Problematic vocal styles

I hate this too, but it sounds good in Descendents songs.

i still think he was grate tho (come back dave!)

Ah now see, I LOVE that. Big harmony parts rock my world.

flat, monotonous delivery of smartalecky lyrics

a good rawk scream is a beautiful thing but if you can't nail it, just don't bother

"I hate the singers voice" is a legitimate reason to hate a band. I find nothing kills the enjoyment of musicmore than a voice I find grating somehow.

Also, guys singing R & B. See above. And most women singing R & B when they do that voice coach showoff shit.

I like monotonic vocals quite a bit. Most of my favorite male singers stick to about a one-octave range.

I guess it is. Personally, I find that I'm able to tolerate almost any vocalist if the rest of the music is good. But of course a bad vocalist is a minus.

A few exceptions are Henry Rollins (good stage performance), Dennis from the (I.)N.C. (ditto), HR (until he went crazy), and that System Of A Down guy (because he does shots of opera during songs).

Guys that I hate include mostly that Creed guy. He just looks like a shmarmy son of a bitch.

I also don't like this slow-dance-at-the-highschool-prom 1989-and-onwards R&B stuff. Really, I think that the people who buy/listen to that stuff really just don't like music, and the people who make it don't really like music either.

Re: Helltime, intersesting philosophy about the lead vocalists
not pulling their weight. It's true, we take singers for
granted, but it's easy to find new respect for singers if
you try to sing their stuff yourself. Singing is _hard_ man.
I've been singing for as long as I can remember, and my voice is
decent (it's been favorably compared to Ben Harper), but on my life I can't sing aggressively like a metal/hard rock dude.

Basically, when I say something about doing anything musical, and a friend or other person says, "Well, I could sing, I'm pretty good", I just kinda sigh in exasperation, it's kinda like, "Well, who the fuck wants to hear it?"

I also hate people who want to show me the poetry they wrote. Unless its about pants or something.

I'll second Mark E Smith and Emo-style retching as well. And Matt Bellamy-esque bombastic falsettos. And anything from the raspy Craig Nichols/Kelly Jones school. And twangy, sharp rapping. And "durr durr durr" metal vocals. And Julian Casablancas' voice.

Vocalists are my main barrier to enjoying most music, come to think of it.

There's the non-distinct "girl-singer" voice, the ones that think it's enough that they're a girl and they're singing, and don't put anything into their performance.

There's the husky-white-guy-rock-baritone, usually coupled with "these lyrics are so IMPORTANT" bombastic word choices that sound so fuckin' trite and predictable after awhile.

There's the rock-singer-pretending-to-be-a-rapper thing...the guys that sure call yell, but when they "flow" it sounds at best like a pissed off MC Fresh Prince flow from like 1983, only without any redeeming qualities whatsoever...y'know, the kinda guys who give you the impression that the only rapper they listen to is Zack de la Rocha.

There's the Yoko-Ono-ish anti-singers. You know what I'm talking about.

There's the whiney-voiced emo over-enunciate every stupid trite word even-though-they're-30-they-sound-13 singers.

There's the borderline-hint-of-a-twang modern-pop-country couldn't-be-any-more-nondiscript machine-like processed singers. Give me Patsy Cline's or Ralph Stanley's scratchy, smokey twangy drawl any day of the week.

And then, finally, there's the rappers who try so fucking hard to sing and couldn't sound more fucking pathetic and out of breath.

I think my fave hate/non-hate vocalist is David Gahan live. Singing, especially these days: just wonderful. In between crowd patter ("WOO! ALRIGHT! LEMME SEE THOSE HANDS! YEAH!"): argh. But then again, that's pretty much been his job for twenty years now. ;-)

Oh, and you people need to stop dissing screaming right now.

Also, it's not really a turn-off, sometimes I can appreciate it for what it's worth in context, but it never ceases to amaze me that math rock bands will take so much pains to develop and display instrumental virtuosity but are content to just talk monotonously and scream on top of it. Like vocal technique is a whole separate issue or something. Agree w/ Kris as well.

Kurt Cobain was great BTW.

I have grown to like the Pet Shop Boys somewhat, but I always hated them because the singing was just...I don't know. Like sometimes bored flippant vocals work (ex. Depeche Mode, Just Can't Get Enough). But EVERY BLOODY SONG??? If HE'S not excited by his music, why should I be?

Beginning in the late 70s, quite a few anti-singing or "post-singing" trends have pointed to some broad cultural crisis over singing and lyrics:

rap (of course)
all kinds of instrumental music that formerly had vocals
sampling & cut-up of vocals, from Coldcut to Akufen
Cocteau Twins garble
xtreme screaming
xtreme whispering
mumbling
off-key shambling
French Marxist easy listening for English speaking listeners (Stereolab)
Singing in apparently phonetic English (Shonen Knife, etc.)
And so on...

You could explain it away as just people getting tired of the same old cliches and trying new things, esp. after the punk/disco kickstart, but there seems to be more of a distrust behind it.

Don't start with me, Dan!

two words: Freddie Mercury

What about Dave Grohl?

And yes,I hate that R'n'B style where it's all "Woahooooooyahhhweeee" without words or just little words that don't mean anything.

I think Corin's problem is that she's not histrionic enough!

Those darn words!

Only when he's in drag.

You all clearly have your heads up your asses.

sundar- I agree that it can be a turn off but I can't quite understand why you put slint on this. It's only fragile for a while but never all the time, there is a scream in there. Just like their quiet loud dynamics.

and yes, what yancey said

again "nosferatu man" = best slint song ever. no thin singing on that one pally.

Ha! You're totally OTM with this! SK vocals strike me as taking some sort of middle ground between pop and shrieking like a banshee. Sounds like it might work on paper but just makes me want one or the other in practice.

Slint vocals don't really annoy, they're kind of just there. But I haven't listened in years, so who knows? Rodan did it bettah anyway.

What I do dislike:
women singing who want to show off and instead of singing one note, split every word into ten syllables so they can slide up and down the scale
creed-style singing
whiny and sliding tenor voices like O-town or something

OK I can see where you might be coming from but the worst!!!

what abt all those indie bands that you cited? like belle and sebatian's singer. he has to be worse.

I think what makes the track is the really 'crunchy' guitar riff, the loud quiet dynamics and how the vocal is integrated into it.

Actually i'll listen to this tonight if i can (well its this or 'evol', a difficult choice) because i haven't put it on in such a long time that i maybe remembering the wrong track.

Likes? Really dig strong harmonies, and always have been a sucker for bands with more than one vocalist, especially when the vocalists play off each other within-song.

Best female vocalist: Sandy Denny
Best male vocalist: Demetrio Stratos (of Area)

who's made notable or even the best use of dylan's tweaky nasal speaking "singing"? john lennon? the guy in mouse & the traps? lou reed? ian hunter? mark e. smith? the guy in the war on drugs? bob himself? who am i missing?

That Alanis-y female singer thing wheeeyerrr eveRRRY-THING'S clipped and nayyy-ZUL

idk, cockney rebel?

xp Stealer's Wheel?

Yes to this last.

Oh wait, did anyone mention Ric Ocasek and the Cars yet? "Since You're Gone"?

Is it bad that I saw the thread title, but not the original date and thought it was about vocal styles that could be seen as racist/sexist/homophobic/etc?

Lol

who's made notable or even the best use of dylan's tweaky nasal speaking "singing"?

not quite as nasally, but this is clearly mark knopfler's model. steve harley is the vest answer though

oops best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLGtmHRyHmg

OBERST