I think singing a song in a simple fashion started to die out in the mid 80's when Whitney Houston became popular, it came back a bit in the mid 90's when Eva Cassidy became popular after her death, but since then it has been all downhill. If Karen Carpenter was starting out now she wouldn't get a look in, sad but true.
It breaks my heart to hear beautiful, haunting, gentle songs like A Song For You, being bellowed out at full volume with the melody changed beyond recognition to create constant big moments of drama.
This is the problem with making singing a competitive sport; it's all about making everything huge and loud and powerful, so all the subtlety goes out of the window, and a song that should be performed sensitively and expressively ends up losing all its light and shade. Judging by the audience reactions I realise I'm massively in the minority with this opinion ...but still.....Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime! A Song For You! Aaargh! It's so wrong!
(scuttles off to listen to The Corgis and Karen Carpenter's versions of the above to restore emotional equilibrium...)
I completely agree.
All the shouting, wailing, squeaky high notes, the bending of notes and lack of diction was encouraged by those judges and ignored by the audience.
There were some songs that were only barely recognisable and a lot of the contestants had not taken notice of the lyrics before performing the song.
As cathrin said no light and shade. But maybe she and I are not in such a minority.
Its playing to a singers vocal abilities, singing the song as it is intended to be sung would be too hard for the singers on the show so they sing it in a way thats more accustomed to there voice.
Problem for Voice contestants is to sing well known songs without sounding like a karaoke version. So of necessity they may over do things or sing the basic song out of recognition.
For the semi finals they should each sing something new, either written by themselves or specifically for them. Then perhaps we might see how a particular voice will work in the music industry.
The lack of individual air-time is also a problem. The contestants are having to do backflips and screeches all over the place to get themselves noticed, because there's no time to organically grow a fanbase like on other reality shows. It's noticable I think that the remaining contestants who do tend to sing the songs more straight (Andrea, Karl, Cleo, Mike) without histrionics are the ones who have the most obviously pushed backstories/hooks/gimmicks and so need to put in less effort to get attention.
If there is no tone, the range doesn't matter it's ******ing low to high like a parrot. Tone is what makes a voice sound good by giving it depth and richness, it's what makes them individual.
Yep am with you on this one. And I think tone also gives it light and shade but I am not musical genius so could be wrong
Legendary soul producer Jerry Wexler coined this vocal nonsense 'oversouling'.
Thanks for that info, I didn't know that. I've just found this in an obituary article about him in the NY Times and I couldn't agree more:
"The great Jerry Wexler – who produced both Ray and Aretha – coined a great term for it: “oversouling.” He described it as “the gratuitous and confected melisma” that hollows out a song and drains it of meaning. Wexler, who knew more about soul than any producer before or since, said:
“Time and again I have found that flagrantly artificial attempts at melisma are either a substitute for real fire and passion or a cover-up for not knowing the melody … Please, learn the song first, and then sing it from the heart.”
I couldn't agree more. Especially from the man who produced greats such as Aretha, Dusty and Ray Charles.
I think singing a song in a simple fashion started to die out in the mid 80's when Whitney Houston became popular, it came back a bit in the mid 90's when Eva Cassidy became popular after her death, but since then it has been all downhill. If Karen Carpenter was starting out now she wouldn't get a look in, sad but true.
Sadly this is so true I can't imagine her wearing leather and fishnet outfits which seem so in vogue with female singers nowadays either!
It breaks my heart to hear beautiful, haunting, gentle songs like A Song For You, being bellowed out at full volume with the melody changed beyond recognition to create constant big moments of drama.
This is the problem with making singing a competitive sport; it's all about making everything huge and loud and powerful, so all the subtlety goes out of the window, and a song that should be performed sensitively and expressively ends up losing all its light and shade. Judging by the audience reactions I realise I'm massively in the minority with this opinion ...but still.....Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime! A Song For You! Aaargh! It's so wrong!
(scuttles off to listen to The Corgis and Karen Carpenter's versions of the above to restore emotional equilibrium...)
Absolutely agree. Listen to Donny Hathaway singing it. He didn't feel the need to add 257 unnecessary notes, pointless runs and then screech a note at the end so high that only dogs can actually hear it.
I'd love to know where it was decided that soul means oversinging? I'm a lifetime soul fan and, for me, the best soul vocals are full of genuine emotion and less is more.
Horrible Histories' Dominique Moore got it spot on with her soulful Rosa Parks Song, written by Danny Cohen (Lyrics) and Richie Webb (music) www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/clips/p019r2yw
Too many people on this show shout and scream. Then they get praised by the judges, especially Jessie who associates shouting loud with talent. So then they try to one-up each other by shouting louder. If you don't shout, Jessie will always say something like "nah....like.....I didn't feeeeeel it.....like"
Comments
May I suggest next years tagline be "The Voice: Why sing 1 note when you can sing 12?"
It's not just The Voice though is it? it's the state of the music industry these days, The X Factor is just as bad.
I completely agree.
All the shouting, wailing, squeaky high notes, the bending of notes and lack of diction was encouraged by those judges and ignored by the audience.
There were some songs that were only barely recognisable and a lot of the contestants had not taken notice of the lyrics before performing the song.
As cathrin said no light and shade. But maybe she and I are not in such a minority.
For the semi finals they should each sing something new, either written by themselves or specifically for them. Then perhaps we might see how a particular voice will work in the music industry.
Also none of them have Jessie as a mentor.
Yep am with you on this one. And I think tone also gives it light and shade but I am not musical genius so could be wrong
Thanks for that info, I didn't know that. I've just found this in an obituary article about him in the NY Times and I couldn't agree more:
I couldn't agree more. Especially from the man who produced greats such as Aretha, Dusty and Ray Charles.
Sadly this is so true
And they call it progress eh?
Absolutely agree. Listen to Donny Hathaway singing it. He didn't feel the need to add 257 unnecessary notes, pointless runs and then screech a note at the end so high that only dogs can actually hear it.
I'd love to know where it was decided that soul means oversinging? I'm a lifetime soul fan and, for me, the best soul vocals are full of genuine emotion and less is more.
That's how you do it..