At first, “Believe” was a joke. An older artist, aggressively using autotune (to cover up for her failing voice?) for her first #1 single in nearly a decade, it felt too weird to be real. And it was a little bit like the single equivalent of Hootie and the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View a few years earlier – the music industry said this single was extremely popular but nobody would admit to liking it or buying it. I was in high school at the time and I can tell you there was nothing less cool than this Cher song and the people who secretly liked it.

But things have changed. Now “Believe” is a trailblazing use of Autotune that influenced numerous other artists. And a bunch of thoughtful, compelling covers have revealed that there really is a song under all that production. Continue reading »