Auto-Tune Destroyed Popular Music

The video didn't really deliver on its title (a riff on the DESTROYED youtube clickbait meme.) He seemed to be arguing that "1) Pop songs are too robotic sounding, 2) listeners don't care, 3) that will make it easier for AI to take over, and 4) I don't know how musicians will get paid for AI-generated songs." (The last point recalling historical worries that player pianos, recorded music, radio, drum machines, synthesizers, or other music technology would displace musicians.)

He's almost certainly right that AI will be used in music production, but he didn't seem to present much evidence for point (3) beyond "I can certainly imagine AI making a song like this." And what is to prevent AI from being trained to sound more organic or "human"? Drum machines already include swing and randomization (or "humanization") features, and adding varied swing and 2 vs. 3 vs. 4 to a metronomic beat was popularized decades ago.

Regarding autotune itself, Cher (in 1998 as he notes - this isn't new!) and T-Pain innovated by popularizing it as a vocal distortion effect beyond simple pitch correction. (And as Rick noted T-Pain is actually a good singer and also licensed the fun I am T-Pain iOS app to recreate his signature effect.)

At the end of the day autotune and time quantization are production tools which can be overused or misused like anything else. They can certainly make vocals sound unnatural, bland, mechanical, or distorted. But robotic voices and/or mechanical beats have been heavily used in popular music for decades in the case of vocoders, click tracks, and drum machines - or centuries in the case of the venerable metronome.

Compare his defense of backing tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZXUPuiC9Eo

Classic Rick Beato - shitting all over modern music for no reason. I understand that he doesn't like it - fine. I don't listen to much rap, but I can still understand it and appreciate it for what it is. Rick is smart about the music he knows and grew up with, but he's a moron regarding the music he doesn't know. It's literally the stereotypical "music was better back in my day, modern music sucks". He should know better; he's from the generation that remembers the days of "all rock music is the music of the devil". The idea that "modern music is shit" has never been true, it isn't true, and it never will be true. There are far better music YouTubers out there, don't bother with Rick Beato.

Highly recommend watching This is Pop on netflix, specifically the T-Pain episode. They do a deep dive on Auto Tune in the industry and T-Pain's relationship with industry musicians. Turns out he's a phenomenal a capella singer.

[0]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14155414/

Rick Beato has one of the best music-related channels out there. His passion for music is contagious. I’ve been watching him for a few years and I couldn’t recommend it more.

Rick is fantastic but this is such a Boomer take that it's almost a parody of itself.