With today’s technological advances music should be at the highest quality, but this is not the case. Music of the 80s and 90s began to use technology to clean and sharpen an artist’s voice in order to make it better on recording tracks. During this time the music industry was filled with hot young stars filled with talent that didn’t necessarily need to be auto-tuned, but they used it (as an instrument in itself) to produce a better sound for themselves.
But now, in 2011, talent is simply not required to make a star.

A lot has changed in the past couple decades and music is one of the ones that was largely effected.
I remember when I was younger wanting to sing like Justin Timberlake from *NSYNC and the soulfulness of Christina Aguilera, but artists today, and I use that term loosely, are the last thing I aspire to be.

For the past five years, the amount of auto-tuning used in music is once again on the rise thanks to artist experimentation.
I first noticed when T-Pain started to become popular and the way his music seemed to separate him from other artists, and he did it well. Kanye West was next with his experimental album “808’s and Heartbreak” which was very successful on the charts.
Now with everyone jumping on the auto-tune bandwagon, like Rebecca Black for example, the lack of originality is causing the quality of music to decrease. Music used to mean something, now it’s hard to understand.

Despite the lyrics of artists becoming less meaningful with each rising sun, music videos that make absolutely no sense and the use of simplistic catchy beats and hooks made to stick in your head, I was content with it.

I thought that music was just evolving, but then I heard that song; the nasally voiced 13-year-old terror Rebecca Black, singing (and killing) Friday. As soon as I heard and watched that video on Youtube, I thought I had a heart attack. This is what music has become? I was utterly disgusted and I wanted to go deaf as soon as “7 a.m. waking up in the morning” blasted through my headphones.

Black sounds 100 percent auto-tuned and I pondered how she could even find her way into the limelight. After all, auto-tuning is supposed to help artists enhance their voice and make it sound better.

After doing some research on Black I learned that the recording company that “signed her” did so only because she paid a large sum of money to make the video.

Ark Records became my number one enemy.

I understand that they’re trying to help young artists break into the music industry, but when the child has no talent and the only way to make them sound good is to press all the buttons on the soundboard until it smokes, then it becomes an issue of integrity.

Auto-tune is a blessing and a curse to singers and musicians.
Music was once about talent and beauty, now it’s about days of the week and popping bottles in the club.

If auto-tune is a necessity to become a better musician then you’re better off not wasting the public’s time. If you don’t have the talent get out of the booth and give it up to someone that does.

Auto-tune does not equal talent.