Tho$e who can't $ing use Auto-Tune.
Exxon engineer Andy Hildebrand was using sound waves to locate oil underground when he realised the technology could be used to detect, analyse and modify pitch.
Antares Audio Technologies took this discovery and in 1997 released Auto-Tune, a software program that digitally corrects pitch, allowing singers who sing off key to produce perfectly tuned vocal tracks.
Auto-Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios, but the anti-Auto-Tune movement is vocal.
Opponents say its use is "killing" the music industry. Others liken it to "pouring motor oil over a gourmet meal".
Imperfection is the new perfection, the critics say. They believe perfect pitch is almost impossible to achieve, and that it is natural flaws and imperfections that make a voice memorable and affecting.
Fans of Auto-Tune and a similar program, Melodyne, argue it's a useful tool in the wide-ranging arsenal of technology available.
They compare the human voice to an instrument, and argue that Auto-Tune is merely an effect like a vocodor, talk box or a wah wah pedal. Think of it like a model putting makeup on to hide a pimple, they say.
Where it was once used sparingly, its use is now rife, with some artists using it on entire albums. Artists such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, the Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, Miley Cyrus, Daft Punk, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Avril Lavigne and Kanye West are all rumoured to have used Auto-Tune,as do TV shows like Glee and American Idol.
"If it shifts product, it ain't going to stop," says a Britain-based producer.
Most contemporary music is created with a computer program called Pro-Tools. It allows musicians and engineers to record on to a computer and map out songs on a visual grid. Just like with Microsoft Word, users can cut and paste, slicing at one point on the grid and pasting at another.
Making sure the cuts match requires the even pitch that Auto-Tune provides.
I interviewed four engineers and producers for this story and none of them wanted to be named. More importantly, not one could think of a recording session in the past five years where they hadn't used Auto- Tune. They also couldn't name an artist they had worked with who would want it publicly known.
"It is a lot like plastic surgery. You start with one little piece and, before you know it, you've modified everything," says one United States-based Grammy-winning recording engineer.
And it's not confined to recording studios. There are also hardware devices such as Antares Vocal Producer that do the same things in live sessions.
Cantabrian Shane Goodwin is the bass technician for British act Muse, currently on a world tour. Last year, Muse were awarded the Q magazine award for Best Live Act in the World, the Brit Award for Best Live Act and MTV Award for Best Live Band. By email from Italy, Goodwin said he'd had no experience with Auto-Tune.
"I have not really had much to do with it. I know of one band that use/ used it live, it was a rather bad choice and quite noticeable! They are a very very famous American band, but I won't say who," Goodwin says.
"Auto-Tune is a ball-park unit. If you're not in or near the right key, it will choose one close to where you're at. [But] it can go horribly wrong. I have no experience with it and I don't want to."
History is full of musicians who have twiddled with tune or experimented with new tools. Roger Troutman and Peter Frampton used a talk box to great effect.
Doubling vocals was a favourite trick of John Lennon's that became standard practice in the industry, because it is effective at covering up unfortunate pitch.
Samplers were used by many producers in the 80s and 90s. Working with reel-to-reel tape, they would sample the word they wanted to fix and then alter the sample rate and zip it back in.
It is inevitable that technological advances will alter the musical landscape, but if a singer completely corrects their vocals digitally, isn't that cheating? Should they be given the credit for having the talent they don't have? Aren't they deceiving the record buying publi