I get a lot of emails and messages from people asking me “what do you think of this person”, usually with an attached video/link. One of the things I see a lot of is younger guys/girls doing YouTube covers of modern pop songs, or maybe original songs, but performed in a way that is highly reminiscent of a current pop singer. And here is what I’ve noticed, especially in relation to technique and vocal style…
Let’s wind the clock back a few years
Back in the 50s/60s we had an explosion of the forerunners of modern pop music. We had a diverse range of genres, and a lot of exploration. Not all of it was gold, and that’s OK. As years wore on, by the 70s/80s, we had some more established genres appear. And we had some very clear evidence of what constituted a great singer with solid technique. Whether that’s people like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, James Ingram, more bombastic singers like Patti LaBelle or Whitney Houston, or more straight-ahead singers like Sammi Smith, Johnny Cash, etc.
Most of these great singers had a solid core sound BEFORE they even got to styling their voice, and style was the icing on the cake. For people like Michael Jackson you can even find evidence of their voice lessons on YouTube and hear their core sound shining through underneath. Whether the added style consisted of riffs and runs, or a particular tonal sound, or even vocal effects, they had a core quality that made them great, and their style was an extra layer that they could take off into to make their music exciting. The important thing to note here is that their sound wasn’t built ON style, style was built on top of a great sound first. Style is a natural outworking of a solid together vocal sound.
Roll forward to now
Whereas now, we’ve got this unusual scenario where singers – especially younger singers – think singing is 100% about style, and not about actual technical ability. You’ve got to have a vibe, a “thing”, some spice to your singing (which I don’t necessarily disagree with), but there’s little to no emphasis on having a solid core sound underneath that.
I featured a blog post some time ago about singers who initially got a start because of a cool stylistic approach they took, that has since gone on to erode their voices (link here). This means that in the 2000s/2010s we’ve ended up with this redefined version of what good singing is, that has gone from being like the analogy of a good cake with a bit of icing, to a cake that’s 100% icing. Now I’d call this “hyper-style”, because it’s often an extreme and over-exaggerated version of what it was meant to be, and often supplants good singing rather than supporting and enhancing it.
The truly best singers in any era all share a similar trait.
They don’t seek style first at the expense of a solid sound, style arises as a result of having a voice that’s built well and is put together consistently and solidly from bottom to top. If we go for hyper-style over style everytime, our voices and shelf-life will be radically shortened. Often it leads to an overly mangled sound that is overproduced (i.e. compared to how the voice SHOULD work for vocal quality and longevity) in an attempt to sound one way or another. Perhaps such a hyper-styled singer will get a little more attention in the first instance thanks to our Instagrammified world, but without something of real substance underneath, their road will be a short-lived one.
The long and the short of it is this…
Style arises as a result of having a well-put-together voice, put that first and style will come in spades. You might think this is crazy, but the better your voice is put together, the less you have to seek style – it just comes to you, primarily because there’s no obstacles to you expressing what you want to express in your own voice. Don’t seek style or go to the extreme of hyper-style as a way to cover up a lack of ability or to supplant the need for actual quality in your voice. Put quality first, and the style will absolutely come as a by-product.
Learn More: Related Articles
If you want to learn more about vocal style, you may enjoy these related articles:
Developing Style: Expansion and Contraction
Learn to riff: why it’s easier than you think
Why singing is like clothing
Double check your musical diet
Styling songs: 3 versions of the same song
Why do singers resort to gimmicks to get noticed?