All About The Voice

For as much as I love music, more and more I find myself becoming annoyed with musicians. A lot of them appear to have a very skewered sense of reality and their place in the world. It is understandable that when you have record executives, groupies and fans falling all over themselves just to get a piece of you and constantly telling you how amazing you are that you may develop an over-grown sense of self-worth - I can totally get that. Where they lose me is when they stop thinking that what they are doing is entertainment and begin to think they are somehow changing the world. Recently, I saw the documentary "From The Sky Down" about U2's recording of that "Achtung Baby" album in Berlin. It was 90 minutes of the band just patting themselves on the back and puffing up the impact of their album. You know, I like "One" as much as the next guy, but can we stop pretending it was anything more than a good song? It didn't change the world. I love U2 and even I found them insufferable in this documentary. Not to mention, of the 12 songs on the album, only 3 (maybe 4) are among the best U2 songs, so how great can this album really be?

Of course as the writer of the lyrics, Bono is even more pleased with himself than the rest of the group, bringing up words like "fate" and "identity" during the recording of the album, as if it was more a religious experience than a musical one. You can't really be surprised at his attitude. Lead singers are always extra proud of what they do. Lead singers typically treat the rest of the band as though they should be grateful the singer even bothered to show up and as if the band couldn't function without them. Lead singers think they can walk on water and should get 100% of the credit if a band is successful and none of the blame should the band fail. Honestly, they hold themselves in pretty high regard. Do you want to know what the worst part about that is? More often then not, they are right.

Musical acts are all about the voice. That is why when bands break up the singer can launch a successful solo career while the rest of the guys wind up behind the glass, producing some other singer who they hopefully can stand a little better. The other day I was mowing the lawn and, as often happens when my iPod is on shuffle because there is so much of their music in my library, the band Oasis kept coming up. Now, it is a well known fact that Liam Gallagher is a giant prick and I'm not surprised that the rest of the band decided they could no longer deal with his attitude. That being said, he has a great voice. He recently came out with an album from his new band and do you know what? It sounds just like Oasis, which means I have liked what I have heard so far. I don't have to deal with him on a personal basis, so why do I care if he is hard to deal with? I just like the music he makes.

I'm sure that it is hard to hear if you are a member of a band, firmly (if inaccurately) believing that everyone in the band is equal. But it just isn't true. With the exception of Van Halen switching from David Lee Roth to Sammy Hagar, most of the attempts by musical acts to switch singers have gone down in flames. At that point you may as well change the name of the act, because it is no longer what people think you should sound like and they aren't going to embrace the new guy anyway. The former members of Creed thought they had a solution when they replaced Scott Stapp with a guy who sounded just like him and changed the band's name, but people realized they were still just Creed trying to pull a fast one and before long the band announced they were reforming with Stapp. It was a valiant effort, but not enough. In a situation like that you either go in a totally different direction or learn to deal with the lead singer being a jerk. Those are kind of your only options.

The bottom line is there is a reason that there are roughly 50 shows on television right now in which a panel of judges try to find the next great voice, but there are zero shows on in which a great band with no lead singer is being offered a record contract. It is all about finding that one distinct voice that stands out in a crowd. That one voice which is instantly recognizable, immediately tells the audience who the band is and let's them know they are in for a good show. Those voices are hard to find, but if you do discover one you should hold on to it because it can take you places as long as you are prepared to deal with the consequences, because often they come attached to a person who is a bit of a jerk.