Pop music can run the gamut from trashy autotuned stuff, to truly awesome talented performances. The problem is that it’s often too easy for a record label to get someone that just has the “look” they want, and fix the vocals in the studio with all the fancy computer software they have.
A good example of these “made in a laboratory” sound is the Black-eyed Peas. They played live during the Superbowl and sounded absolutely terrible. The guys sounded especially bad. However, if you listen to them on the radio or on a CD, they sound awesome. So what you have there is a “studio band” that really only sounds good once they’ve been properly mixed and autotuned to actually sound good.