Hello singers!
I got inspired to think and write shortly about this subject after I played some of my new songs to a colleague and friend of mine. She pointed out that the songs had a kind of musical feel to them, maybe because of how I sang. It was an interesting point and also got me to think why does it jump out when a guy sings like that. I think that many female pop singers sing in a musical-like way. Especially many of those who are often held the best like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Lara Fabian, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera and so on. But if a guy sings like that it's often described as too soft and sweet or sugary, isn't it? Of course there are exceptions like Michael Jackson, Darren Hayes of Savage Garden, Freddie Mercury and more recently Adam Lambert. Maybe it's always so that if you jump out a bit more you also need to prove yourself more.
Do you agree and do you think that there are similar boundaries for female singers?
-Ville
Interesting post Ville! I actually think there are boundaries for everyone. Classifications, roles, ideals and myths that mostly only lead to one thing: Limitation. In Sweden like in many other countries, women have long been expected to sing softly and "beautifully" (whatever that is..) and men with more power and authority. This is thankfully changing for everyday. Musical actors are whipped into depersonalized expression and singer/songwriters fostered with the idea that they have a personal, but not trained voice cause that's just not what they were "born with". There are so many widespread and imprinted myths about what singers can and should sound like.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is partly about the human stive for structure (oh isn't that why we love CVT btw? :) ), we often want to be able to put things in boxes. She is THAT kind of singer, he is that. And isn't just that exactly what both of us spend a lot of our days with - convincing people that they can do more than they believe?
I know it's easy to come to the conclusion that the limitation is tied to a specific characteristic of yourself, like being a man, being a certain age, from a certain country or having gone to a certain school. But I think that all of us encounter these imaginary boundaries in one way or the other. They just change dependig on the situation. If you were singing to a classical trained teacher they might have told you you were too heavy metal? :) See what I mean? Even being aware of these things it's hard to stay uneffected by them. I think it's a part of the struggle we need to do every day, both as singers and as humans in whole. To keep our minds open and well out of the boxes , even if we sometimes like to chose to be in them. To be aware of expectations but chose if we want to live up, or down to them..