Vocal Points: A Voice That Trumps All Else

posted in: Features • Pop

Susan Boyle. Discovered on Britain’s Got Talent, she shocked the judges with her incredible voice and became a worldwide sensation just weeks after the show’s airing. And she continues to build her success, with another album which was released November 1st.  What wows fans about Boyle is the fact that she is a simple, middle-aged woman who came out of nowhere. She is not the most beautiful nor is she thin, she does not put on a crazy pop show with insane choreography. She offers fans one thing, her voice, and that voice continues to be enough.

Not many stories like Boyle’s exist. Sure, there are variations between singers. Some have a better stage presence than others, some are more glamorous. But we rarely get the chance to see performers raw, uncut, and without all the other stuff that makes them stars. Many times, we don’t want to see our favorite singers without all the extras (full band, cool clothes and dramatic effects). We want all of it.  After all, that’s what we’re paying the big bucks for. And yet, when Susan Boyle sings, we don’t care about any of the other details.

Adele is similar to Boyle in that she is a simple performer. Without a crazy backdrop or fancy moves, Adele wows audiences with her voice (that is, when she’s not canceling tours because of recurrent health problems). It truly seems that her simplicity is what makes her fans so crazy about her. Despite not looking like your stereotypical pop star, her killer voice shines through.

So many female pop singers these days make their careers based partly on their talent, relying on their sex appeal and image to keep them in the spotlight. Katy Perry, for example, is stunning, and uses that fact to her advantage. While she can definitely sing, it seems that making videos like the one for her hit song “California Gurls“, which features scenes of her basically naked on a cloud, have been what put her career over the top. I guess it’s possible that fans would want to see Perry perform with minimal accompaniment in a turtleneck and jeans. But odds are, people would come away from that show disappointed that they didn’t get a chance to witness a scantily clad Perry dance around with her wild hair and bubbly personality. Her fans don’t go to the shows for simply her vocal performance, they go for the experience as a whole.

We’ve seen this same thing with Britney Spears. She became a pop icon, not because of just her voice, but because of her sexy outfits, her dance moves and her toned body. She used every one of her assets to push herself to the top, not that that’s a bad thing. Both she and Katy Perry have proved that it works, and that they have the whole package. But maybe you don’t need the whole package if you can sing like Susan Boyle or Adele. And that is pretty incredible, especially these days when our culture values image so much.