I was really hoping auto-tune was just a fad, and that it wouldn’t take over the music world. If you can’t sing, your song shouldn’t be on the radio and it’s as discernible and simple as that…right?

Auto-tune, created by Andy Hildebrand, according to its dictionary definition, is a software package that automatically manipulates a recording of a vocal track until it is in tune regardless of whether or not the original performance was in tune.

Today, we hear Britney Spears’ over-edited tracks taking over Z100, 92.3 and BLI. Her 90’s pre-auto-tuned songs were actually pretty decent, so why change her voice? Cher’s “Believe” is thought to be the first recognizable auto-tuned song.

T-pain has become so closely linked that there is even an iPhone application called I Am T-Pain to change your vocals to sound like his. He thinks that people should pay him royalties for using auto-tune; he believes he should be applauded (mtv.com).

This is not to say there aren’t catchy songs with this abused editing process. Appealing yes, realistic? No.