Autotune: It's a tool, not an instrument.

The majority of songs nowadays are plagued with auto-tuned singers (I refuse to call them 'artists'); so much so that there is a generation of people that believe that singers sound all robot-y to sound cool when in actual fact is to hide their lack of actual singing prowess.

Granted, using minimal, hardly-noticable auto-tune is fine for studio recording since y'know they want the album to sell. Taylor Swift comes to mind.

But 1998 auto-tune gained mainstream success when Cher's Believe was released. That song was intense auto-tuned one wouldn't recognize it was really her.

And because of that one song, the music industry had never been the same. Anyone who HAD a voice could release a single, as long as they had the $$$. Ke$ha anyone? It was hard to difference faux singers from the true artistes.

An excerpt of Time magazine:

"It's a technology that can make bad singers sound good and really bad singers (like T-Pain, pictured here) sound like robots. And it gives singers who sound like Kanye West or Cher the misplaced confidence that they too can croon. Thanks a lot, computers."