word
Auto-Tune
Artificial polish โ used for anything that sounds or looks suspiciously perfect.
Origin
Auto-Tune is a 1997 pitch-correction software by the company Antares Audio Technologies. Originally meant to subtly fix off-key notes, it became a deliberate effect โ Cher's 'Believe' (1998) used it as an audible warble, and T-Pain built a career on it in the 2000s. By the 2010s 'Auto-Tuned' meant any digitally smoothed-over performance, in or out of music.
Modern usage
Used metaphorically for any artificially polished output โ a politician's rehearsed answer, a corporate apology, an Instagram face. 'That speech was Auto-Tuned to hell.'
Tags
polish
fake
music