14 innovative | |
adj.革新的,新颖的,富有革新精神的 | |
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15 misused | |
v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 );把…派作不正当的用途;虐待;滥用 | |
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16 bleach | |
vt.使漂白;vi.变白;n.漂白剂 | |
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