By now everyone has heard of Auto-Tune, that weird vocal effect that is now ubiquitous in rap, hip-hop and R&B music. In many ways, this fancy piece of software is the worst thing to happen to music in a long time. Not only is the effect severely over-used in nearly all forms of popular music, but it just makes the music sound so…artificial.

What most people might not know, is that the most well-known use of Auto-Tune is not the software’s intended purpose. (More on that later…) Somewhere around the time of Cher’s hit single “Believe” people started figuring out that the program could be pushed to create the warbly, robotic sound effect. (The source of Cher’s vocal effect was apparently a trade secret for quite some time, before the producers finally admitted to using Auto-Tune.)  Since that point, producers have kept exploiting these functions and creating what is now a staple of pop music; sometimes with hilarious, (NSFW) or–rarely–ingenious results.

All of that said, this exploitation of the software, and the over-use of the effect are NOT the reasons I consider Auto-Tune to be the harbinger of death for music… Of course not. Producers have been pushing studio tech to its limits for decades, and by doing so have created some of the techniques utilized by musicians the world over.

No, the reason that I believe Auto-Tune to be killing music comes from its intended use: to correct pitch. Or, if I may put it more bluntly: to compensate for a musician’s imperfect pitch.

Have you ever listened to a pop musician and thought to yourself, “boy that woman has perfect pitch and just an amazing vocal range?” Well, guess what, odds are that a computer and high-end production equipment is more responsible for that than the vocalist.

I remember a day when music was more organic? When you could go to a concert and the music sounded just like the record–without the help of someone rear stage right with a Macbook and a mixing board? Now fast forward to today, where live performances often sound vastly different than on record (because so much of that studio wizardry can not be duplicated in a live environment) and/or the guy in the back with the Macbook is on stage, sometimes rear center? Yeah, that’s because perhaps in a live setting you get to hear the pop starlet’s real voice…and perhaps it’s really not that perfect.

Forthermore, for me the overuse of Auto-Tune as a vocal effect has made my ears more sensitive to it, so that now I can listen to a pop song, or listen to the cast of Glee sing, and I can hear when the Auto-Tune kicks in. There’s just something…too polished…too artificial.

It has gotten to be such a problem that singer Alison Moorer placed a sticker on her CD informing listeners that no pitch correction was used in her album. (PDF)

One of my favorite singers, Neko Case went into a bit of a rant during an interview with Pitchform Magazine’s Ryan Dombal, in which she opines that singers such as Madonna and Shania have just gotten lazy. Here is an excerpt from Stereogum (unfortunately the full original article is no longer on Pitchfork’s site), but I will reference a couple of the choicest morsels before putting this to a close:

On Shania:

It’s not an effect like people try to say, it’s for people like Shania Twain who can’t sing… It’s a horrible sound and it’s like, “Shania, spend an extra hour in the studio and you’ll hit the note and it’ll sound fine. Just work on it, it’s not like making a burger!”

On Madonna:

Or Madonna! Just hit the note! Don’t pretend it’s William Orbit being crafty — we know you’re not hitting the note because you have other s*** to do. You can do it, I have faith in you. But don’t leave the studio before you hit that f***ing note. And you know what? When you do hit it you’re going to feel so much more valid that it’ll come through in all the other s*** you’re supposed to be doing later in the day. Seriously!

On herself:

I’m not a perfect note hitter either but I’m not going to cover it up with auto tune. Everybody uses it, too. I once asked a studio guy in Toronto, “How many people don’t use auto tune?” and he said, “You and Nelly Furtado are the only two people who’ve never used it in here.” Even though I’m not into Nelly Furtado, it kind of made me respect her. It’s cool that she has some integrity.

Classic stuff.

So what do you think, am I right in assuming that Auto-Tune is partially responsible for the downfall of music? Or am I just an old-fashioned musical purist who likes his singers to sound like singers?