Vocal talent overrated?

[kingLUKE22]

Yes. She sings so loudly and so strong sometimes that it actually hurts my ears. You are right though. LM was the worst. I CANNOT listen to that song.

[FriendsFan]

radiorules said:

And btw, do you guys honestly think that Christina oversings on her records?

Yes. She totally ruined her Christmas album because so. Her voice is loud and annoying on it, sorta like Justin Timberlake always do his beat-boxing [?], it becomes gauging-your-ears-off annoyance.

she even didn't oversing on her big ballad "Beautiful".

Christina, thank god, did not oversing "Beautiful," if she did it would have made the song unbearable.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I think the whole idea of having a "wide vocal range" in the sense that Christina and Mariah have is overrated. Calling those singers good singers and everyone else not a good singer because they aren't able to hit those notes is liking calling a good instrumentalist only someone that can play guitar and other instruments don't count. There are different styles to singing and people sing different ways. To me, a good singer is one that can put emotion into a sad song or make a happy song sound fun, regardless of vocal range. I think Sheryl Crow is a GREAT singer. She does a great job on her songs. The whole vocal range thing is one category that has Celine, Mariah, Christina and the rest. Then you have soft vocalists like Dido and Sarah McLachlan, singers like the leader of Foo Fighters and whoever go into a category of their own.
If every singer used the same style that Christina did, music would be pretty boring. I'll use the analogy of art. What if every artist used the same style as Picasso? Wouldn't art be so boring to look at? Singing is the same thing!
I kinda think it's ignorant to call only Christina, Mariah, Celine, Whitney, etc good singers and everyone else not as good. It may be opinion but you're not giving enough credit to what being a good singer is all about.

[crash46]

radiorules said:

Maxim and Blender.

Oh how I hate those two publications. They both would be so much better if they eliminated all forms of words from them. But getting back to the original point of the message, those two magazines really stink.

[Zander]

Different voices appeal to different people. Although I think many have the tendency to mistake someone with a strong voice as someone with a good voice, not the same thing.

On that note, I really don't like the sound of Christina Aguilera's voice, I think it sounds unnatural and it's not fun to hear. Offensive, almost.

[Keith3000]

kingofnyc79 said:

I really don't like the sound of Christina Aguilera's voice, I think it sounds unnatural and it's not fun to hear.

I agree. I won't say I dislike all her songs, but I've never understood what's so wonderful about her voice; it seems really average in my opinion, with the exception of a few ballads. Christina songs are a good example of songs that can be hits in spite of lack of vocal talent. She definitely has a better voice, though, than Britney and more class, but to compare her to the greats such as Mariah and Whitney seems totally ridiculous in my opinion.

[radiorules]

Christina has only released 3 ballads in her entire career. Back then Whitney and Mariah would release ballads back to back. I think if you listened to some of Christina's songs off of "Stripped" you might understand her voice more, espechally a song called "Walk Away", Download it and listen to it.

[Love Plastic Love]

I think this is the most Christina unfriendly place I have ever been to lol.

Anyways, I cant believe so many people here hate her voice or find it "offensive"
THe only reason I can call myself any type of fan of hers is because of her voice. To me, its just so powerful, emotionally, and yes I do like her incredible range.

I do agree that sometimes she oversings and I do agree that sometimes she just sings loud without utilizing other parts of her abilities.
But heck, if I had a range and ability that so few other people in the entire world had, I may get carried away too Shes young and I think the Stripped cd is excellent proof that she is learning and she is honing her craft.

[Keith3000]

radiorules said:

Christina has only released 3 ballads in her entire career. Back then Whitney and Mariah would release ballads back to back. I think if you listened to some of Christina's songs off of "Stripped" you might understand her voice more, espechally a song called "Walk Away", Download it and listen to it.

To tell you the truth, radiorules, I haven't heard any songs by Christina other than the released tracks, so my opinion is based only on those. I'm sure her voice sounds incredible on songs I've not even heard yet. Didn't mean to diss Christina in my previous post at all; hope I didn't give you the wrong idea.

[specialist]

Underneath said:

Anyways, I cant believe so many people here hate her voice or find it "offensive"

they don't. most of them just say it because they hate her as a person, or because they're shit stirrers.

good voices are underrated. and i'm not just talking about these "divas". anyone can get signed these days even if they're tone deaf and absolutely awful. like, i think, Control, said, if your voice isn't too great, you should be able to make up for it in other areas, like Bob Dylan. but most people nowadays are just plain old singers, singing other people's songs, yet they can't even sing. all they can do is pose. shouldn't be in the music industry, but people have such low standards and just buy anything.

[Love Plastic Love]

hmm Im riding the fence on that one. In one way, it does make me kind of angry that some artists pretty much do pose. They are more models than anything else. And their concerts are more strip teases than anything music.

But if I like the music I like the music. If I like the song I like the song. I am not going to refuse to listen to something I like, even if I completely disrespect the talent of the "artist" behind it.

I normally burn those types of cds ;)

[Control]

halo20 said:

It is overrated. Most people base how much they like a particular artist over that. There is sometimes when the focus is the voice, but when listening to Bob Dylan, it's more for the lyrics than the vocals. Plus, if the album's got cool-sounding noise in it, no matter how off-key the singer sounds, chances are I'm gonna love it. And sometimes it's not an actual musical element that makes it so great, just the way that the song blends. But I base things more on that stuff than I do vocal talent.

But by those standards it would seem you could take almost anyone off the street, give them outstanding songs, and you'd love them?

I thought this thread was about vocal talent being overrated in terms of artist credibility, not in terms of determining whether a song is good or not. Because I agree that there's plenty of good songs that don't have, or need, a Mariah or Christina type voice. I also agree that emotion has a lot to do with it, and the way an artist brings life to a song. That's not really an issue.

I just have trouble taking, for example, a song like "So Yesterday" seriously, despite how good or catchy it may be, when it's sung by someone who has as good a voice as the girl down the street, and who had nothing to do with the creation of the song. I just can't get into something like that, and I refuse to be part of what keeps that trend going by supporting anything like that.

An artist can have an average voice and still make great music, but that's the thing, they need to be the ones involved in making it. If they have an excellent voice, the creation isn't as important, their voice is their art and their instrument. But for someone who does neither well, that's when I have a problem. What the hell business do they have being a recording artist?

[Adonis the DemiGod!]

I dont think its overrated at all. If it were Madonna, and Janet would not have a prayer of selling records. I do think vocal ability can add alot to a song. Sometimes I can appreciate the vocals soo much that it turns an ordinarily avg or bad song into a great one. I would definately say this is the case for alot of Mariah Carey's songs like Hero and I Still Believe or Christina's Lady Marmalade and others. If someone with a lesser vocal ability had done these songs I dont think they would've sounded nearly as good. All I care about is how everything sounds together. I dont care if its well written or not. That doesn't make the music sound good.