Will all singing styles date and grate?

Subject: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 01:26 PM

This subject matter grows out of the thread " Worst song by a respectable artist". Some posters attacked the singing style of certain performers e.g. Sinatra and Baez. I believe at all singing styles will eventually become "dated".I remember seeing Mary Black in a folk club early in her career, and thinking that all the folky little twists and turns in her voice would one day be considered rather weird and unattractive. Of course, it is important to judge an artist's singing within the style they perform. For example, Frank Sinatra was magnificent at singing the Cole Porter, Gershwin repetoire. It might not appeal to everyone, but. within that genre, Sinatra was greatly admired by all ( or nearly all ) of his peers. Who could ask for more.

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 03:01 PM

Generally things go out of fashion as the practitioners reach pensionable age,are derided, forgotten by the next generation, and then re-discovered by the generation after. At the moment the fashion is to sneer at the 70's. Holding a note is unfashionable when singing today, as all the divas show with their endless decoration, so Sinatra's style is what the young must sneer at in order to establish their own style, which will in turn be sneered at by a subsequent generation. I remember my father deriding Art Deco and Art Nouveau when people couldn't give it away in the 50's. Stuff we could have bought for pennies from junk shops now sells for hundreds and thousands.
"round,like a cicle in a spiral....."

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 03:08 PM

Will all singing styles date and grate? Sure, if you waer them out. Mix 'em up!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 04:05 PM

I didn't read the "Worst Song..." thread—still don't intend to—but I'd sure like to hear the singing of someone who feels they can deride the singing of Sinatra or Baez. I hope they have CD's out that I can go and learn from.

Sure, all popular singing styles become associated with the period that made them popular but that doesn't mean they grate does it? A singing voice like that used by Bob Dylan will always grate but that is part of the message he's trying to put across. Well, okay, maybe Tiny Tim's voice would grate after an extend period of exposure, say 10 to 15 seconds.

Singing styles outside the pop realm are never dated and don't grate either. Opera, jazz, mariachi, Applachian a capella, Brittish singing in the style of John Roberts and Tony Berand, Delta blues… all the styles and ornaments associated with these singing forms are, to me, timeless and wonderful.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: GUEST,Peter from Essex
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 04:15 PM

Date - certainly.
Grate - only if based on fashion rather than artistic value.

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: Willie-O
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 05:47 PM

Stuff you don't like grates.

Stuff you like is great.

W-O

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 09:05 PM

The styles that I find grating are those whoich pop singers apply to trad material. I find the Kingston Trio, Baez and Dyer-Bennett dated--their sources (which, thank God are available on re-mastered recordings) are not at all. Try listening to Joe Heaney, Jeannie Robertson, Vera Ward Hall, Leadbelly, Paddy Tunney....they're as exciting and convincing as they ever were.

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 09:25 PM

Mr. Greenhouse,

It is a resurrecting breath, of the deepest lung-filled-aeire,which welcomes your multiple presences in the MC within the past six weeks.

From my USA point-of-view....as long as ANY....song is delivered with a "foreighn-accent" the pitch, tune, and quality...is inconquential...as long as the accent remains true.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

] In this season of reflection....thank YOU so much for beginning the process.

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 10:59 PM

Let's see here... There have been people on this planet for, what, half a million years? And during most of that time they've been makin' music of some sort. And for most of that time they've been passing how to make that music from one generation to the next. And each generation's probably been doin' it just a little different from the way that the last one did it. Did the way that the older generation did the music "grate" on the ears of the new generation? No... 'cause the older generation was dead! You couldn't hear their music 'cause they weren't around anymore.

We tend to forget that recorded music is a relatively new phenomenon. We've only had the opportunity to actually listen the music of older generations for a short time. My grandchildren can listen to the music that my grandparents listened to, performed by the same performers and sounding exactly as it did to them. Pretty darned amazing, actually.

Assuming that they actually listen to some of the previous generations' music, my grandchildren will notice that each generation has stepped away from what the previous one has done and established a "style" for themselves. Hopefully, they will also notice that certain elements of the music are timeless and have been maintained and built upon by the next generation. If they find some of the older music grating, so be it. I'm betting that they'll find a fair amount of it that isn't - that speaks to them in much the same way as it spoke to me, or my parents, or my grandparents. I certainly don't expect them to like all of it because I damn well don't like all of it - though I like more of it the older I get.

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: GUEST,T-boy
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 08:23 AM

Well before the end of his life, Johann Sebastian Bach was regarded as hopelessly old-fashioned by his own sons and their generation. Nothing ever stands still for long.

Subject: RE: Will all singing styles date and grate?
From: GUEST, Mikefule
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 01:32 PM

No one's said 'date and grate' for years. It's so passe! ;0)