Singing vs. Singers (Newsletter No. 59)

I’m mainly talking about pop music.

Does anyone else think about this? I don’t know the proper vocabulary to describe it but let me try. There are a lot of actors with nice voices but you can see why they don’t have singing careers. Like, if they had tried to debut into Hollywood as a singer first they probably would stay invisible, nepo baby or not. I’d like to dub them, good karaoke singers. They have some or all of the following qualities:

  1. They can only belt for their voice to sound nice.

  2. Their voices are clear, but not unique (you wouldn’t be able to pick them out on the radio, which might actually be fine enough for Broadway).

  3. They’re focused on their tone and being on-key but aren’t very good at phrasing or rhythm, usually singing word by word as if they’re highlighted one by one on a karaoke screen, too in love with how their voices sound enunciating each lyric.

  4. They don’t know how to work with the band or harmonize with background vocals very well and easily lose their pacing and key if the band isn’t adapting to their idiosyncrasies.

    Like:
    Kate Hudson
    Gwyneth Paltrow
    Emily Blunt
    Katie Holmes
    Nicole Kidman
    Selena Gomez
    Scarlett Johansson
    Lindsay Lohan
    Leighton Meester

    And then there are actors that you can tell are trained singers/come from a musical background. Some of them are better singers than they are actors:

    Barbara Streisand
    Lea Michele
    Amanda Seyfried
    Kristen Bell
    Brittany Murphy
    Evan Rachel Wood
    Emmy Rossum
    Amy Adams
    Zooey Deschanel
    Vanessa Hudgens
    Anne Hathaway
    Idina Menzel

And then there are powerful skilled voices but that don’t particularly have a distinct tone or timbre:

Jennifer Hudson


And then there are singers with unique voices that aren’t particularly/especially strong, but they have incredible musicality, you can tell it’s them singing every time you hear them on the radio even if it’s a new song:

Billie Eilish
Olivia Rodrigo
Rihanna
Bjork
Ariana Grande
Lizzo
Taylor Swift
Madonna
Cher
Britney Spears
Lorde
Kanye West
Johnny Cash
Louis Armstrong
Chris Martin
Kanye West

And then there are great singers with both distinct and strong voices. Some of these are also (not very good) actors:

Bruno Mars
Beyonce
Michael Jackson
Sam Cooke
Stevie Wonder
Nina Simone
Freddie Mercury
Adele
CeeLo
Justin Bieber
Miley Cyrus
Kelly Clarkson
Demi Lovato
Shakira
Mariah Carey
Sara Bareilles
Patsy Cline
Amy Winehouse
Frank Sinatra



Kristy Lin