Mr. Jon Reed, your recent article on the use of autotuning in pop music made you sort of sound like a cranky old fogey (which I am fairly positive you are not), like one of those guys who was probably sitting around forty years ago moaning, “ehh what’s with these durn kids these days and their got-durned electric geetars, all that consarned noise! Why, I remember in my day when we built our instruments with our own two hands from wood we chopped down in our own back yards and didn’t need any sorta dad-gummed amplification! Back when music meant something!”

Personally, I am no fan of most music on the radio, the stuff that is most often autotuned, but I would argue one of the “points” or goals of modern music is to manipulate sounds in as many manners as possible in order to continue the medium’s evolution. Lots of musicians who very obviously are talented use various manipulative techniques in order to create new, interesting sounds: Jimi Hendrix with the wah-wah pedal, for example, or Bon Iver’s recent song “Woods,” in which Justin Vernon’s voice is completely autotuned.

There is no way anyone can claim whether an artist or song or recording technique does or doesn’t possess some sort of emotion. And while most mainstream radio music, which includes most autotuned music, is bereft of emotion and/or talent, neither are a prerequisite for a record deal. In sum, the autotuner itself is not to blame for any music you might not like—it is the commercial nature of popular music that partially manifests itself through riding the coattails of any sort of innovation until the cash stops flowing.

Edward Mostoller is a junior majoring in political science.