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Famous bands with bad singers

#61
"Bad singer" as in a lack of musicality, can't hit the notes, and isn't pleasing to listen to? Well, there's a lot of bad singers that hit those, but still put a song across and make good music despite it. Dylan, Neil Young, Kedis, et. al. fall into those categories at times. Sinatra didn't have the greatest voice (I think Mel Torme blew Frank away totally), but he had style and sang THE SONG. As much as I despise Axl's annoying caterwauling (and Jennifer Nettles in Sugarland is even worse), he's not a bad singer.

For me, bad singing is that over-wrought fake emotional singing by everyone from Michael "I just had a hernia" Bolton, all the finalist in American Idol, and everyone who THINKS they're Aretha or Patti but without the taste and/or control. So what if they hit the right notes? It's painful to listen to and it's utterly demeaning to the song.

And the song is the the reason for all of this.

John
 
#62
Most I was going to mention have been mentioned:

Geddy Lee - Great bass player - terrible set of pipes
DT - Awful vocals
RHCP - Been mentioned many times already
Dead Kennedys - Terrible vocals, even though I liked the band
Rancid - ""
The Ramones - ""
Mick Jagger
Ozzy
Lou Reed
R Plant


It's hard though, take Dead Kennedy's, some of these voices that are awful as far as keeping in key and tonal quality are instrumental towards the overall sound of the band. Like Pink Floyd's vocals, Jimi Hendrix, the dynamics in what may be considered to be worse singing than others and the soul pushed into the vocals helps paint the overall picture of the music that the band is trying to push. They may get flunked by a vocals teacher, but some may get flying colors from an Arts teacher for the eclectic interjection of sounds in the songs. Rancid and Op Ivy lose their appeal to their bass without grating vocals.
 
#63
1.Dream Theater
2.Taking back Sunday
3.Breaking Benjamins
4. Megadeth (who are my fav metal band but dave is hilarious)
5.Metallica(post injustice... when james actually tries to sing it sounds like somebody mocking cher)
6.Cradle of Filth (im convinced cher to appeal to the young kids puts on metal makeup and calls herself danny filth)

thats all i can think of for now
 
#65
magic papa said:
Well, Zappa was no singer himself... pretty terrible actually, in all respect - he sang like a cartoon character. I still can't work out whether that guy was really serious. Pitty if so, cool if not ;)
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Frank was pretty clear about what he thought of lyrics, which is why most of the songs he did put words to were either humorous or bizarre.

He was, however a very talented and prolific composer. Very few can even come close to what he accomplished!!! :cool:
 
#67
RMXSeven said:
Billy talent live :(
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I think Billy Talent on any given day :D


Actually, any kind of screamo/death metal/angry-white-boy-screaming-his-guts-out singer can be added to that list (in my opinion).

While I don't deny the talent (for lack of a better word) involved in screaming for long periods of time and/or making crazy noises with your mouth, I would certainly not consider it singing, let alone good singing.
 
#68
magic papa said:
Well, Zappa was no singer himself... pretty terrible actually, in all respect - he sang like a cartoon character. I still can't work out whether that guy was really serious. Pitty if so, cool if not ;)

So were some of the worshipped. Andreson/Squire choir was quite forgettable. Froggy scream...lots of frogs, everywhere...
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I disagree. I think Yes had some of the coolest vocal harmonies, well, ever.

Oh, and Steve Howe was doing it too. :hiding:
 
#71
Popbumper said:
Bruce Springsteen. I understand the "working man's anthem" draw, but his voice was completely anti-musical, more like strained yelling.

Chris
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Glad someone finally mentioned "the Boss". He sounds as if he's pushing a seven-pound turd through an eye-of-the-needle sphink. Dude...eat more bran.

Also, Thom York +1, Eddie Vedder +1. Though I haven't really thought Radiohead or Pearl Jam have been "good" bands for 10(+) years.
 
#72
Dream Theater and Rush have Labrie and Geddy's higher registers, but that is just their style. I personally like it.

As for RHCP, Keidis can sing a certain way. I like the way it fits with the music, usually.

I'd say Megadeth can fall under this category in their early days. Dave admitted to not having any vocal experience when first singing in Megadeth. It's all snarly and growly.
 
#75
Popbumper said:
Bruce Springsteen. I understand the "working man's anthem" draw, but his voice was completely anti-musical, more like strained yelling.

Chris
Click to expand...

Bruce was apparently always sensitive about his poor singing. Story I heard is while they were mixing the river he had a conversation with Tom Petty who encouraged him to push the vocals up more. The result was Hungry Heart which became Bruce's first top 10 single.

That doesn't mean Bruce is a good singer. He's not. But he was the right singer for The E Street Band.
 
#76
I think half of these examples are truly bad singers, while the other half is people mentioning people whose voice they don't like at all. To me, there is a difference. There are plenty of examples of less than beautiful voices who have helped write some truly genius work.

I guess you have to break it down to at least two different categories of bad singers:

1. Singers who have a good sense of pitch and rhythm and hit notes accurately, but whose tone of voice aren't pleasing to some peoples ears. (And who maybe are more of an acquired taste for some)

2. Singers who might have a pleasing tone, but have no sense of pitch and/or rhythm.
 
#79
I cant believe the Dead Kennedys are mentioned, their (anti) music is full of wit and sneering sarcasm and Jello`s vocals and atittude are spot on in that respect, can you imagine someone like Freddie Mercury or John Bon Jovi singing California Uber Alles or Holiday in Cambodia :D, actually, most punk bands had/have crap singers but that does not matter !

Bands I consider to have below average singers in their own right;

Oasis
Duran Duran
Blur
Spice Girls LOL
Girls aloud LOL
Kaiser Chiefs
Motorhead
Sepultura
and many others I have seen but cant write them down as I need to go to the toilet :D
 

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