I'll bet someone posted this before but I've taken note of that for me, being an absolute terrible singer, I've made judicious use of Auto-Tune, taking it to the point of horrible unrealism.
(WARNING: Some strong language.) http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/27/3964406/seduced-by-perfect-pitch-how-auto-tune-conquered-pop-music
 
Reading this article urges me to make an effort to increase my vocal skill and pare down my use of AT to only where it's truly needed.... I wanna bring more ME into the track, make less over-produced pop-hype and get to making MUSIC!

I agree with this plus the lip syncing crap that is often a byproduct. I saw an old video a couple months ago where Elton John dropped the f-bomb on Madonna twice in a row regarding these issues. A massive chasm has been created between studio musicians and performers as a result of technology, and it definitely leads to some soul searching.

It cannot be more true that if one begins to rely on crutches, that they eventually will lose the ability to walk.

Took it to unrealism - as bad as this video (which is kind of funny) ?
- I hate AutoTune - but then I have a TC Helicon unit and perhaps if needed I could use that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Psfn6iOfS8
 
I suppose autotune is going to be used, but then I always heard that singers should sing a song just a hair flat and not all music can support Autotune and to me no music really should.
 
I thought most singers can actually sing and part of singing is to inflect different pitches to reflect emotions sometimes among other things into the song.
Some use to call it - Soul!
 
The article was long but I can know that the Beatles sang together and bands use to sing together and sounded good singing together which made the group, except for the Rolling Stones, which I never listen to, because Jagger just sounds horrible compared to many others - but then people can not hear all the good anyway with a lot of people except perhaps for musicians, so why worry about it, singers worry too much about it, thus not learning meditation and being relaxed when singing.
 
There seems to be this problem with music and singing, that the artist should be upset upon reviewing the singing or playing of music. Yes, sometimes that should take place, but going overboard is to me like drowning on the song. Part of not being relaxed and meditated not comatose is probably the real problem - and nerves. But then that can be helped like I said up above.
 
 
 

Here is the video I had seen that from, the entire video is actually pretty shocking on what has become the "norm" in the music industry. http://youtu.be/FweC46QHCm8
 

I think this is the difference, and it is near the end of the article:
"...an idealized version of us. My husband’s gritty vocal attack was still there, but he was singing on key. And something about fine-tuning my vocals had made them sound more confident, like smoothing out a tremble in one’s speech."
 
For someone like me, this is what I am looking for. No one is going to pay to hear me sing, ever. But for my own recordings I can use a little bit of melodyne/autotune and now I am less apprehensive about releasing my new tune to the world (or more correctly, the family). It also makes it easier to create a CD that I feel OK about giving away to family and friends.
 
To me, if you don't let folks hear your recordings, you miss out on the true pleasure of recoding. Its like building an RC model airplane and never taking it out for a flight. But again, I am talking about us hobbyists, and not folks who make money off of this.
 
However, I can't say it is a surprise to see this happen on the 'professional' side of the house. Whenever large amounts of money are involved, the ones putting forth the front money want a return on their investment. Like payola from the 50's, this is just the latest scam to make sure they get the return on their investment. With no concern at all about who it might hurt - so long as they make their money.
 

Robert, I agree with you on that BIG time. I'm a young guy, I want to break somewhere into the recording industry (post-high school, hehe), but I have no desire to make it big as a singer or performer, at least not with these productions. For me, they are just to practice the craft and gain some headway on how to use the tools in my creative arsenal.
Sadly, being among the young generation has led me to find something of a distaste in many genres of music- something I'm working to correct (with TOO much jazz/swing/big band, and not enough pre-90's rock!), and I think I myself have fallen into the pit of thinking everything MUST be perfect or else no one will 'understand me'! Sucks that I'm not good enough to where people like it WITH imperfections, but I don't want to create the most metrically perfect music... that's anti-creative and anti-musical!