BEST BAND EVER: Results!

This is nonsense. Vocals have a very clear definition and it is irrelevant whether you like or dislike a particular vocal style. Growls are vocals.

Sorry for dragging this out I was searching the topic for results of previous rounds, for guitarists etc. I either don't remember or didn't participate much, so if anyone's got a link...

If all singers are vocalists, but every vocalist is not a singer, then you should not expect same criteria applied to them. Singers need to have more skill on the same level. Growlers will have to know how to push air out and how to use all the vibrating organs in the head. Real singers know this and then they also have to modulate the notes, utilize vibrato, different "voices", etc. The techinques used by growlers are singing basics - how to constantly produce loud sound and not hurt yourself, while the real singers put a lot more shit atop that basic foundation.

Anyways there's a clear distinction of using your voice and using your voice as an instrument. You can grunt, growl, or scream. If you don't change pitch it's not an instrument.
 
By the same logic, that would mean growling was easy, and any clean-voiced melodic singer could do that and more. Sure, anyone can push sound out, actually getting a good and consistent style out of it is harder. There are more styles of singing than Western melodic styles.
 
No, metal singers. Clean voiced singers, usual pop Supertalent stuff doesn't cut it because they don't push as much or sing as loud. In metal you need to be on par with other instruments, you can't do the indie hipster head voice singalong because it won't break through.

Codes don't matter. All music is based on same physical phenomena of sound

General definitions of music include common elements such as pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics (loudness and softness), and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture (which are sometimes termed the "color" of a musical sound). Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements.

This is the thing, I was responding to Flash who was responding to LC who doesn't like growlers. Bruce Dickinson is 4/4 on that list. Average rapper is 3/4, has beat, has dynamics and has texture. Average growler is less than rapper because he doesn't utilize dynamics. So 2/4 on the extremely inclusive definition of music. Consider that even a telegraph signal would have 1 out of 4 characteristics. It isn't a surprise that people don't find growling musical.

It has a function in the overall music end product though, solely becuase it has groove and texture. So does beatboxing, turntable shuffles, and the rest.
 
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This is a tough choice for me. I love what Matt Barlow did with Iced Earth, but is Floor Jansen better? I don't really know Floor's pre-Nightwish career well at all but she is sort of amazing. If the two were combined as one then we might have the perfect singer for Black Wizard: Matt is ginger and Floor is a Dutch woman. I wonder what the result would be.... perhaps a husky version of Simone Simons, which would be pretty cool.

Over the next eight hours I have to figure out if Floor Jansen can sing 'A Question of Heaven' better than Matt Barlow could sing 'Ghost Love Score. Decisions, decisions...
 
By the same logic, that would mean growling was easy, and any clean-voiced melodic singer could do that and more. Sure, anyone can push sound out, actually getting a good and consistent style out of it is harder. There are more styles of singing than Western melodic styles.
Growling isn't easy. But I've always categorized it as vocals rather than actual singing. I think the disctinction is important to make.
 
Nothing is easy if the stakes are high. People will want to see, and pay for a skillful performance. Doesn't mean some things aren't harder than others.

Besides I like growls in metal, especially if they're done by someone who can do different techniques, like Phil Anselmo.
 
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