No pain, no game? T-Pain singing without autotune
- Anthony Trinh
- Nov 1, 2014
- 2 min read
I never thought I’d say this: T-Pain sang live at a concert, and he was actually good. When I first listened to his music, I was intrigued with the different style and tempo. I bought his CDs and downloaded his songs. It was fun and I was fascinated that a song can sound good even with an artist who cannot sing (or so I thought). However, after listening to the video, my attitude towards T-Pain has completely changed.
How consumers made T-Pain popular
T-Pain changed the way we listen to music today by introducing auto-tune, a technology which essentially changes your vocals to a “nicer tune”. T-Pain was so successful as an artist because he was one of the first to use the technology in his music. His music went viral and consumers began to distinguish him as a category of his own – a unique brand. Consumers even began to use his app, I AM T-Pain, to auto-tune their voices by singing into their iPhones.
It’s safe to say that T-Pain capitalized on his relative advantage – auto-tune. He convinced consumers that his music was superior to the other R&B and rap songs out there. On top of that, he added a new attribute which focused on his unique auto-tune style that consumers had not considered. It’s all part of the Strategic Applications of the Multi-Attribute Model (perhaps T-Pain took a consumer behaviour class too?). This concept is important because it was the main reason his music went viral. Another important model to look at when interpreting attitudes is the Extended Fishbein Model.
I remember back in middle school when every student in the school knew the lyrics to “Buy U a Drank” and “Low” and when those two songs were all that was playing on the radio. T-Pain was not only known for producing almost all of his songs, but also for collaborating with a handful of other well-known artists. He was everywhere. This created a lot of social pressure because everyone was buying his CDs and downloading his music – you just had to do the same.
Predicting Behaviour
It’s often difficult to predict behaviour and attitudes. Heck, I can hardly predict my own. Things such as outcomes of behaviour, timing and personal experiences make it nearly impossible to do this. It’s an interesting field and it would be great to learn more about it. As a marketer, I would like to study why consumers behave and react the way they do.
Hats off to T-Pain though. He is a creative artist who knew consumers wanted to hear something different and capitalized on that opportunity.
Someone buy him a 'drank’.
Cheers,
Anthony
Sources:
(Chapter 7, "Attitudes") Solomon, M. R., Zaichkowsky, J. L. and Polegato, R. (2013) Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, and Being, Sixth Canadian Edition. Toronto: Prentice Hall Canada.
http://mashable.com/2011/12/06/t-pain-autotune/
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