Let’s discuss any and all music here. Got a new artist who’s rocking your boat that you want to talk about? Post a video! Found out about that unearthed Coltrane album that has the jazz freak in you losing your mind? Lay it out for us! Have a theory about what your favorite band might do for their next album? Let’s hear it! Anything and everything music-related goes here.
This week’s discussion prompt comes courtesy of The Avocado’s very own Glyph:
Bands you like DESPITE the singer (and/or artists you like DESPITE their singing)
Apparently this idea came about when The Avocado’s very own Spab said that they like Sonic Youth but disliked Thurston Moore’s singing. About a month prior to that, either Spab or someone else1 in this OT described Sonic Youth as a great band with three terrible singers, and most folks around at the time seemed to agree with this sentiment. And when I googled “bands with bad singers” while doing research for this thread, Sonic Youth was the top-voted comment on a subreddit devoted to this topic. However, while Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo are not exactly gifted vocalists, in the 30-plus years that I’ve been listening to their music, it never once occurred to me that their singing is “bad” – the vocals are not exactly the main attraction in Sonic Youth’s music (or much of their solo work, for that matter), but I never thought of them as a defect either (and honestly, I quite like Kim Gordon’s softer, more whispered vocals on many of their songs).
Maybe it’s because a lot of music I enjoy doesn’t feature conventionally “good” vocalists? Stephen Malkmus, J Mascis, Neil Young, Ian Curtis, John Lydon, Billy Corgan, Liz Phair and Jad Fair to name just a few off the top of my head are singers considered by some to be “bad”, but I’ve never found their voices take away from the music – I’ve always just considered it part of the package. But I think a lot of folks here enjoy music by some or most of these artists, and again maybe it’s just something that I’ve never really cared about.
Anyway, enough rambling. If you have never seen the video in the header, do yourself a favor and take sixteen minutes to appreciate one of the greatest performances in the entire recorded history of music – though, yes, Jad Fair’s vocals may be an “acquired taste” for many.
As always, any and all music-related posts are welcome. Have fun, and rock out with yr guac out!
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