Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Vocalists

One of my best friends is very into music. Sometimes I will introduce him to a band. Sometimes he will like it, sometimes he will not. Sometimes the reason for not liking the band is the sound of the vocalist's voice.

Another of my best friends is very into singing. When she tells me about an artist she likes, she usually likes them because they have a great voice.

As for me, I don't seem to care anywhere near as much about vocalists as these two friends. If I don't like a band or artist, it's never because of the sound of the voice. In fact, I don't think it's ever because of the sound of any individual instrument. If I don't like a band, it's because of the overall sound.
Having said that, there are certain vocalists who I particularly like (in fact, another of my friends has one of my favourite voices in the world). However, I don't think that a voice (or any individual instrument) would make me like an entire band.

I guess what I'm saying is that I tend to judge on the overall sound, whereas my two friends would judge specifically on the vocalist, and this is enough to sway their opinion either way.

I realise that this is one of my blogs that doesn't really have a point. Never mind.

1 comment:

Joe 50 said...

Haven't read your blog for a couple of weeks while away, I come back and find 9 new entries. Amazing!

I would contest (sorry for breaking my anonymity) that I judge a band on the basis of the vocalist. Rather I would say I judge the overall sound of the band and the vocalist is sometimes the element in that overall sound that is enough to push me over the tipping point of whether I like that band or not. Whereas in your case you seem to be saying it is rarely the factor that convinced you that you did not like a band. Sound fair?

As an example, I don't think the Hope of the States singer has that good a voice. However it is not offensive enough to my ears to turn me away from the overall sound of the band which I think is excellent. Whereas in the case of Anberlin I think their music isn't bad but my dislike of the vocal is enough to make me not the like the overall sound.