It would be impossible to point out every artist that has ever used Auto-tune, but here are some important players in the Auto-tune industry
American 2000s Auto-tune Legends
Fun Fact about T-Pain: His name stands for Tallahassee Pain, which gives homage to the struggle to find himself in his upbringing. Auto-tune is where T-Pain found his voice:
T-Pain- “I’m Sprung” 2005
In the footsteps of T-Pain, many prevalent black male artists utilized Auto-tune to create unique sounds, accompanied by a perceived sense of aesthetic “mystery” by the artists often covering their face with sunglasses and altered frames in filming.
Notes on T-Pain
Evstatieva, Monika. “T-Pain Rises Above the Haters”. All Things Considered, NPR, 13 Nov 2014.
Bradley, Regina. “Contextualizing Hip Hop Sonic Cool Pose in Late Twentieth- and Twenty-first-century Rap Music.” Current Musicology, No. 98, Spring 2012. Pg 55-70.
Lil Wayne- “Lollipop” 2008
All of these songs are ones you’ve likely heard on the radio or see as some signature sound of the early 2000s. Auto-tune is the defining sound in these pieces; it isn’t used to correct, but rather to recreate.
Kanye West- “Stronger” 2007
As you may have noticed, the majority of these examples feature black male artists. This speaks to the ability of T-Pain to help trail blaze a path and space for a unique black male sound, that was in turn, appropriated by other artists as a correctional tool. (See origins section for more info).
Akon- “Don’t Matter” 2006
The Spread of Auto-tune
American artists certainly also aren’t the only ones recreating musical sounds with Auto-tune.
Indian pop stars have been at the forefront of Auto-tune use as well.
Yo Yo Honey Singh- “Blue Eyes”- 2013
In fact, international artists have crafted new and, in my opinion, incredibly beautiful uses of Auto-tune.
The Critics
While many artists have embraced the Auto-tune wave, many seem to feel the need to push back and assert a sense of “authenticity” in their sound. Artists and voices in the music industry have created songs dissing Auto-tune, published videos “exposing” artists who “can’t actually sing” without Auto-tune, and written articles in respected publications.
One of the most famous and deliberate push backs against autotune is Rapper Shawn “Jay–Z” Carter’s diss track ,“D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)”. The track, released in 2009, took a direct jab at T-Pain’s legacy: “this anti–autotune, death of the ringtone/this ain’t for iTunes/ this ain’t for sing alongs”.
Check out this article, which represents one of the many scathing articles about the integrity of Auto-tune:
Retuning Auto-Tune 