Dr. Steven Hales, Professor of Philosophy at Bloomsburg University, defines “transparency” as how close the listening experience of hearing a recording would be to hearing the instruments live (Hales 2017, 195). According to Hales, audiophiles, or people interested in the high-fidelity reproduction of sound, have only one aim – to achieve maximum transparency (Hales 2017, 196). However, due to the development of musical technologies, such as Auto-Tune, achieving full transparency is nearly impossible.
“Heartless” (2008) fits Dr. Steve Savage’s definition of “transparency” in the music industry. Transparency comes when artists use musical technologies in a manner that is easy to detect and without the intention to deceive the audience (Savage 2011, 74). As detailed in an earlier section, West’s use of Auto-Tune in “Heartless” was not a secret. It is easy to hear the distorted robotic sound of his voice as he sings the chorus at the very top of the song (West 2008, 00:00 – 00:23). West and the audience are aware that this sound may be impossible to recreate at a live “uncut” performance, but that is irrelevant. The purpose of the track, and the entire album, is to convey the sense of heartbreak. For West, Auto-Tune is an instrument used to achieve that goal.
Spears uses Auto-Tune in the same manner. Her distorted voice comes through clearly in her final delivery of the “Toxic” chorus after the instrumental bridge (Spears 2003, 02:37-03:04). The sonic-sounding manipulation of her voice elicits the feeling of being overcome by your feelings for a person you know is toxic. For Spears, however, her use of Auto-Tune is heard as inauthentic and dishonest. While it is just as “transparent” as West’s use, Spears’ use of the technology receives flack due to her position as a female artist in the pop genre.
Unlike West, who is often categorized as a rap artist, where the importance of melodic range comes second to a pulsating beat and clever lyrics, Spears is categorized as a female pop star. As a result, Spears has to follow a different set of de facto rules put on her by the music industry as a female artist in the pop genre. As Catherine Provenzano (2019) stated, “The desire to discover the ‘real’ voice behind the mirage of pop stardom is focused mainly on women, perhaps because of concerns over female authenticity, reliability, and trueness…”. This inequality exists where female artists are criticized for straying away from “authenticity” by using autotune when, in fact, male artists that utilize it are not different.
Similar to Spears, West was also heavily criticized for his use of auto-tuning technologies. However, the distinction of how he was charged is rooted within challenges of his artistic authenticity by critics. West is most known for his musical compositions that fall under the categorization of rap. With that, his artistic reputation was never one that was heavily centered around his ability to produce music of melodic sound. Thus, following the release of Heartless (2009), which possessed a very Pop-centric, melodic sound, he was seen as being inauthentic. Thus, while West was truly transparent within his use of autotuning technologies to enhance numerous layers of this piece, he received pushback for straying away from the conventional sound of a rapper.
In conclusion, the “transparency” of an artist’s use of Auto-Tune does not hold much weight with critics. West’s and Spears’ records both serve as examples of the “Cher effect” because their use of Auto-Tune was intentional and helped elicit a specific sound in their songs. While they both use Auto-Tune in the same way, the critical reception differs partly due to their genre and the deep undertones of gender discrimination within the music industry. The sounds created via Auto-Tune by West and Spears were heard as inauthentic regarding female authenticity or the authenticity of the masculine rap genre, respectively.
Regardless of how critics viewed the records, both “Heartless” (2008) and “Toxic” (2003) performed well on the Billboard charts. “Heartless” (2008) charted at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and “Toxic” (2003) charted at number 9 (Billboard, 2022). Likewise, both records scored well on the Billboard Radio Songs with “Heartless” (2008) peaking at number 1 and “Toxic” (2003) peaking at number 10 (Billboard, 2022). The success of both records on the charts can be seen as an indication of how Auto-Tune would do in the future. Today, it is commonplace for the technology to be used in different genres and by different artists to either achieve a creative sound or tweak their vocals to fit perfectly within their song’s arrangement.