- Jan252012
Way Back Wednesday: Female Singers Who Set The Bar
During the last few days, Twitter’s global trending topics were littered with ignorant comments that praised acts such as Miley Cyrus, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears as “legendary” singers. However, although those acts have been successful for numerous reasons, our latest Way Back Wednesday will highlight female vocalists who truly deserve the praise.
Comprising female vocalists who released their debut albums within the last 60 years, this special feature will showcase those performers who truly set the bar against which singing is judged. Perhaps, after viewing these icons in action, the young fans will realise that Aguilera, Beyonce and the numerous acts who dominate the music scene today are still novices and nowhere near legendary status.
Watch some of the greatest female vocalists of the last 60 years in action below:
Aretha Franklin – ‘Spirit in the Dark’
Barbra Streisand – ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’
Celine Dion – ‘My Heart Will Go On’
Chaka Khan – ‘Sweet Thing’
Mariah Carey – ‘Vision of Love’
Patti LaBelle – ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’
Whitney Houston – ‘I Will Always Love You’
What is truly amazing about these acts is that they were influenced by the styles of the artists who preceded them but eventually developed their own brands of singing that were individually unique. For instance, Aretha Franklin’s talent was honed by Mahalia Jackson and she incorporated many of the latter’s traits into her singing along with Jazz and R&B to create her iconic sound.
Subsequently, Whitney Houston learned from Franklin but she in turn forged a different sound by studying Barbra Streisand’s model of the ballad and applying her thunderous voice with control and soul. That is the trademark of a talented vocalist.
These women all had an enormous impact on the industry and changed the very essence of the global music scene. Whether it was Mariah Carey’s mastery of her range and tone to executive intricate vocal runs or Chaka Khan’s marvelous melodies that built on the stylings of Billie Holiday, they are all legends. So, please stop using that word so carelessly!
Thoughts?
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Bitch. WERK. Amen, Hallelujer.
*said like Mariah* Set the benchmark for which SINGING is judged! Patti LABEEEELLE
O fuck off. Beyonce is farrrrr more versatile than all these singers and she is a more complex vocalist. Stay mad.
Xtina sets the Bar on current singers bracket with her vocals.
You better school these youngins who think that music began in 1998. The difference between these singers and the singers of today is that they can keep their clothes on and have stage presence at the same time. Also, they have grade A technique.
Im an Xtina stan and she has YET to set the bar @Small_Angel. Anyways people do tend to throw the word “legend” around. I think they get it confused with “icon/iconic.”
PATTI!!!!!!!!!
Y’ALL BETTA GET MY GIRL OVER THAT DAMN RAINBOW!!
(lemme come back and comment on the topic at hand…)
The vocal performances and their delivery performances (no choreography and no back up dancers) all possess one thing Fred Gatson nor the latest go to producer can never touch, TALENT.
Christina Aguilera has an amazing voice, yes. But her decision to mask her talent with all this fuckery is just unbearable. Somebody turn on some water so she can rinse that shit away, pat dry, and try again.
Love them all! I’m an Xtina fan, and while I believe that she is one of the better vocalists of today, she still has a lot of work to do. She’s bringing it with this era though!
(PS: & our trending topics are just for fun and to build hype for Xtina’s single/album)
Christina Aguilera is the one who come close to being
a legend from Todays singers. Beyonce and the Pop
singers have long way to go before I was consider the
legends.
QUEEN LABELLE!!!!!!!!!!!
that performance is why Whitney will go down as the greatest vocalist of all time
Thank you for bringing up how Whitney extended what Barbara was doing with the ballads, and I can say Mariah extended what Whitney did with the runs and head vocals.
I’m saddened that the few singers today who can sing, have ugly tones. They don’t have the beauty of Mariah and Whitney. Kelly Rowland and Leona Lewis have beautiful tones, but there’s something missing in technique or live performance.
None of these singers had to employ gimmicks to distract from their vocals. All they needed was 1 mic and the music.
Whitney slayed effortlessly while being so engaging on stage and that Arethat performance was just #%#^^$
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqT_8f5vpw8
I think that Mariah had the best control out of these legendary singers. I will say one thing about Xtina… “My Kind Of Christmas” & “Stripped” made her a proper controlled vocalist. She clearly slayed her latest Christmas performance bcoz it was recorded as a controlled song, not all over the place like her new material.
as ive said Xtina sets the bar on the CURRENT SINGER BRACKET!!!
I am extremely saddened that Beyonce was not mentioned (in a positive light). She is a performer and extremely talented vocalist. Her vocal runs (refer to the Beyonce Experience) are yet to be matched by any “modern” singer. She stands out as the BEST of this generaton.
Um wheres Minnie Ripperton & Phyllis Hyman?
And if Beyonce ever had to compete with any of the legends above while they were in their prime, she’d EASILY be forgotten, Beyonce is not that great (everyone knows this but her tired stans), she’s a good singer (but NOTHING compared to the names above), OK dancer, and horrible actress, she’s not the best at anything (even at stealing). The bitch is mediocre at best, Nothing is special about her, and more and more people are seeing that (the proof in that is how every single off the last horrible album completely flopped).
Im wit Trent, I wish dumb stans would stop trying to call Beyonce a legend, its not gonna happen, deal with it. Legends dont copy people their whole career and then call it being “inspired”. Legends have originality to throw in the mix, and like Mia said, there aint NOTHIN to set Bey up with the REAL legends, Hell even Christina’s voice is more legendary than Bey’s, (though I cant stand them both, Im smart enough to know that Christina’s voice gets more praise and attention than Bey’s ever) Beyonce is a fail, get over it.
Yall better stop talkin shit about Beyonce, I done the research, she has 7 octives, 16 Grammy’s, and sold over 200 million albems worldwide, and your favs could neve even do 1 of those, all the women up there are fat pig flops and Bey is pretier than all of them, so just shut up and stay mad, Bey is the most successful women and most talented women on the planet. HA
Beyonce has 7 octaves?!?! More than Mariah? B**tch goodnight. And this is not a discussion about grammys. How would your fave compare to the above legends WITHOUT Matthew, without Tina’s clothes, without the legends to mimic vocally, without the echo in her microphone, With her clothes on (even when she sings slow songs she has her Tits out or wears those super tight hip hugging.dresses)
You know Beyonce is better, you just afraid to admit it cause she lightskinned, everybody & they mama know Beyonce has a way betta voice than that moo cow Mariah or Whitney ever had,and she has more octaves than them. Stop hatin and accept what is
I’m tired of you mention all of the time Mariah… Xtina and Beyonce are the only females, current, who sets the bar, as vocalists, and as performers… and yeah Mariah needs to proove herself too, much more than before!
Dead @ the Beyonce stan saying she has 7 Octaves!!!!!
Yea, Joss is right, cause ma girl Bey already proved she’s a legend when she got them grammy’s, and your faves never will, Nobody has as many Grammy’s as Bey, and you know it, and it kills you dont it, My girl runs the world without breaking a sweat, and she killed all those old bitches careers
As of late, I actually find myself agreeing with you. LOL. Out of this new generation, only Xtina can be considered a legendary vocalist. I will give Beyonce as the entertainer, but she’s just a good vocalist.
I going to go for Queen Aretha because without her there would not have been patti, babs, chaka whitney, mariah, mary j., tina or adele and so many talented supreme songstress that get overlook by today’s music. Trent you did a wonderful Way Back as away. I enjoy coming to this site. I believe we all learn a lot something that other sites do not do.
Troll alert –> Beyfan. Just ignore.
“and yeah Mariah needs to proove herself too, much more than before!”
o_O Mariah Carey has nothing to prove. What is there for her to prove? Honestly curious to hear what you have to say.
I’m not goin into delusion agreein wit this Bey havin 7 octaves thing. & Grammys prove what? Even Macy Gray has won a Vocal Grammy against XTina. She wasn’t even the best in her own group. Kelly who often mirrored her vocals & on some songs even was mistaken for Bey never realized her full vocal potential & Letoya never got to shine. Hell even Michelle’s range shits on hers at times.
Great article Trent, I love that you tied the inspiration that these women experienced and how they used it to develop their own sound.
Hmmmm, I try not to mention the Bey stans but they are ridiculous at times always trying to shade the legends and I don’t get why? I mean Beyonce doesn’t shade any of the women listed in the piece above, so why would her fans? Beyonce has verbalized that she has looked up to some of these women in her youth while chasing her dream.
Do I think Beyonce is a legend yet, IMO not yet but I think she is definitely on the road to being one. She has grown tremendously as an artist and I think ’4′ is some of her best work IMO.
These are such legendary ladies. No one can compare to these women. All they needed was a mic and their voices and they set the world on fire.
Trent, I think that you should totally do a post on underrated singers from the last 60 years, such as Phyllis Hyman, Teena Marie, Minnie Riperton (although she inspired so many people, she is still underrated) and others. And I think a post on male singers is totally needed.
Aretha’s was also a “student” of Clara Ward, who was her biggest singing influence (apart from her father).
Beyonce is unique in this generation in that she fuses together the arts of singing and dance performance so well. Furthermore, she is like a collage. She’s got a bit of everyone: Aretha, Tina, Whitney, Diana, Donna, Barbra, Gladys, Chaka, Ella, but she isn’t copying them, she’s just a throwback to them. It’s in the way she sings, what she’s singing about, the kind of music she makes. She’s such a musician and has absorbed various singers into herself, but delivers with her own style.
So she might not be a legend, but out of all the singers in her generation, she’s the closest to it.
Out of these singers, Aretha, Whitney and Mariah really stand alone. Aretha is the representation of the expression of African American music: she’s fused the blues with gospel, with metric elements of jazz and made it the ultimate standard in great singing. She’s the Queen of popular music melisma, the reason pop singers are constantly riffing blues-based progressions or trying to belt above the staff. Everyone has truly been influenced by her, whether they know it or not.
Whitney’s flawless combination of pop and gospel sounds has been the architect of singing for the past 25+ years. Not just The Voice itself, but the singing. The sweet, beautiful smoothness of the melodic lines she sang, but with the gospel and R&B musicality and delivery.
Mariah creates probably the most unique vocal lines from any singer: uses the blues scale, but with jazz and classical rhythmic deliveries.
Beyonce is without a doubt one of this generations best. But I’m not goin to give her a status she hasn’t earned. Brandy. Monica. XTina. Tamia. Deborah Cox. Debelah Morgan. Adele. All of these women have better vocals & I only named some. Bey just has enough of everything popular (moves &etc).
I see I got haterz just like Bey, but so what, both of us is fabulus and yall will deal. Bey is the standout bitch of all divas, none of them could ever do what she do, she is the best
the voice dosent make a legend….its a prescence and swag which only patti.celine.barbra.chaka and aretha(just cuz she is aretha) have as of today….SHADE!
@BEYFAN….200 million??….but 2million of her last cd worldwide— Beyonce would be a Lola Falana wannabe (google her) if she came out in the 80′s sit down!!
Beyfan says:
January 26, 2012 at 11:39 am
Yall better stop talkin shit about Beyonce, I done the research, she has 7 octives, 16 Grammy’s, and sold over 200 million albems worldwide, and your favs could neve even do 1 of those, all the women up there are fat pig flops and Bey is pretier than all of them, so just shut up and stay mad, Bey is the most successful women and most talented women on the planet. HA
____________________________________________
Take a sit on the floor of an empty Room.
7 Octaves? (0.5 Octaves)
16 Grammy’s? (Some well deserve, MOST thanks to daddy)
200 Million? (Twenty looks like this -> 20 not 200 ok?)
Beyonce has a 3 octave vocal range at MOST
She’s probably sold about 20-25 million albums
She has won 13 grammys as a SOLO ARTIST not 16, and the reason why she has so many is because now there are over 120 categories now back in the 90′s, 80′s, 70′s etc. there was only about 70 or 80 categories making it harder for people to win and there was a lot more competition Beyonce would NOT have stood a chance thats why mariah only has 5 and whitney and madonna only has seven and Patti, Diana and Tina have 0
Where is the love for Etta James?
Trent I agree with @DOMOdotSCORE you should do a post with the underrated singer especially Teena Marie and how she has pave the way for singers like Adele and Christina A. with her blue eyes soul. Maybe a Blue Eyes Soulsister post. I would love to see you take on the male side maybe comparing or breakdown of similarities in music R.Kelly, Ginuwine, Usher and Maxwell to the young cats Chris Brown, Trey Song and Miguel or upcoming Frank Ocean.
I had to come back. I need a “Holy Ghost” fix especially on Aretha and Patti. As I look/listen to each songstress. These women loved music, they sung with passion, they believed and entice the audience with their voice. When you can close your eyes, exhale and let the voice move you to another place that is exceptional. These ladies are exceptional because they allow to feel the passion of the song they are singing; they feel the words. It just not a song its the way the interrupt the song with there voice that makes they legendary.
I meant interpret not interrupt. typing too fast.
Yall just ignorant thats all that is, ungratefull know nothin assholes