Gender Vocal Biases

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Alright fellow burnouts, tell me if you feel like this sometimes and possibly why. With a few glaring exceptions, you cannot fucking STAND male vocals in house tracks, female vox in hip hop tracks.

― DarrensCoq, Monday, 20 October 2003 21:55 (twenty-two years ago)

DarrensCoq!!!!

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I PREFER female vocals in hip hop.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:07 (twenty-two years ago)

er, this might sound dubious, but do female vocals sound better in *any* genre? ok, house music yes, but any others? folk?

wait, you PREFER female hip hop vocals? but any actualy vocalists? come on: lil kim? foxy brown? missy eliot? Roxanne Shante? Lauren Hill? All terrible lyricists...

― paulhw, Monday, 20 October 2003 22:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I prefer male vocals in house. Fuck divas.

(paul: ever heard bahamadia or jean grae aka what what?)

― oops (Oops), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Any genre? Hell yeah. I don't want to even listen to male jazz vocals, but love female. Most soul or r&b I prefer female too.

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, but bahamadia and what what don't suit my argument quite so well...

also think apani b fly is really good...but some on, 3 or 4 good underground female MCs (that i know of) but none in mainstream hip hop, agreed?

― paulhw (paulhw), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Oops, real good point there I forgot to mention. I hate divas too, possibly cos at this highly burned out stage in my music consuming life I can't handle histrionics or overly soulful vox in anything (but I also can't handle amateur hour electroclash vox either regardless of angle). I guess I only like really polished female vocals if they are dressed modestly eg: the Deep DIsh rmx of "Rapture." I'm still struggling to understand the male vocal thing hence the thread

― DarrensCoq, Monday, 20 October 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

i prefer female vocalists (and can not STAND male vocalists) when dusty springfield or patsy cline or linda thompson or nita rossi or ray davies' wife or kim shattuck or kim deal or even sometimes kim gordon is in the room.

i prefer male vocalists (and can not STAND female vocalists) when charlie rich or george jones or john lennon or harry nilsson or marvin gaye or kurt cobain or dmx or even sometimes biz markie is in the room.

any other way i think about it, i honestly don't get your question.

― fact checking cuz, Monday, 20 October 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Well fact I was talking genre-specific. Maybe it's because the whole house experience, to me at least, brings out my feminine side on a very aggro exclusionary level, and vice versa w hip hop, and at this stage I don't bother trying to be open minded or question my motives when getting my swerve on. THat's what the internet is for!

― DarrensCoq, Monday, 20 October 2003 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

i can't stand kim deal when frank black's in the room...

― paulhw (paulhw), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe it's because the whole house experience, to me at least, brings out my feminine side on a very aggro exclusionary level, and vice versa w hip hop

Yeah, I was going to say something similar. It's a big generalization, but there's some truth to it.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

darren, i was responding mostly to the "any genre" post, but as to your "genre-specific" motives, my hunch is that the same answer pretty much applies. i wish labels and radio would pay more attention to female rappers so there'd be more to choose from, more to hear, more to love.

― fact checking cuz, Monday, 20 October 2003 22:31 (twenty-two years ago)

call me a liberal bellyacher or whatever but I totally don't get this thread at all. There's so many shitty rappers, singers, etc. of both genders that I don't see how one could possibly have a preference. I could see saying you like MORE male rappers (which I certainly do) but that's not the same as having a preference (I'm totally dying to hear Roxanne Shante but can't her stuff anywhere). It's all about personality, right?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't see how one could possibly have a preference.

Come again? It's a preference. It doesn't have to be logical.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:37 (twenty-two years ago)

okay, I guess. It's just a totally alien concept to me. And I'm not saying that in some pat myself on the back way.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

It only makes sense to me in terms of complementary timbres. Lots of times I won't get into low male vocals in heavy/aggressive rock because it's too much overall low end -- however, I love John Navin's deep voice in the Aluminum Group, because it complements the sleek lounginess of the music.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

i for the most part, cant stand male vocalists when singing. there are some exceptions (quite a few), but overall, i'd rather not.

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 13:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I rilly rilly love female garage MCs (although I like male ones too, but the females seem to be more consistent); Ms Dynamite, Alesha, Shystie, Lady Stush.

― Nick H, Tuesday, 21 October 2003 15:11 (twenty-one years ago)

for sexual reasons, i tend to have a preference for female vocalists, even though male vocalists make up the majority of my (non-instrumental) CD collection

― Felcher (Felcher), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm. I don't have a preference for jazz vocals, but it seems harder for men to pull it off (and yet easier to have a unique voice, based on less competition?).

Rock, I don't care in theory but I like female vocalists who aren't afraid to get gritty and fuck their voices up (i.e. not sing "prettily" all the time), and none of my favorite bands are female-fronted. Punk rock female vocalists rule.

No problem at all with female rappers except, um, I haven't heard too many who are really good. Rah Digga is great though.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Check for the female MCs mentioned here Jordan: Apani B Fly (I recommend the 'Rhyme Related' album/extended EP by Polyrhythm Addicts. Her, Shabaam Sahdeeq, and Mr. Complex, with production by DJ Spinna), Jean Grae, and Bahamadia. I also dig Mecca/Ladybug from Digable Planets. She may not have 'skillz' in the traditional sense, but who cares?, her voice complements a track nicely.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I do like the woman from Digable Planets, but I'm not a Bahamadia fan, her voice just gets to me (and not in a good way). The track she did with Kweli was aight though...speaking of which, whoever the woman is on that posse cut at the end of the Blackstar record is killin' it.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I generally prefer male vocalists; maybe it's because I have a soprano voice and can sing along if I transpose an octave onto a tenor, whereas most female singers anyone would want to listen to are altos, so I have to sing high harmony, which I figure must annoy the shit out of the guy in the apt next door so I have to be real real real quiet -- or maybe it's because the lower pitched something is the less annoying it tends to be? Then again, most male singers people want to hear are tenors... maybe I'm really a man and I'm a woman-hater, who knows...

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I like girl vocals. I was listening to Velocity Girl yesterday and fell in love all over again.

― ModJ (ModJ), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 22:30 (twenty-one years ago)

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