Quote:
Originally Posted by Swampstorm
...Vocal technique is important, regardless of style.... [Lots of interesting stuff omitted].... Besides, professional musicians of all styles dedicate their lives to that craft, sterile though it may appear. So it's nothing to frown upon.
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Well, of course I went overboard, as I said. As usual, this comes from another movie: I am consistently put off by the way Japanese seiyuu otaku seem to like only a narrow range of technically excellent seiyuu, and don't seem to me to appreciate seiyuu with distinctive styles or more ability to express emotion, but who are less technically perfect.
But I still disagree with much of what you wrote, probably since I prefer a rougher sound to the excessively expert, but to me boring, rock and pop that I hear too much of. You are clearly talking about this from a musician's point of view, which I deeply respect. But in fact I think musicians tend to have different standards from fans, and especially from me. I think the best pop music is less expert and has more spirit. I tried to make it clear that I was talking about my own opinions here. But do you really think that star musicians get better over time? They may get more technically perfect, but their music is often most enjoyable near the beginning of their careers, it seems to me.
I disagree that less richness of sound necessarily means less emotional impact. I think that vocal technique and sound quality can be a snare and a delusion to musicians, diverting them from the things that really make good pop music: phrasing, sensitivity to lyrics and to rhythms, emotional hooks, real feeling, etc.
And if technique and sound quality really are equivalent, as you said, I consider my case proved, since sound quality is clearly not the be-all and end-all, as proven by the fact that people are largely turning to mp3's over CDs.
I can certainly see where people are coming from, and I probably come from that place myself, sometimes. It is best when a singer has both emotion and technique, as with Onitsuka Chihiro, for example. But I also think we often reject a different singer's interpretation of a song because we are too used to one version, and can't hear what's good about the new one.
By the way, I actually like a lot of classical vocal music -- lieder, choral music, some opera. There, technique is more important, but the spirit of the music and of the performance still counts for a lot. And, of course, even in pop music, really horrible technique remains really horrible.
Fansubber
