# Is there a name for this singing style? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 28, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072 "2009-08-28T20:15:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/21 "2009-09-01T19:19:17Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > McCartney’s not singing falsetto on “Oh! Darling.” It’s his head voice, if I got the term right, and he’s straining. I can’t think of a more formal word for it than that. The OP feels these singers sound strained, maybe you could say they get nasal, and he doesn’t like that. According to a book about the Beatles, which I read 25+ years ago, Paul deliberately screamed himself hoarse \*_before_ actually recording those vocals in order to get just the sound he wanted. And I would also like to point out that Geddy Lee stopped singing like that two decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/22 "2009-09-01T19:26:23Z")
> [@emcee2k](#): > > Janis Joplin sings high and shrilly? I think I get what the OP is talking about. If you listen to Ball and Chain, for instance (one of the best damned songs ever, IMO), some of Joplin’s high notes become harsh, gutteral yowls. To me, this adds to her interpretation of the song, and seems to be a trademark for her. ETA: **AskNott** said it better. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/23 "2010-06-25T09:34:31Z")
“Bluesy”? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/24 "2010-06-25T09:59:29Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > My chorus director calls it “stepping outside one’s beauty box.” I so hear that in the voice of Chris Colfer. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/25 "2010-06-25T10:05:36Z")
Just one more chapter in the history of white popstars trying to sound black. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/26 "2010-06-25T11:30:35Z")
Two concepts are being conflated: technique and sincerity/delivery - Technique: yeah, it’s a bluesy wail. It emerged from the raw, untrained approach that various styles - Delta blues, soul, some country, etc. - have in their vocals. Although it sounds raw, it is often a combination of the singer’s natural tone - Rod Stewart has a natural rasp - and specific vocal techniques. A singer taking that approach without applying some technique over time destroys their voice. - Delivery: so, what’s the big difference between Lennon on [Twist and Shout](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA9maAERDAs)and Michael Bolton in [When a Man Loves a Woman](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64v-yj_c8dI&feature=related)? Your belief in the singer, in part indicated by how they use that technique. Lennon sounds shred-tastic because he punches his voice - employing that technique after being sick all day, abusing his voice by recording all day, and drinking milk - at all the right spots in the song, and sounds like he means it. Bolton sounds like a douchebag because his technique is there for show, on top of the lyric and not inside it. Your frustration with this technique is no different than a lot of folks’ frustration with melisma - stretching out syllables up and down vocal runs. In the hands of Mariah Carey, it is gymnastic, syrupy indulgence; in the hands of Aretha Franklin, there are few things as powerful. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/27 "2010-06-25T12:14:11Z")
> [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](#): > > For curiosity, how do you feel about Tom Waits’ singing? I’m going to go out on a limb and say the patina of hipness on Tom Waits’ music supersedes any misgivings the OP has concerning the fact that, in fact, he does practice the same style of singing that was decried in the OP. I could be wrong, though. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/28 "2010-06-25T12:16:15Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > I’m fine with Waits - he’s got more of a gruff, ragged voice, like Paul Westerberg; he doesn’t get all shrieky. McCartney’s vocal on “Oh! Darling” is close to what I’m talking about, but it doesn’t bother me in the least (in fact, I think it’s one of his best vocal performances, even if it wasn’t done in one take). That might have more to do with my personal prejudices - I’m a huge Beatles fan - but I think McCartney is able to inest more of himself into his singing, so that he sounds legitimately unhinged (same goes for his vocal on “I’m Down”) rather than a poseur. I realize this is all arbitrary and subjective, but listen to, say, “I Was Made For Loving You” by Kiss or Michael Bolton’s cover of “When A Man Loves A Woman”, and that’s what I’m complaining about. It just sounds so forced (and therefore phony) to me. See? I was right after all. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/29 "2010-06-25T16:06:52Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Anybody know if there’s an “official” name for this kind of singing? I don’t know of any official name for it. I used to refer to this kind of music as “grunt, sweat & strut”. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/30 "2010-06-25T16:29:06Z")
There’s a similar dynamic of strain in many bluegrass vocals, in which it’s not necessarily the specific tone achieved which is significant but the “moral” quality of the struggle to reach it, or even the suffering conveyed by the raggedness of the attempt. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/31 "2010-06-25T16:30:06Z")
The voice is an instrument. You can play it how you like, just like the myriad sounds you can get out of an electric guitar. I like Janis, Joe Cocker, and Waits. Great vocals! ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/32 "2010-06-25T16:38:14Z")
> [@campp](#): > > I like Janis, Joe Cocker, and Waits. Great vocals! ^^^Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/33 "2010-06-25T17:02:58Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Could you give a better description of the parts to which you’re referring? > > Are you just talking about, for instance, trying to be loud and sort of screaming? Are you talking about pitch, trying to go too high? What is it that is straining to you? [Janis Joplin, Summertime.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTFF-BaT0MM) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/34 "2010-06-25T17:32:48Z")
It’s not just rock and blues. The very worst of these, IMHO who I really can’t stand to listen to, and whose success continues to baffle me, is Garth Brooks. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/35 "2010-06-25T18:34:54Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > “Wailing”, perhaps? No, that’s Yoko Ono. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072/36 "2010-06-25T19:55:39Z")
> [@campp](#): > > The voice is an instrument. You can play it how you like, just like the myriad sounds you can get out of an electric guitar. Of course, if you shred the strings on your guitar, you don’t have to have 5 follow-up surgeries to remove the polyps from your fingers… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-singing-style/508072.md?page=1)