Local Digital: Staging Geographies and Sonic Identities Through Auto-Tune Effects and Streaming Sites in North Indian Popular Music

ABSTRACT

This paper interprets the use of the Auto-Tune effect (ATE) in popular music from northern India. The paper sets out to demonstrate the value of using YouTube channels to identify regionally calibrated listenerships and to demonstrate how three channels in the state of Uttarakhand use the Auto-Tune effect to contribute to regional identity through music. While processes of globalization spread the use of the ATE around the world, a closer examination of its local expression in the music markets of India and Uttarakhand demonstrates that local contexts and local/regional industries influence the way the ATE is applied.

KEYWORDS:

• Auto-Tune
• regional identity
• studio
• Uttarakhand
• YouTube

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The channel’s name would appear to be an imitation of India’s largest and most influential music company T-Series.

2. The three major languages of Uttarakhand are Garhwali, Kumaoni, and Jaunsari. Videos in these languages comprise the videos available on the sites.

3. Not surprisingly, all videos described here give credits for various “dancers,” “actors,” and “artists” in different ways. Even though the videos frequently show actors on screen rather than the singers themselves, we have chosen to refer to the characters using the singers’ names. In many examples, however, the singers themselves are shown in the recording studio itself at different moments during the video.

4. Meena Rana is a singer who is well respected throughout the industry. She has sung with many leading male singers over the past thirty years. This, too, could have influenced the limited obvious levels of ATE used on her voice.

5. For more detail of the history of the bagpipe in Uttarakhand, see Alter (1–16).

6. For more detail of the projection of the flute into mediated Uttarakhandi songs, see Alter (65–79).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew Alter

Andrew Alter is Associate Professor in Music Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney. He teaches and undertakes research in a diverse range of sub-disciplines including popular music studies, ethnomusicology, composition, and music theory. His research is focused on traditional and popular music in India and Indonesia as well as World Music practice in Australia. He is an expert in music of the Himalayas. He has published two books on the topic: Dancing with Devtās: Drums, Power and Possession in the Music of Garhwal, North India (2008) and Musical Sound Spaces: Listening to History in the Uttarakhand Himalayas (2014).

Adrian Renzo

Adrian Renzo writes about popular music production, electronic dance music, and remix culture from a critical musicological perspective. His research includes work on the aesthetics of medley records, the construction of Spanish “megamixes,” audio mastering, and the working methods of amateur mash-up producers. His current research explores the intersection between Top 40 pop songs and rave tracks during the early 1990s. Dr Renzo teaches in the areas of popular music studies, musicology and performance at Macquarie University.