Western popular vocal music is short-changing us musically.
If you have been subjected to television singing contests such as: The Voice, America’s Got Talent, Glee, American Idol, the Masked Singer, and the like, you already know what passes for popular — meaning “potentially financially successful” singing. The invention of the microphone and the PA (Public Address Speaker system) has enabled singers to sing at talking levels (known originally as “crooning”) and reinforce the volume of the singer’s voice to reach audiences in the back of vast halls and stadiums.
Popular singing in contest shows follow a well-trodden path: opening with a narrative or soft-spoke vocal until after the requisite two minutes reaching a sustained high-pitched finale — often accompanied with a patch of “melismatic” singing or vibrato. This faux-operatic display is intended to prove to the audience and the judges that the vocalist has a) worked very hard to put across the song and b) is emotionally vested in the message of the song. The singers are also judged against each other by way of youth versus age, attractiveness, hairstyle, attire, attitude, weight, height, race, gender and any avowed sexual orientation. The popularity of using “melisma” — the technique of squeezing multiple notes out of one syllable — is best heard in Gospel singing and has been dragged into popular music forcibly by singers such as Maria Carey and…
