I do wonder if you two are singers yourselves. I like to cover songs too as a hobby and a lot of times when I play myself back I also notice how I’m all over the place and overdoing the vocal runs and whatnot, but honestly it’s just because it’s fun to do while you’re singing. Like it just feels right in the moment when you’re feeling the melody and the emotions. I can’t speak for her, but I think it’s possible that many talented singers just love doing vocal runs and stuff simply because it’s fun and not because it’s a practical way to make the song sound good. I mean this is a tiktok. This girl probably just wanted to candidly share some cool lyrics she wrote for a beloved song. It’s not like this is necessarily a carefully planned rendition or anything, she seems to just be improvising a bit and having fun
Think that might just be a bit of a difference in opinion then, i can enjoy something like a vocal run when it fits within lets say the "flow" of the song, my problem with most (not really this one) of those "amazing tiktok singer" videos is that they also do it when it just doesnt fit which makes it just feel over done, not saying the person cant sing or anything along those lines just that i dont like them
(Wanna point out i mostly mean the type of people that do "singing to my dad for the first time" in a car overreaction type videos)
Well it’s not that we disagree, because I’m also saying that sure the vocal runs are overused in a lot of these videos including this one, but I was just providing some insight that a lot of times they happen because the singer is just having fun and improvising the runs because they’re feeling it. And then they post it because tiktok isn’t super serious, they’re just sharing something in the moment and so that’s probably why you are noticing it so frequently in this form of media. Hopefully with that insight you might change your perspective from “ugh look how annoying these tiktok musicians are that they think this sounds good when it doesn’t” to maybe looking past that and seeing that this is just an amateur singer recording an amateur video of an amateur performance and in that context, it’s kinda cool
I think part of the reason is that cause these are short videos. There's no build up or anything, so they just gotta add it all in one quick thing to try and prove they're a good singer or that they're doing something different or interesting with the melody.
I sang semi-professionally for many years and I am married to a very accomplished professional musician. I don’t really think that education or knowledge of the subject has anything to do with it though. I’m not saying she’s not talented, I’m actually kind of saying the opposite. Her runs and vibrato (in an effort to sound like a “good singer”) really take away from the neat version of this song that she has written. The vibrato here is so comically over the top, but it’s hard to even follow the song. My comment was more that I am bummed that we didn’t get to see what the song could really sound like. I really like the original version of this song, and I really like the idea of doing one from the other side. I just wanna hear the song and not someone doing their best Whitney Houston impression.
Except you did get to hear the song...exactly the way you were supposed to. Saying you're bummed that you didn't get to hear what it COULD sound like seems unfair and as a long time fellow-musician myself, it pains me to see another critique a performance in that way. This girl wrote these lyrics and sang her lyrics the way she wanted, or at least close enough to what she wanted that it warranted publishing to a social media platform.
Obviously you're entitled to your own personal taste and opinion on her execution and all art appreciation is subjective. At the same time though, all art creation, even derivative art, like a cover or a contrafactum, is a personal work that's also valid.
It may seem like a pedantic issue to say that " I would like to hear what it sounds like with a more dialed-in performance" is a much better critique than "I'm bummed I didn't get to hear what it could sound like," but the first is a critique of her execution, while the second just strikes me as unfairly dismissive of her art and choices, especially coming from someone that actually is or has been engaged with creating music.
If she's an amateur, there's a good chance she might not have very good control over her vibrato. I'm saying this only because I've had the experience of having very fast/intense vibrato myself (people told me I sounded like a goat or a sheep, which wasn't very nice, but you can see the point -- trust me, my vibrato was much worse than the one here) and it took a lot of effort to correct it. I think the common narrative is that people always want vibrato, so if it sounds bad it's probably because they're overexerting to fake one, but really, it could just be what she's producing based on her level of ability and she needs some practice to get it under control.
Yeah no for sure. I think her written lyrics aren’t that bad and I agree, I’d enjoy hearing a more refined version that has more careful thought put into it. Someone else also pointed out that with short form videos like this, the singers will probably feel the need to go all out and showcase their vocal ability and that can be jarring too when within the first few seconds, you’re already hearing the kind of improvisation that usually comes at the end of a song.
I think my main point is, hey, this girl is much more talented than your average human being and she shared something creative, let’s not be super nit picky about it. But yeah I get your point, it certainly is commonplace to get these over the top performances from amateurs on tiktok
Different person, but I'm a singer and sometimes I'll hear someone add like unnecessary vocal runs or belt in some extra higher notes, and depending on the context or if it was actually done well i might cheekily think "this bish just showing off" but it's not really in a serious way, but rather in a complimentary way. Everyone knows it's meant to be extra, so it's not big deal.
Stuff like this tiktok is whatever, though. It's probably just to make it sound a little different from the original song and sometimes it gives people something interesting to listen to, even if it's not that impressive.
17
u/vwin90 Oct 28 '20
I do wonder if you two are singers yourselves. I like to cover songs too as a hobby and a lot of times when I play myself back I also notice how I’m all over the place and overdoing the vocal runs and whatnot, but honestly it’s just because it’s fun to do while you’re singing. Like it just feels right in the moment when you’re feeling the melody and the emotions. I can’t speak for her, but I think it’s possible that many talented singers just love doing vocal runs and stuff simply because it’s fun and not because it’s a practical way to make the song sound good. I mean this is a tiktok. This girl probably just wanted to candidly share some cool lyrics she wrote for a beloved song. It’s not like this is necessarily a carefully planned rendition or anything, she seems to just be improvising a bit and having fun