Question of the Day!

Auto-Tune.

More specifically, autotuning and vocal engineering to the point that it isn't the singer's actual voice you're hearing but an unnaturally smooth, lilting, neon-light, computerized construct of their voice.

One day when I was bored, I read a very long but very interesting article   about the history of AutoTune and its use within the music industry. And while I have a vague appreciation for the technology itself, I do not understand why many listeners are drawn to the songs -- singers, even -- which have been designed with extreme Auto-Tune in mind.

I can enjoy a well-constructed song in the electronic genre now and again. There is even one German-translated Vocaloid song that I like the sound of. But in those instances, there is no confusion about the human-versus-computer nature of the thing. It's electronic. It is unequivocally a computer voice. It isn't pretending to be anything else. Whereas modern use of Auto-Tune presents the slicked-up computerized version of a singer's voice as the singer's voice and talent itself. And I find this rather cheap and off-putting.

Personally, I find the natural human voice (and a human being actually playing that awesome drum/saxophone/guitar/violin solo) to be far more beautiful, impressive, and satisfying than anything that is almost all computerized. The human voice, mind, and body is capable of incredible things; why do we get so caught up in artificial constructs?