Audio Grocery

 

Any effect that is overused becomes cliche. If Auto-Tune is required for the integrity of the music, then you’ll always have to have it on hand. There is music where a Hammond B3 and a Prophet 5 are required and you’ll always need them. You can’t play Pink Floyd songs without organs, electric pianos, and vintage synths, and the guitar always has to sound like David Gilmour. The sound of the music has to be packaged in some way for it to be the same every time.
 

But the music industry isn’t necessarily concerned with how the music is made and with which instruments or technology—only that it is profitable. Auto-tuned vocals are popular and consequently could lead to profits. It's essentially a POP "display" leading you to a potential purchase. It is the commercial for the music within the music. It is the “product placement” within the “film”. It is "pre-packaged" art--a cliche to the point of being a musical "grocery". When grocery stores did sell music, it was the kind that went with groceries--like the magazines at the check-out. Warhol had it right that art has to be "packaged".