Auto-tune can be used for adding special effects in certain songs, but most of the time, artists most likely use their regular voice in the studio recording.

Going back to the song-writing issue...

Quote Originally Posted by nik0tine View Post
I would argue that the songs she writes are juvenile and poorly written anyway. Did you see that interview after her "Party in the USA" song in which she couldn't name a single Jay-Z song?
I'd like to point out that anyone on these forums could write a song like party in the USA without any training whatsoever. Seriously. It's been a long time since I have heard it, so perhaps I am mistaken, but if memory serves, there are no chords in that song. I mean, what the smurf? Who in their right mind thinks "I'm gonna write a song without any harmony. There will just be a clapping and a drum beat and 'singing'"

Furthermore, have you ever heard her sing? I've heard her try to sing, but actual singing? She seems to lack that ability unless auto tune comes to her aid.

That said, party in the USA is the only song of hers that I actually know, so I could have a biased view. However, the sheer popularity that song has achieved speaks volumes about what she is capable of. Don't you think if she were a better songwriter she'd have more popular songs than this one?
Party in the U.S.A. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Actually, I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it states that Miley did not actually write this particular song. I think that Jay-Z might be one of Kesha's influences, since she wrote another song on the EP entitled The Time of Our Lives (but not "Party in the USA"), but I guess that they just wanted the lyric to sound like it made sense. In fact, the only song that she actually wrote on this EP was "Before the Storm," which is a duet with ex-boyfriend Nick Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers). Nonetheless, she did write many of the songs on her Breakout and Can't be Tamed albums.