the ubiquitous apple

I was looking through pictures of bands that played at All Points West and something jumped out at me from a picture of MSTRKRFT. In between the two hip looking DJs with headphones strewn around their necks like stethoscopes glowed a white apple with a bite taken out of it. Their bridge between live music and the ubiquitous digital world: the MacBook. Last night we went to see Björk's Voltaic at the Grandin and even the Icelandic queen of pop had a MacBook working for her. Lurking in the background behind her 12-piece horn section dressed like they wandered into a Dr. Suess book from Mars. Even Wilco, the quintessential alt-folk twangers implement the MacBook in their live show.

How has the MacBook become just as much a part of a band's live show as the drums or guitar?

Jay-Z's new album boats the Death of Auto-Tune, a digital voice modifier used in every dumb song you've heard on hip-hop/pop radio over the past year. Musicians have always used new technologies to enhance their sound going back to the electric guitar, distortion pedals, drum machines, etc. Even Pink Floyd embraced and mastered the synthesizer leaving thousands of stoners dazed and confused for generations after. Then came sampling machines allowed hip-hop artists to loop previously recorded samples and add a beat to it. The difference with Auto-Tune is that it sounds awful and is really annoying. Even T-Pain on the rap spoof "On a Boat" by the Lonely Island satirizes himself by using this ridiculous voice modifier to sing things like "Never thought I'd be on a boat" and "Poseidon!" The cameo adds authenticity to the Jewish boys' rap song but also makes it occasionally unbearable to listen to, despite it's hilarity.

The MacBook provides a similar advancement in music-digital conglomeration. Wilco uses the computer to play the sample from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to start off "Heavy Metal Drummer." This is ironic considering the song is about the innocence of seeing a rock 'n' roll band and our infatuation with drummers. Is this innocence lost? Is the glowing apple going to become so ubiquitous that we won't even notice when bands use one onstage? I'm okay with it as long as Jeff Tweedy does use Auto-Tune on "Impossible Germany" the next time I see Wilco live.

Also, kudos to Jay-Z for using his popularity to do some good in this world. If he can single-handedly (with the help of Kanye West, abuser of Auto-Tune) eliminate the use of Auto-Tune in the world of hip-hop, maybe he can help make the Prius the next Escalade.