I've always blamed Cher and/or her "Believe" production team for the Auto-Tune explosion.

He think's he's got bad...whatever became of Hot Butter?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBYjZTdrJ…

Hey, I know how T-Pain can get some artistic respect. Release a really good album with zero Auto-Tune -- in fact, every sound on it could be made by real live human voices and people playing real physical instruments live.

And if this album becomes as big a hit as his previous album, it might start the pop trend moving away from the extruded sound product (TM) direction that it's been moving in for so long -- the direction that makes a space for the Black Eyed Peas and Robin Thickes and Ke$has of the world.

And maybe everyone will spontaneously stop watching Fox News tomorrow.

@1 I think you're right about that Cher song. That was the first place I noticed how much I hated Auto-Tune, when the song was put to good use as an indicator of the demonic soullessness of a college roommate on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

T-Pain was just when it reached the saturation point where everybody noticed, and that's usually when the backlash starts.

@3 "Demonic soullessness" sums it up!