DS Forums

 
 

Queens of Soul on BBC4


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 07-04-2015, 17:26
gomezz
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Buckingham
Posts: 28,597

Just watched this and it struck me how down the years the female soul voices got thinner and harsher with the tipping point seeming to be Whitney Houston in the early nineties. Why would this be? Change of taste of the music listeners at large? The move to mass consumption of music on poor fidelity portable devices? An effect of the now seemingly ubiquitious auto-tune?

Enjoyed the first half of the programme up until Whitney but it went steadily downhill after that ending with the nadir that is Beyoncé (even ignoring that whatever the hell it was she was "singing" it sure wasn't soul music),
gomezz is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 07-04-2015, 17:46
Doghouse Riley
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: North-West England
Posts: 25,885
Just watched this and it struck me how down the years the female soul voices got thinner and harsher with the tipping point seeming to be Whitney Houston in the early nineties. Why would this be? Change of taste of the music listeners at large? The move to mass consumption of music on poor fidelity portable devices? An effect of the now seemingly ubiquitious auto-tune?

Enjoyed the first half of the programme up until Whitney but it went steadily downhill after that ending with the nadir that is Beyoncé (even ignoring that whatever the hell it was she was "singing" it sure wasn't soul music),

You've got to start with the tune.


"The've written all the best tunes."

If it's a crap tune anyone is likely to sound poor.

We can't blame it all on the way the music is produced as some "back in the day" was with small groups and others with a full orchestra, as was Etta James's "At Last."

With a lot of contemporary singers the voices seem very strident and the recordings, over-produced, to my ear.

Maybe for me it's more about nostalgia
Doghouse Riley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-04-2015, 20:24
mgvsmith
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Belfast
Posts: 7,287
You've got to start with the tune.


"The've written all the best tunes."

If it's a crap tune anyone is likely to sound poor.

We can't blame it all on the way the music is produced as some "back in the day" was with small groups and others with a full orchestra, as was Etta James's "At Last."

With a lot of contemporary singers the voices seem very strident and the recordings, over-produced, to my ear.

Maybe for me it's more about nostalgia
This sounds more like an issue with regard to modern soul music and who is singing it.
But I would suggest that Mary J Blige, Leela James and Joss Stone have the voices if not the songs.
mgvsmith is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 16:02.