ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the multiple registers of irony that result from the absence of Auto-Tune in Karaoke. Irony happens as the unaltered voice testifies in support of the mechanized melodies of its Auto-Tuned alter ego. The principal quality of irony has long been antiphrasis, a figure of speech in which expressed meaning contradicts intended meaning. Irony is not a figure of speech in Karaoke. It is a figure of sound, a sonic cue that signals contradiction despite the semantic imprecision of the medium through which it is conveyed. Karaoke poses a formidable threat for those disinclined to recognize T-Pains capacity for figurative expression. Auto-Tune is signal-processing software that alters audio signals by adjusting them to conform to a set of pitches predetermined by the user. Auto-Tune was again brought out from behind the recording studio curtain. Rather than comprising a single-track conceit as it had in Believe, however, the technology constitutes a principal attribute of the musical profile of T-Pain.
