In a recent interview with NHK.org.jp, Queen drummer Roger Taylor has reacted to musicians who have used auto-tune these days.
Interviewer asked ‘How do you see the changes in music nowadays?’, Roger responded:
“Well, we’re not really changing now, we are what we are. Now, how music is changing, I can’t really tell you. I think there is too much automation in music now.
Too many machines, too much tuning and you don’t see virtuosos on instruments, so I don’t think people learn their instruments as well as they used to. But they rely on other things like sampling and all the studio tricks.
I don’t like this auto tune thing I hear everywhere. It’s somebody singing into a mic and then somebody playing the tune. I find that annoying. If you listen to Whitney Houston singing a song, that’s singing. Aretha Franklin, she didn’t need an auto tuner.“
Interviewer said:
“Radio Gaga was about the radio. This was an era when radio was turning into TV, and now it has turned into streaming.”
Roger replied:
“Yes, yes, true, it had. It seemed like MTV was huge everywhere in America. It seemed liked videos had taken over and become more important than the music. In fact, they cost almost ten times as much to make than it did to make the record.
It just seemed like it was going the wrong way. And I thought, well, we fell in love with music through the radio, but then we went and made a great, big, expensive video, so I can’t talk really.”
Click here to entire interview.
