Age

[ThirdMarioBro]

It has always been my opinion that a singer's voice seems to get better with age. They loosen up and their singing seems more natural. I've always thought this applies to just about everyone. When they are younger, they usually try to force it more and wind up overdoing it quite a bit.

Does anyone here agree with me on that?

[Spitfire]

I have to say this goes both ways, but I have my reasons. With the bands I listen to they growl and scream alot. As they get older they are allowed to do more with their voice or their vocal chords are fried from yelling to much when they were younger. This is when problem arises.

The singer for Cradle Of Filth, Danni Filth, was trademarked for his high pitch voice. As he got older his ability to do that went away and now his vocals are pretty basic and unintresting.

The singer for Arch Enemy, Angela Gostow, had awesome vocals on her first CD, Wages Of Sin, but as time progressed her ability to growl deeply declined. Now her vocals are to deep and pretty boring to listen to.

The singer for In Flames, Anders, some how got more whiney with age. He tries to sing now but his singing voice is god awful. And now when he yells it sounds like someone kicked him in the jewels. His old vocals sounded fine I don't know what happened.

The singer for Children Of Bodom, Alexi, Is the only singer that comes to mind who has actually improved. His vocals used to be very deep and rather boring to listen to. Now he has a pretty good style. It's a rougher Bruce Dickinson sounding voice that matches the music perfectly.

I'm sure if I listened to stuff with actual singing in it I would probly adgree but yeah...

[Machias Banshee]

*raises hand*

As a listener and a performer, I definitely agree. I think one of the major things is that when youre young, you usually try to sing Just Like So-and-So, be like So-and-So... you get the picture.

I guess as you age, you just develop your own style of singing, and just accept the voice you have and do the best with what you can.

*sees TMB's Cyndi pic and has flashbacks of her own scary 80s hair days*

[Barkworm]

I'm not sure about this one. My favourite singer, Eddie Vedder for example has lost quite a lot of his raw energy he used to have in younger years.

[iris]

I think that's true, to a point. Maturity and experience play a huge role in vocal expressiveness. Younger singers tend to "overact" when they sing... or they just don't deliver an honest performance. However, if an older singer becomes set in his ways, that tends to not be a good thing.

If a singer abuses his voice, he can damage it like Spitfire mentioned. Not only screaming, but the use of the wrong kind of breathing/force can literally tear up the vocal chords. You can tell when you're doing it "wrong"... it hurts!

[ThirdMarioBro]

Yeah, like Cyndi Lauper did that when she was young and almost screwed herself up. If she had kept doing that until she was older, she probobly would have been screwed. She let her voice rest and heal, then took breathing exercises and learned the proper way to do it. All of that happened before she ever even put out a record.

Punk bands and death metal heads who do a ton of screaming will only last a decade before they burn their vocal chords out simply because they're not doing it properly and forcing the air out of their lungs in such a way that it literally kills their vocal chords to the point they can't recover.

I just believe that as singers get older, an their record companies stop concentrating on selling their looks (see: trying to drop them in favor of someone with perkier jugs), the singers realize they don't need to force it and are more willing to experiment with new sounds. They try too hard when they're young. Hell, look at Madonna. Her earliest songs I never really liked her voice that much. But everything past "Like a Prayer" I think she stopped forcing it so much and gradually got better and better.

Truth be told, I think for example Christina Aguilera will be one of the better singers in the world....in 15 years when her looks crap out and the record company drops her. Same for most people, unless they sucked to begin with, or simply burn themselves out all Death Metal. Just a theory.

[raphael_is_cool]

I think everyone just has an up then down arc with age.

What you hear from them just fits a period across that arc. For example, they may be at their top when they start.

There is only one exception: Robbie Williams. He just can't sing and gets worse.

[Mobius One]

I dunno. The only thing that I can think about is how absolutely awful the Rolling Stones are now.

[DSWBandit]

One thing I noticed the most was if you listen to CCR's "(Wish i Could) Hideaway", the end of it, where John Fogerty (lead singer) repeats 'Hideaway', you'll notice his voice changes from his younger voice into his modern day voice, which is more natural, I think, and is still him. Listen to the end of that, and then some of his solo work (and modern live version of CCR's hits), and you'll notice what I'm talking about. It's not as powerful/forceful as he was "way back when" as he put it once.
BTW, John Fogerty will be 61 this coming May. ^_^

[JameO]

CCR kicks so much ass, anyways, yeah I want to get that John Fogerty solo album and was a shame I didnt get to see him the last time he planned to come my way. I heard about it too late.

Rick James comes to mind where he lost his voice so bad, they definitely did some funky stuff in the recording studios to get him to sound good, by the way, did anyone hear if his family will release that album he made before his overdose?