by Carrie Brownstein

What's your preferred vocal style? And what vocal style or trend makes your skin crawl?

Sure, most of us will be charitable and say we're catholic in our tastes; that we like all sorts of singing styles. But, come on, let's be honest: There's always one to which we're drawn, one that if we went through our music collection, we'd realize we've been choosing over others.

Perhaps it's easier to know what we don't like. For myself, and with few exceptions, I can't stand vocals that are wispy and fey. They make me want to yell, "Speak up, I can't hear you!" or "Grow a pair!" Maybe what I don't like about this style is that it makes me feel like the vocalist fell down a well and needs saving. Or that they're so precious, a feather could knock them over. But mostly, it's because this sorry-to-be-a-bother-but-I-have-something-to-say vocal style is easy; it takes more guts to sound strong, scary or weird, to leap for a high or low note with your whole being, or to sound like the song has possessed you. Another annoying trait: baby voices, and that includes whiners. Unless you ARE a baby, let's use our adult voice, okay?

Who do I make exceptions for? Elliott Smith, Cat Power, Judee Sill and Shirley Collins, to name just a few. And I make exceptions because there's darkness in their songs that isn't merely being hinted at in the lyrics. Any fragility in their voices is keeping a demon at bay; it's not there for effect so much as for solace, and their voice is part of the story as opposed to being the only element that makes the story interesting.

Singers I like:

Read (and watch) more, after the jump...

 

I also like a singing style that sounds like someone has taken a side; that they have an opinion or an attitude. You certainly don't have to be mad to make a dent in a song. Elvis Costello, Jonathan Richman, Eleanor Friedberger (Fiery Furnaces), Stephen Malkmus and Iggy Pop all come to mind. Those singers invoke something more than a sigh from their audience. Maybe I find something too placating, too passive about those tiny, ambivalent voices. Without naming names, many of them are Scandinavian women; watered-down versions of Amelia Fletcher from Talulah Gosh and Heavenly, or Thom Yorke minus Thom Yorke.

More singers I like:

I wonder if the smallness has something to do with the intimacy of home recordings — with the fact that some singers have never heard their voice fill a room, or had to try. Then again, Stuart Murdoch has a voice that makes me cringe (he fits into that precious category) and Belle & Sebastian started well before most people were making records in their bedrooms. But there's something to be said about how the influx of self-recorded and self-released albums — all created and then distributed inside the vacuum of the web — have increased the tolerance for what I'll call micro-singing and micro-music. If we're hearing and seeing music for the first time in miniature (on our computers), why should the sound and the singing be big? It really makes no difference if it is or not, and how could we even get a sense of its size in the first place?

Even more singers I like:

So I guess what I prefer in a vocal style is someone who isn't necessarily loud or soft, angry or elated, odd or well-adjusted, but someone who isn't afraid to try.

Feel free to share your favorite, or least favorite, singing styles.