Hello,
"You made the classic mistake of assuming that "Greatest" singer has anything to do with vocal quality. You have to look at:
* Impact on Society
* Political Viewpoint
* Marketability
* OK, maybe voice quality here
Of course Dylan has a lousy voice, but that doesn't matter since he was the voice of his generation."
This is part of a comment I received about my last blog when I was discussing Rolling Stone's Top 100 greatest singers. I would like to reply to it. While I understand what the commenter's point is, I disagree. I think more what the commenter is describing is an artist. I agree you would include all those criteria on deciding what an artist is. However I am narrowing down the criteria for a singer.
I would also like to talk about the commenter's "voice of a generation" idea. I agree that Dylan was the voice of some of his generation. However I think a lot of people disagreed with his politics. Since I have a boring job where I can turn my mind off I thought a lot about this "voice of a generation" idea last night. I am a member of Genration X, so who would be the voice of my generation? I think a lot of people would say Kurt Cobain. However he is not my voice of my generation. He is a flash in the pan artist who had one big song in my opinion. (I know I will get a lot of criticism for that, but I think Nirvana and Cobain are vastly overrated.) He does not represent me in any way, shape or form. That makes me think that a lot of people of Dylan's generation thought the same about him. I think that actually there are several singers who are the "voice of their generation".
In the 60's I think this would include The Who, John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Starship etc. For Generation X I think this would include Eddie Vedder- actually I can't think of anyone else. I would list hundreds of people ahead of Cobain though. Cobain proves the point to make it big, you only have to have one hit. You then can live on that hit forever. Or that one hit can drive you crazy, like it did Cobain.
However I am just rating singers, where impact on society etc doesn't matter as much. I stand by my rankings of the Top 15 singers. Robert Plant probably will always be my #1 singer. As an artist I would have him much lower. His impact on society is neglible, unless you consider all the great artists who grew up listening to the mighty Zepp. I don't even know his political viewpoint and frankly don't care. However in marketability and voice quality I think he is without peer. He can sing all different kinds of genres, with all kinds of different people. He still can do it now, even though he is closing in on his 60th birthday.
I do appreciate all comments though. Speaking of which I have a facebook.com account under my name Craig Meads. If you would like to be themusicaddict's friend send me a request explaining that you read my blog.
Now some other things on my mind. Here is today's music video of the day. It is from one of my new favorite websites, mtvmusic.com. Today's video is "Umbrella" by Rihanna. I know this song is "so last year", but it was an instant classic. First of all the song is absolutely fantastic. Also Rihanna is absolutely gorgeous and has a great voice. She is one of the most gorgoeous pop stars of all-time. You cannot do better than that combination. Also check out mtvmusic.com, like me you can relive many childhood memories there.
Okay it is now rant time. Darius Rucker, former lead singer of Hootie and the Blowhards. (I know that is not their real name, but it is appropriate because they sucked so much.) Anyway he has a fairly decent song out as a country artist. It is called "Don't Think I Don't Think About That". I saw this video on Country Music Television (CMT) the other day. If you don't know Rucker is a black man, but the couple that appear in his video is a white couple. They show his occaisonally singing in a field, almost like they are ashamed of him. I found that a little aggravating. Hasn't country music progressed enough to show black people. If you can welcome Jessica Simpson or Jewel, why not people of color. (Jessica Simpson for hell's sake.) Out of all genres of music, Country music is by far the whitest. Nashville it is now time to join the new millenium. In a contrast, Sugarland has a vidoe for the song called "All I Wanna Do". For their actors, they don't confine themselves to white actors only. That is good to see.
While I am ranting. Why is the government using 15 billion dollars to bail out the automakers. The Big Three have had an inferior product for years, thus they have lost the battle in the marketplace. The Big Three have done little or nothing to improve on their product. Plus they have a home country advantage. I see no reason to bail out these idiots. I am getting sick of the bailouts, especially of big, greedy and incompetent entities. If the government really wants to bail out someone, bail out poor people like myself. People like me who have a mortgage, a family and a less than a great job. People who are doing everything they can with limited resources. (Don't worry this will never become a political blog, some things just irritate me.)
Finally speaking of big, greedy and incompetent entities, the BCS reared it's ugly head this past Sunday. This is an organization that knows how to make money at least. They may not be ethical but at least they won't be needing a bailout anytime soon. Anyway the BCS deemed Oklahoma and Florida worthy to play in the National Championship game. That should be a great and high scoring game. Watch that game just to see Oklahoma's offense in action. They have truly one of the most exciting offenses I have ever seen. This team has scored the most points in one season in NCAA college football history. Oklahoma and Florida will battle it out on January 8.
Other games to watch include Penn State-USC. USC is a pretty exciting team as well. That game will be on January 1st. Then in a non-BCS game that should be a great match up 11-2 TCU vs. 12-0 Boise State in the Poinsettia Bowl. TCU has only lost twice to Oklahoma and Utah. That game is going to be an early Christmas present, played on December 23rd in lovely San Diego. But out of all the games, the one I am looking forward to most is the Utah-Alabama game on January 2nd. This game will be in New Orleans. A lot of people don't know much about Utah, but don't count them out against Alabama. They have a terrific defense and their offense is just good enough. This should be a terrific game and I am picking Utah in an upset. Of course the fact that I am Utah alumni has a little to do with that. And of course as lifelong BYU fan, I will be cheering on the Cougars in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 20th.
I know, I know I keep on promising the "Chinese Democracy" review. I am hoping to be back tomorrow, that will be my main blog item. As always keep up with the comments, I love them. Have a great day, themusicaddict
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