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"Lazy" singing in pop songs
(Note: This is not to say that musicians themselves are lazy. This is just a criticism of a singing style, which I don't have a better name for.)
Why do people sing like this?
I was just listening to "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton and I had this complaint: if only the singer would generally be more pitch-precise and enunciate more crisply (such as "time" instead of "tsime", and "by" instead of "buhy").
Same applies to "How to Save a Life" by The Fray. Why is it pronounced "Ah" rather than "I"?
I was listening to NPR the other day and A Prairie Home Companion, a variety show that frequently features guest artists, was on. This time they featured this singer-pianist duo. The singer was talking to the host interview-style, and as I listened to her, I noticed that she had a really great voice. But then once she started singing...suddenly, "I love you" became "Ah luhv you".
Closely related is being very wobbly (for lack of a better term) pitch-wise, such as not quite hitting a note. I specifically remember this very irritating rendition of "This Land is Your Land" at a baseball game some years ago. Know the line "to the gulfstream wa-a-ters"? That's usually sung to the notes "fafa do re mi, re, do", right? The singer replaced "mi" with "re"...yeah, he just held "wa-a-" over one note. And for the line "this land was made for you and me", know how "and me" is usually "re do"? That just became a very lazy-sounding "do do".
Also related is being very...variable with rhythm. Using another U.S. patriotic song as an example since most people will know what I'm talking about...you know how it usually goes "God, bless Ahh, me-ri-caa" (rhythm roughly notated with punctuation)? Well, you get people who sing it like this: "God, bless Aaaaa-merica". Maybe they think they're "jazzing it up" or making it more "sexy" by messing up the rhythm and delaying and smashing together the "merica" so that it no longer matches with the rhythm of the accompaniment?
Why? Seriously, why? Why is it considered so stylish? I remember seeing a TV Tropes page on the "perishing alt rock voice" and I think this might be it, though the sort of voice I'm talking about is not limited to alt rock. In fact, it might be related to both the "southern drawl" and the urban African-American accent in the United States. (Maybe it comes from the folk and country genres?) Oddly, I don't mind it as much in spoken language. Just in songs.
Comments
IT'S FRIIIIDAY, FRIIIIIDAY~
Curiously, that song (Rebecca Black's "Friday") is rather okay in this above regard. She's singing like she's talking but just at a specific pitch, which actually works. The problem with the song--other than the lyrics, which I rarely care about anyway--is actually the poor "verbal choreography" (what's the proper term for that?)--the music doesn't match the words well in an interesting way.
It's just dialect, Glenn.
But then why did that woman's speaking voice differ so much from her singing voice?
(Also, I think you mean accent...?)
I know what Glenn means, I think. It's not just accent, but an approach -- a dispassionate one.
Alright, it's inflection.
It's a dispassionate inflection.
It means nothing.
I'm still not seeing the problem with the way the singer sings this.
Well, it is autotuned, but I get what you're going for. There's practicing diction by stuffing your mouth with marbles, and then there's forgetting to take them out when you record.
@Nova: If my parents weren't asleep one room over I'd get on Vocaroo right now. I'll do it later.
@Bee: I'm pretty sure she never practiced diction using any marbles.
That said, perhaps this might be related to why I don't hate auto-tune. It gives me specific pitches with which to make sense of the song, and I like that even if it does sound weird. Or maybe I just hear the voice as an instrument anyway. Then again, I'm not really a huge fan of vocaloids either...
I'm okay with exaggerated autotune being used for an uncanny sound (T-Pain, etc.) -- I don't enjoy it all that much, but I'm okay with it. Autotuning because you're a bad singer is another thing entirely.
Funny story, a couple years ago when Kesha was singing at the New Years' thing on TV, she was so far off key she was getting autotuned to the wrong notes.
> getting autotuned to the wrong notes
...
...
...okay, I revise my opinion, I like the musical taste for whoever wrote the music to "Tik Tok", but not the person most famous for performing it.
In a bizarre twist of associative memory, I remember this happened while I was playing WoW and dicking around in Zangarmarsh. From that moment until I quit the game, I would start hearing Kesha's autotune fail every time I flew through the area, and indeed, every time I see any game that has giant blue mushrooms.
@OP:
i wish i was special
SO FUCKING SPECIAL
Related question:
So when did rock, exactly, lose its balls? At what point did it become acceptable not to melt face?
Hmmm, I think that this style of singing has been around for a quite long time, but I can't identify the source.
It's not so much about this particular style of singing, but the general trend for rock music not to rock.
@Nova:
How they're doing it: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0bVAE3lFy91
How I'd like to hear it: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0AjIDuEbYP7
Apologies that I don't have vocal training and can't perfectly do either style, but I think the difference is stark enough that it should be obvious.
For another example of singing that I like: "Enough to Go By"
You're either not looking on the right place or simply have shit-taste.
ETA: Err, this might sound more flippant than intended
@MadassAlex:
Blame hair metal.amount of rock bands trying to rock out in 1975: all of them
amount of rock bands trying to rock out in 2012: well uh
You could listen to Visual Kei.
But then you'd be listening to Visual Kei...
What exactly do you mean by rocking out anyways, cause if we're using the same definition K-pop boy rock band F.T.ISLAND could qualify as a band that 'rocks out'?
Rocking out: Exhibit A
How are we defining "rock out" here? Because I'm thinking fast-tempo OTT music here. Like this. Or perhaps do you mean a very well composed piece like this?
^ err really?
Um... I can honestly say I'm glad rock bands don't exist anymore. Though what bothers me is the lead singer, the band is all over the place, but it's pretty awesome when it manages to be.
Okay, so you would like Visual Kei then, since most of it sounds exactly like that (But not Golden Bomber, never Golden Bomber... or Dir En, or L'Arc... just avoid all the popular ones)
^^ I'll be the first to admit that Galneryus are ridiculous as hell and the last to admit they do anything but rocking out.
Anyway, you can take late 60s/early 70s hard rock and metal as the basis for "rocking out" and go from there. It could mean a lot of things, but usually means overdriven/distorted guitars, weighty drums, bass lines that are more than the root note (gotta set the standard low for bass y'know) and whatever kind of singing, as long as it contains passion.
Of course, those are far from hard-and-fast rules. One can "rock out" as a solo pianist, for instance -- it merely requires passion and tempo in the performance. Absurd instrumental virtuosity also helps.
Obviously what these terms count as to every individual is pretty subjective. But if you take the balls-to-the-wall rawness and experimentation of late 60s/early 70s rock and metal as a baseline, then we're in the same area code. For instance, the second piece you posted isn't rocking out. Good piece of music, though. Thank you for posting that.
^ This is simply what's known as power metal.
That's...a pretty silly statement considering that was a relatively recent recording. While rock music is nowhere near as succesful or as culturally relevant as it used to be until the early 90s, there are still rock bands recording and profitting from it fairly well.
Which is kind of what bothers me about this whole line of discussion, really. Well, that and it forgets all the shitty 70s bands that were also recording and being succesful as all hell (Fucking Boston and Kansas man) around that time.
^ How about this then
It was? Looked at least 70s to me...
Isn't this the problem with all discussions on recent VS past media, since the terrible stuff is filtered out of the past?
^^ There's no doubt that many bands during the glory days of rock were awful, and some of those awful bands survived. What bothers me is that evolution of the term "rock" to encompass a variety of music so broad that the term ceases to hold meaning. To me, the meaning is very clear -- you overdrive your guitar, blast out some powerful riffs and give yourself over to a combination of technical proficiency and id-fuelled expression.
Considering the style of the music, I would have bet on early 2000s at the latest.
^ Fair enough. I thought you meant quality rather than an actual specific style of music.
But anyway like I said, there are bands that go for that sort of 60s/70s feel, with fuzzy and distorted blues-based licks played at a fast tempo.