Music Debate #1 - Is A Big Voice Important?
 

The charts are currently dominated, and always have featured artists with huge voices, such as Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Kelly Clarkson, Celine Dion, Leona Lewis, Alexandra Burke, and Beyonce. Even Jade Ewen, our 2009 UK Eurovision entry has a right belter. This is a point that I've seen thrown around the forum a few times.

But is a big voice that important?
What big voices do you like?
Does a voice make a song?
Do all ballads need a female belting it out at the top of her range?
Are vocal gymnastics fascinating? or annoying?

In my opinion, it's not all about the voice. Out of all the big voices I can think of, I'm obviously only really a fan of Xtina, but that's due to her music. I think there are better artists with smaller voices, and I think we have too many big voices in the industry, and the vocal gymnastics are getting tiring and dull [even Xtina's giving it up for her new album and going for a softer sound]. I don't mind the odd belted ballad but an album full of them is boring and samey. Personally, I think a ballad that's sung softly can sound miles better than one that's belted. Obviously it changes from artist to artist, from song to song but that's my general view.

What is your opinion?

I just love the big voices and that is why i love all of your examples :thumbs:

Well I think some people(especially Christina imo) suit songs which require a big voice much more. But it isn't necessary,there needs to be diversity and all belty songs would be boring. One song I love is 'Grace' by Kate Havnevik which is so quiet but so gorgeous. It's quality not loudness!

no, not all chart toppers can sing

All of your examples are reasons why I hate big voices.
They are boring and too over powering.
Softer voices make a song more beautiful.
I'm going to use a very popular example;

Alexandra Burke and her rendition of Hallelujah.
Leonard Cohen owns that song because it it for a soft beautiful voice.
Jeff buckley made the song famous for it being so beautiful, he didn't scream the song, he sang it the way it was written to be sung.

IMO anyway.

I judge an artist on their music,not their vocal range.on 2 of my favourite albums [Britney - Blackout,Kanye West -808's and Heartbreak],its like nearly all the vocals on the whole album were produced by a compter,but that doesnt bother me,because it makes the music better.so a big voice(or even a good voice) isnt necessary for an artist to make good music.however when it come to artists singing live,a big voice is necessary IMO.

No, look whos been number 1 so far this year (barring Alexandra)

A big voice helps, but good material, stage presence, personality etc are just as important

Lady GaGa does have a big voice IMO.obviously Lilly Allen doesnt though.

Lady Gaga doesn't, her voice is heavily edited in post production and she can't sing her song live in the key it has been released in.

I personally like a few artists with big voices...such as Aretha Franklin, Beyonce, Nina Simone. But generally it's not so important. The lyrics, emotion and honesty behind a song is more important.

Hence me not liking most musicians who're labelled as some magic, revolutionary brilliance when most of said brilliance is produced by machines. Lady GaGa, this means you. :whistle:

So big voice - not important. Honest, non-edited voice = important.

TBH, absolutely not. For the last decade, MARKETING has been the trick to many artist's success, and not necessarily their vocals. A huge voice isn't important in this day & age, when you can easily edit talent to a person nowadays.

IMO, I'd rather a heavily edited catchy pop song than a track where the singer varies 4 octaves while saying one word.

Did ANY of that make sense? lol.

I love big voices but you don't need one to be successful in the charts but if you sing live you have to Project your voice.

Having a big voice obviously is good when it comes to Mariah, Christina and Whitney etc but look at Britney and Rihanna, huge stars with not so big voices....

Clearly you haven't heard the Cherrytree Sessions.

Gaga has a pretty decent voice, I wouldn't say it's big enough to rival some of the greats but I don't think it's fair to say her voice is 'heavily edited'.
As Gazbo said, The Cherrytree Sessions prove this. All voice, no dancing or gimmicks.

I might make these debates a regular thing, I've thought of a couple more I'd like to pose to the forum. If anyone else has ideas, U2U them to me and I'll post them in time haha.