Singing Is for the Mainstream Now

 It seems that singing is uncool, and singers who know how to really sing are often categorized as "Mainstream" at this point in music/industry. I'm talking about singers who can really belt out notes.

It also seems what's regarded as more "real", soulful, "artistic" singing comes from singers who cant really sing, maybe even singers who seem to be merely whispering into the microphone while recording their Indie album. Or, even singers who sound decent in the studio, but horrible when performing for live audiences. Do I even know what I'm talking about? Yes. Yes I do. Check it...


Take these guys for example. The guy in the first video is "Dan McCaffert" from the 70's Scottish rock band Nazareth. In this song "Love Hurts" he's really singing, belting it out. That muthaf**ker says LOVE HURTS! And, you can tell he means it. In the second video is singer "Lou Gramm" from the 80's band Foreigner. He's another dude who could really really sing.

So what happened?

I think somewhere in the 90's around the time Nirvana came out people started to not sing all that great, and people applauded them for it. Perhaps people who weren't singers, the audience, could relate to it more because the now giant instrument store "Guitar Center" was making it easy for everyone to get a guitar and a 4-Track. So people who couldn't really sing increasingly liked songs that didn't sound so bad when they covered them (The whole "if you want to succeed have low expectations" thing).

There was one guy I remember who could sing very well, and he was part of the Grunge movement of the 90's, and that was Chris Cornell from the band Soundgarden. It's no-less a mystery as to what happened though, and my "Guitar Center" theory is just a theory. - Here are the two examples mentioned in this paragraph:

Also from this era. I say the guy from Alice in Chains, Layne Staley (Who's a good singer) started the whole thing where every male singer in rock music sang into the pallet of their mouth while mimicking an under-bite. As did Eddy Veder from the group Pearl Jam.

So WHAT HAPPENED??
This sh*t gets worse (concerning singing)...

Now we have singers like these below, and although their songs may be likable, they sing like they're tired, or like they've been smoking since age three, and they don't really SING, SING. First is (whisperer, lol) Samuel Beam, better known as Iron & Wine. And, second is Charlyn Marshall better known as Cat Power.





Now, don't go getting all pissed off at me and delete me from your facebook. I like Iron & Wine and Cat Power too, but I'm just making an observation about singing itself. And, I didn't even mention what I call "Whiny Punk" started by bands like Blink 182, but that's another story and I have sh*t to do. Peas.



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