Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26420

Voice as instruement or as focus?

Just another random thought I had while in the shower.

Do you think that vocals in music are best used simply as another instrument, or as the focus of the song?

I suppose it varies depending on the type of music and musicians, but I am just wondering.

On the one hand you have the beautiful way that some techno music and whatnot uses snippets of vocals as another instrument, and I am always madly impressed at how the person could be saying "ca-ca" and it would still gel.

On the other hand, you have people like Tori Amos and Tupac Shakur, who could just go a capella and I would still buy their records.

But for the same reason that the lead singer is always considered the "leader" of a band, everybody tends to over emphasize the vocals. That is all well and good for some bands, but most lyrics are not really worth emphasis (If I hear one more pop group rhyme "crazy" and "baby" I may have to shoot somebody)

Should music be more than telling a story with words?

I dunno.

This rant is turning ugly. And dumb.

ABORT! ABORT!!!!

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: industrialand
Posts: 658

bleh.. 'techno'.

anyways, I think it can be used as an instrument, or the main focus of a song like you mentioned.

I think it kind of depends if the vocals are samples or a true singer.

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some children died the other day,
we fed machines and then we pray

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Kanada.
Posts: 597

You get an added dimension to music with vocals, namely meaning in the form of language. It's up to you to use it.

The human voice does tend to make things more interesting though.

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Tomato Soup for the Ass

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
Posts: 10477

In my attempts to learn something on the guitar, I've learned a few oldies songs. I can play parts of Rock Around the Clock, I Get Around, and Surfin USA. At some point I realised that the books that I got the "guitar music" from really weren't teaching me the guitar part at all, but the vocal part arraigned for guitar. They are immediatedly recognizable when you play them, because the vocal is probably the most identifiable part of a song.

DM

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fuck art lets kill

Potty Mouth Sissys
Listen to Drunk Horny & High.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: All East Coast : USA
Posts: 2450

well this is where you have your diff. genres of music

in rock, country etc...
the voice almost always acts as the main role in the songs

when it comes to something such as industrial/industrial rock

the voice and music tend to blend together. I'd say check out some of VAC's newest
http://www.edtrecords.com/vac/blueprint.htm

a friend of mine put some up on his site

http://www.outofideas.com/hoom/juss...0Acid%20Christ/

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-brimstone
"sometimes things just get a little bit out of hand"

[This message has been edited by brimstone (edited 11-06-2000).]

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: my mother's bloody womb
Posts: 7148

it depends on the mood you want to create, paint. with techno, it's a party, trancy kind of atmosphere. they want you to get up and dance, move, groove with the lady next you, and maybe her friend too. thus, the vocals turn to an instrumental. strong vocals would tear you away from the vibe they're trying to create. the rythmic, cyclic motion of the song is what helps you shed your inhibitions. i could rant all night about the ritualistic undertones behind it and the correlation to religion, but i'll just stop now.

and tori rawks.
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"I knew it was going to be in the last place I looked, so I looked there first." ---Delirium

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