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Under-rated/over-rated vocalists

The rating system seems to be how many records you sell.

With this definition, there are no overrated singers. Somebody bought those records.

But there are lots of very talented folks that dont find commercial success.

There is an ocean of talented professionally trained vocalists who basically work in the shadows. And a lot of African American singers in the gospel style with awesome chops. Throw Annie Lennox and Michael McDonald in for good measure.
 
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Under rated: Devin Townsend



Over rated: Kurt Kobain

Under-rated:Tatiana Shmailuk of Jinjer.



I love this band. Apparently luck is against me ever getting to see them live. I had tickets for their show April 2018, and it got canceled by the venue due to a snowstorm. They will be here again in October, and I'm out of town that week. Tati is an amazing singer, and the whole band are incredibly talented to the point that I wouldn't know who to watch.

Gillan and Dickinson overrated? That’s probably one of the most absurd statements I read at TB.

I agree wholeheartedly.
 
All these are in the overrated categotry IMO.

I hesitate to say this, but every time I hear Roger Daltrey he sounds to me like he's just barely clinging on by his fingernails.

I don't guess I can say Diamond Dave is overrated because nobody has ever said he was particularly special.

Except for some truly stunning performances in their very early catalogue, I don't think much of Bono's singing either.

John Mayer always sounds to me like .... but no, I need to stop here. It should go without saying that I have delusions of mediocrity myself.

There, said it, I feel better already.
 
The rating system seems to be how many records you sell.

With this definition, there are no overrated singers. Somebody bought those records.

But there are lots of very talented folks that dont find commercial success.

There is an ocean of talented professionally trained vocalists who basically work in the shadows. And a lot of African American singers in the gospel style with awesome chops. Throw Annie Lennox and Michael McDonald in for good measure.
 
over-rated: james brown (grunts, screams)

under-rated: james brown (the cat could actually sing!)
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Overrated is hard for me, because there's a lot of vocalist who either can sing but are given some truly awful songs by their label, or you can't really tell what their voice sounds like due to over-production.

Underrated: William Duvall. He gets a lot of flack for not sounding like Layne Staley (also an incredible singer who deserves mentioning here), but he doesn't try to; he's still a team player who contributes to AIC's new material and makes some great songs.
 
Underrated: Brad Delp (Boston), Tommy Shaw (Styx), Mark Farner (Grand Funk Railroad), Bonnie Raitt: Great voices but are rarely mentioned when people discuss lead singers.

Overrated: Axl Rose, James Hetfield, Kurt Cobain, Jon Anderson, Eddie Vedder, Scott Weiland
 
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