dear T-Pain: i hate you

Those of you not schooled to really terrible pop-rap may be unfamiliar with this gentleman:This is T Pain.  He is a no-talent hack.  He is currently one of commercial hip hop and R&B’s go-to guys for catchy hooks.  I don’t have an issue with this idea in general, because after all, Nate Dogg was really just a glorified hook man (but he could actually sing).  T Pain has a gimmick, which is to use the Pro Tools’ (Antares’ more accurately) Auto-Tune plugin so drastically so as to create a synthetic robotic voice.  Auto Tune allows you to take incoming audio and manually go in and change the pitch to suit your needs.  This comes in handy when working with teen pop-stars that for whatever reason cannot hit a certain note.  The first popular instance of this effect being used was several years ago on Cher’s Do You Believe In Life After Love.  Anyway, while others have used this effect sparingly, this douchebag uses it on EVERY SONG.  Because he (amazingly) has gotten so popular, every idiot who comes into my studio wants the same sound.  It is infuriating.  We (the Royal We, as the music consumers) are rewarding people for not being able to sing.  It’s fucking retarded.  Don’t get me wrong, these people being hacks brings me more engineering work, so ultimately I don’t give a shit; the music I work on isn’t the same type of music I purchase and listen to in my free time.  But whatever, I just needed to vent; the producers I’m working with have had BET on loop for the last three days and this idiot comes on like every 20 minutes.  I’m going to turn on the History Channel and see what happens.