First thing that comes to mind is that there's a Mariah Joan species of the Boney Joan Rule, given that Mariah in my favorite period of hers was continually singing her voice rather than the song, was complete animal spirits, me me me, and this was terrific (though the songs came through nonetheless, and I wouldn't be surprised if she did a lot of work to make them come through; but to me, the story really was her voice and its sea-diving-plus-aeronautics display).
Second is that to my youthful, defensive early '60s ears, opera sounded stylized, hence emotionless. So even if it made sense to the singers, and to listeners used to the musical language, to me it was forbiddingly dressed-up in strangeness.
I know just what Diana means about the smooth, easy, unaffected Tony Bennetts and Bing Crosbys, except that for me that singing still sounds like "proper singing," so still at a distance in comparison to all the shit we hear today. That's not Bennett's or Crosby's fault, of course, and I like Crosby fine (and really like Fred Astaire, whose singing I'd considered nebishy when I first ran into it in old movies). But that style, as natural as it may be to sing, sounds strange to hear, when modern-day singers try it.
Don't know if Baez's problem was so much her being a showoff as she couldn't unlock herself from her own style. Could her style have been an elaborate, subconscious attempt to put stage fright at bay?
Shakira! What about Shakira, her vibrato? I wouldn't say she's showing off her chops with it any more than I'd say Charlie Chaplin was showing off his mustache. It's just, weirdly, her, sometimes to fine effect, sometimes not.
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Second is that to my youthful, defensive early '60s ears, opera sounded stylized, hence emotionless. So even if it made sense to the singers, and to listeners used to the musical language, to me it was forbiddingly dressed-up in strangeness.
I know just what Diana means about the smooth, easy, unaffected Tony Bennetts and Bing Crosbys, except that for me that singing still sounds like "proper singing," so still at a distance in comparison to all the shit we hear today. That's not Bennett's or Crosby's fault, of course, and I like Crosby fine (and really like Fred Astaire, whose singing I'd considered nebishy when I first ran into it in old movies). But that style, as natural as it may be to sing, sounds strange to hear, when modern-day singers try it.
Don't know if Baez's problem was so much her being a showoff as she couldn't unlock herself from her own style. Could her style have been an elaborate, subconscious attempt to put stage fright at bay?
Shakira! What about Shakira, her vibrato? I wouldn't say she's showing off her chops with it any more than I'd say Charlie Chaplin was showing off his mustache. It's just, weirdly, her, sometimes to fine effect, sometimes not.