Who Told The Temptations They Needed More AutoTune?
We're sure last time "My Girl," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg" or "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" came on the radio you just thought to yourself, "Man, those Temptations are surely soulful and their harmonies are tiiiiiiight, but you know what would really make them special? More AutoTune!"
Well, if you're the one perverse soul in a million who actually thought that, you're in luck my friend. According to Spinner (via Beatcrave), Temptations' brand manager surviving founding member Otis Williams wants to update the group's sound "for the kids" by dropping the despised voice-correction device all over their 49th album Still Here (discarded album titles presumably included One Original Member Standing!, Ain't Too Proud To Keep Going, My Girl's Dentures and Damn Kids Get Off My Lawn).
Here's Williams on the "new" strategy to make the band sound like a Cher single from 1998:
We're trying to let our fans know that we're in the here and now, but still know where we came from... I'm very analytical about everything. I sit and listen over and over. The Temptations, for what we're known for, we try to stay in character. We know we're not rappers and hip-hop, but we want to stay on the cutting edge. The kids nowadays, they like what we do but it's good to try and give them a taste of what the sound is like today.
(We jest because it's fun to make fun of AutoTune and OuttaTouch Oldsters. Still, respect to the industrious Otis Williams, whose autobiography was made into the fantastic Temptations TV miniseries that they show all the time on basic cable. One of the best music-biopics ever!)
Wanna see The Temptations at their absolute, AutoTune-less best (i.e., produced by the mighty Norman Whitfield)? Here you go:
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
