Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune was used for vocal effects on Cher's "Believe", recorded in 1998. This was the first major hit song to use the software for this purpose. At first the sound engineers claimed that they had used a vocoder, in what Sound on Sound said was an attempt to keep a trade secret. After the massive success of "Believe", many artists copied the technique, which became known as the "Cher Effect". It can be heard in songs of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some notable examples are Gigi D'Agostino's "La Passion" and Janet Jackson's US Number 1 hit "All For You". Auto-Tune became famous again in the mid-2000s when R&B singer T-Pain made active use of it in his songs. This technique has been copied by many other modern R&B and pop artists, including Usher, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Justin Bieber. T-Pain has even had an iPhone App named after him that copies the effect called "I Am T-Pain".