How do bad singers get away with sounding good?

[hbarcat]

How do bad singers get away with sounding good?

With decades of musical experience behind me, I've noticed that there are some well respected singers who aren't technically good singers, but are often credited with having voices that are pleasant. Often, they're described as being "charismatic".

What's the explanation for that?

 

[buldog5151bass]

Lead singers are frontpersons - their job is to put on a good show. It's charisma. Mick Jagger has been doing it for over half a century.

 

[Pyrrho Epoche]

Like who? Bette Middler? Man, there is so much crap to wade through.

Dylan is another like Jagger, great great writers, but man, those voices/vocals! Lol

 

[Jazzdogg]

How do bad singers get away with sounding good?

With decades of musical experience behind me, I've noticed that there are some well respected singers who aren't technically good singers, but are often credited with having voices that are pleasant. Often, they're described as being "charismatic".

What's the explanation for that?

IMO, IME, it's because we react to music emotionally AND rationally.

I enjoy some vocalists who aren't very good singers because listening to them makes me feel something, or transports me back to another time and place.

I've listened to several well-trained professional vocalists who didn't add anything relatable or emotional to their presentation of a song to establish a connection with me.

On the whole, I prefer skilled vocalists who engage me emotionally.

 

[crazyBassClown]

What's the explanation for that?

Your opinion of what is good and bad is not the complete picture?

 

[Michedelic]

Often it’s the flaws that bring the character, the soulfulness, the real.

 

[buldog5151bass]

David Lee Roth, Ozzie, Madonna (along with Jagger). None of them great singers, but all great front persons.

 

[Ggaa]

Sometimes it's the material/songwriting. Blasphemy in some circles, but Gary Stewart sounded kind of like goatboy, and he had some big hits, great songs to hear.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

How do bad singers get away with sounding good?

With decades of musical experience behind me, I've noticed that there are some well respected singers who aren't technically good singers, but are often credited with having voices that are pleasant. Often, they're described as being "charismatic".

What's the explanation for that?

Art not alway 100% about technique. It’s more a matter of relatability. Probably more to your point, I’ve seen studies that of half the general population can’t hear the difference in pitch. Further, only a very few have musical recall. Like on the way home from a show, “ Ya know Charlie, on the second verse of ‘Help My Pajamas Are On Fire”, the singer was a quarter tone sharp and a 10th of a second late on her third salable”.

 

[Killing Floor]

Soul

and charazzma

it’s not always about delivering perfect pitch as much as emoting the story and holding the attention of the audience.

 

[bass12]

Singers vs "vocalists". Personality/character often draws people in more than great technique does.

 

[sean_on_bass]

How do bad singers get away with sounding good?

With decades of musical experience behind me, I've noticed that there are some well respected singers who aren't technically good singers, but are often credited with having voices that are pleasant. Often, they're described as being "charismatic".

What's the explanation for that?

I'd argue they are good singers then. If they sound good and people enjoy it, then that is all that matters.

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

Neil Young - Great songwriter

 

[gln1955]

If Geddy wasn't a wizard on bass, none of us would have heard of him.

Everyone who is not a good technical singer has something else going for them.

 

[5StringBlues]

Except for Vince Neil

If Geddy wasn't a wizard on bass, none of us would have heard of him.

Everyone who is not a good technical singer has something else going for them.

 

[Tom Bomb]

They say that, under certain circumstances, if you gaze into a face, any face, for five minutes, you're likely to fall in love.

Maybe it's the same with listening. We're in Dire Straits​

 

[Nephilymbass]

How do bad singers get away with sounding good?

With decades of musical experience behind me, I've noticed that there are some well respected singers who aren't technically good singers, but are often credited with having voices that are pleasant. Often, they're described as being "charismatic".

What's the explanation for that?

people connect with things that are human. Listen to the Johnny Cash version of Hurt. He recorded the song very late in his life. It’s really more talking than singing. But there’s a real humanity to it. It’s one of those songs that can make a grown man’s eyes water up. And he’s definitely not singing like an angel. He sounds like a man who has lived a long life and been to hell and back.

It just so happens that most of my favorite singers didn’t sing well when I saw them in concert. Some I saw multiple times and they were hit or miss. Some never sounded as good as they did on the records with the aid of pitch correction and effects. Singers are musicians at the end of the day. I’m not surprised this is often a thing because some people think Fieldy from Korn is gods gift to bass or that Billy from Green Day is gods gift to guitar. Those guys are not virtuoso players, but they don’t have to be. They are human and sound like they sound. And that contributes to their music being unique. There are a ton of very talented singers that will never be stars because they can’t write anything that people can relate to or they might be able to sing a song perfectly but to the listener there’s no conviction and it just sounds like a great singer singing a song someone else wrote.

 

[smeet]

Nobody except other musicians or music critics cares about technique, intonation, tone, speed, or pretty much anything else. If it makes them feel good to listen, they like it. And that is how it should be.

 

[sunbeast]

The human voice more than any other instrument can directly interface with a listener's humanity and innate need for human connection in a way that other instruments often only do in a more abstract fashion- emotion, fragility, confidence, anger, lightness, etc are all things people often turn to art to bolster/reinforce at different times that can come through clearly from the expressive (and often particularly "imperfect") nuances of a voice.

Technical "perfection" can make that connection more difficult, because it speaks more to practice and/or virtuosity than the grittier relatability we often yearn for from something as personal as a human voice. So yeah- "charisma" in the sense of relatability from a singer is often as much or more powerful than technical skill. All of my favorite vocalists are very technically imperfect- often people with wide vocal range but very distinctly human flaws that give each of them their individual character.

I played in an original band for a few years about 18 years ago with one of the most technically proficient singers I've ever worked with (along with some of the most talented instrumentalists I'd played with at the time as well), who also tragically lacked that connecting charisma/charm from her voice in performances and the recordings we made are strikingly hard to listen to to this day as they almost sound like karaoke to me (like that annoying karaoke singer that just shreds all the notes perfectly but leaves you feeling cold)- that was definitely a big learning experience!

 

[Spectrum]

I have a pretty strong dislike for opera, but I am aware that most opera singers can blow away most pop/rock singers in every technical way that can be measured.

What we like to listen to is not based on technical prowess. If that were the case than prog and jazz bands would be the most popular.