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I don't get why "singing" is considered such an awe-inspiring talent - there are literally hundreds of millions of people who can sing adequately, and probably hundreds of thousands good as that lady. Heck, I'm a fairly decent singer myself, but that and 5 bucks'll get me a latte.
I'd rather listen to a singer with an interesting but technically unsophisticated voice like Neil Young or the aforementioned Dylan who is doing their own stuff than some professional interpreting someone else's lyrics. It's like being in a cover band, except somehow you are seen as an "artist" instead of what yopu are - a performer.
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I don't get why "singing" is considered such an awe-inspiring talent - there are literally hundreds of millions of people who can sing adequately, and probably hundreds of thousands good as that lady. Heck, I'm a fairly decent singer myself, but that and 5 bucks'll get me a latte.
I'd rather listen to a singer with an interesting but technically unsophisticated voice like Neil Young or the aforementioned Dylan who is doing their own stuff than some professional interpreting someone else's lyrics. It's like being in a cover band, except somehow you are seen as an "artist" instead of what yopu are - a performer.
The reason why people are freaking out is because her voice is on par with most if not all of the top professional singers that have ever lived. It is a very odd and strange thing to come out of nowhere and be able to do that.
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Originally Posted by Caged Great
The reason why people are freaking out is because her voice is on par with most if not all of the top professional singers that have ever lived. It is a very odd and strange thing to come out of nowhere and be able to do that.
Exactly. That what makes Susan and her situation so special.
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Originally Posted by Caged Great
The reason why people are freaking out is because her voice is on par with most if not all of the top professional singers that have ever lived. It is a very odd and strange thing to come out of nowhere and be able to do that.
I'm speaking more in general than in regard to this specific situation. I'm not sure I'd agree that her voice is epic, either - she's certainly an excellent technical singer, but as I said that's far more common than people imagine.
It's like anything else where opinion and taste enter into the question; much of what we perceive as brilliance is dictated by the preferred style of the age. Just look at something that is evolving much faster than singing styles - acting.
Look at the style of someone like Cary Grant; the only person remotely comparable today is maybe Johnny Depp, but only in that both are charismatic and seem approachably ordinary in most of their films, but otherwise have few points of congruence. Even something like the type of voice is completely different - back then guys like Grant and Bogart could have those buzzy nasally croaky irritating-until-you-get-used-to-it voices and still make it big - nowadays that would be ruthlessly trained out by speech coaches.
While there are still a good number of people that like old movies with old actors and old actresses, there are also plenty of people who don't like those films because they don't conform to their ideas of what is good acting (or good filmmaking). Does this mean that these old actors just aren't as good as actors are today? No, it just means what people *think* is good acting is different than it used to be, just like the silent movie stars and their (what we think of as) overemoting were supplanted by the stars of the 30s and 40s.
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"Talent" judge Amanda Holden said part of the 47-year-old church volunteer's appeal is that she is an ordinary-looking woman with an extraordinary voice.
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"(She) needs to stay exactly as she is because that's the reason we love her," Holden said. "She just looks like anybody who could live on your street. ... The minute we turn her into a glamour-puss is when it's spoiled."
The reason why people are freaking out is because her voice is on par with most if not all of the top professional singers that have ever lived. It is a very odd and strange thing to come out of nowhere and be able to do that.
Watching the song performed by Judy Kuhn I would say Susan's performance was even better. and Judy Kuhn is known to have one of the most powerfull emotional voices in music. Bravo to Susan Boyle, a true feel good story in the making.
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Judges Apologize To Susan Boyle
On Early Show, They Say Sorry For Judging Her At First By Her Looks, Before She Belted Out Tune That Made Her Famous
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Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan told Chen they were simply amazed when Boyle began to sing -- especially considering how they'd prejudged her by her looks.
"I mean," said Holden, "it's a very shallow thing to say but, obviously, the minute she walked onstage we all, and the audience, completely judged her on her appearance and everything else. And I hate saying that. But, you know, that true cliche, we judged a book by its cover, unfortunately, and we're all very cynical. The audience was jeering and booing and it was just really uncomfortable, wasn't it? And we were, 'Oh, just please be good or just get off. Because it's just -- we just need you to do something here,' because we were so dying for her."
Morgan said, "I would just like to apologize to Susan Boyle, because I think it's long overdue, because, from the clip, you know, (millions of) people could see that Simon Cowell (the third judge that night -- he of "American Idol" fame) and I -- we don't have the best reputations, I think, for courtesy in America. I think we owe her on apology because it was an amazing performance. As I said, we were all laughing at her when she started, and by the end, the last laugh was on her."
The reason why people are freaking out is because her voice is on par with most if not all of the top professional singers that have ever lived. It is a very odd and strange thing to come out of nowhere and be able to do that.
Come on, statements like that are just way out of line. The woman has a nice voice, she has some nice phrasing, but better than any who have ever lived? I am sorry, no way.
It is nice, that is all.
The main problem with all of these shows are the judges. The only way to properly assess the talent of all these people is to have a panel of judges for each field that the contestants are being judged on. At least the panel of judges on Dancing with the Stars are from the field of dancing.
That is not the case with Simon and the other two judges. And it then just becomes a popularity contest, a popularity contest that gets promoted through the internet.
Really, all Simon is looking for is the contestant who has the most schtick or gimmick, someone who he can put on a CD label and earn the most money.
Because without some schtick or gimmick, these contestants are going nowhere in the real world.
That is not to say they do not possess some talent. All I am saying is, some talent is not enough. And that has nothing to do with training or exposure either. You need more than "some talent".
We have had the pleasure of some phenomenal female voices over the last 50 years or so, I am not talking operatic voices though.
It does not matter what you think of the individual, there is Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, some would include Mariah Cary, Aretha Franklin could be included, even Lena Horne.
While all can be considered divas, for me, no one tops this performance. That last note is truly phenomenal.
Heh. The world gets a "feel good" story and the "piss on the cornflakes" brigade breaks out in droves.
"Overhyped", "hundreds of thousands as good as this lady", "it's nice and that's all"
If something makes people happy, there will be others all set to tear down that thing and smugly claim that they are better/smarter/cooler people that didn't get snookered by this farce/fad/con.
Now sometimes I've been guilty of the same. Hell, the very type of show that Susan Boyle was on was something I would typically turn my nose up to. Survivor and any reality show. Made-for-TV celebrities like Myliee Cyrus. But what bothers me more in this instance is that the focus of this snootiness is a poor, frumpy, unemployed cat-lady.
To see someone of such meager status can take her one opportunity in life to break out of her shell and shock the world with something as beautiful as that song... I definitely see that as an uplifting story and I don't know why others want to make me feel like a d*ck for feeling that way. I don't care if you want to say "this is nothing special" and that there are hundreds of thousands more talented than her... I'm still going to believe that this is a wonderful story so screw you....
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I don't understand why every time one of these threads pop up people have to start tearing down the person or point out every flaw or point to big stars that are much better.
It's not appealing because its the most talented person on earth. It's appealing because it's a feel good story. It's someone without the Hollywood glam and glitz coming out of total obscurity and showing more talent that the vast majority of us have or could ever hope to have. And in this case, its totally and completely unexpected. Everyone (well almost everyone, apparently) loves an underdog.
It's it gimmicky? Sure. But that's point. How many of us have tapped our feet to a catchy song on the radio? And how many of those same people tear down the musicians afterward because they're nowhere near the talent level of JS Bach. Of course they're not, it can still be enjoyable and even impressive without being the finest thing mankind has ever produced.
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I don't get why "singing" is considered such an awe-inspiring talent - there are literally hundreds of millions of people who can sing adequately, and probably hundreds of thousands good as that lady. Heck, I'm a fairly decent singer myself, but that and 5 bucks'll get me a latte.
I'd rather listen to a singer with an interesting but technically unsophisticated voice like Neil Young or the aforementioned Dylan who is doing their own stuff than some professional interpreting someone else's lyrics. It's like being in a cover band, except somehow you are seen as an "artist" instead of what yopu are - a performer.
Well, you have to admit that she's a lot better than most singers on American Idol, Canadian Idol, Britain's got Talent....etc,etc.
But I still agree with you. While she obviously HAS talent, there is a huge difference between being able to sing someone else's songs, and writing your OWN music, composing it, and selling millions of CDs.
Its not a big secret that a lot of the singers that come out of these shows don't do that well when they put out their own CDs.
Many opera singers become famous without writing their own operas. They are judged on their singing talents alone and not considered hacks if they can't write/compose their own works.
Come on, statements like that are just way out of line. The woman has a nice voice, she has some nice phrasing, but better than any who have ever lived? I am sorry, no way.
It is nice, that is all.
The main problem with all of these shows are the judges. The only way to properly assess the talent of all these people is to have a panel of judges for each field that the contestants are being judged on. At least the panel of judges on Dancing with the Stars are from the field of dancing.
That is not the case with Simon and the other two judges. And it then just becomes a popularity contest, a popularity contest that gets promoted through the internet.
Really, all Simon is looking for is the contestant who has the most schtick or gimmick, someone who he can put on a CD label and earn the most money.
Because without some schtick or gimmick, these contestants are going nowhere in the real world.
That is not to say they do not possess some talent. All I am saying is, some talent is not enough. And that has nothing to do with training or exposure either. You need more than "some talent".
Simon is a record producer who else would be better at assessing whether or not someone would be a successful artist or not?
He seems about as qualified as you could be to judge these contests.
the reason i like these shows so much more than the idol variants is because even though the singers usually win, you get to see so much more original acts like these guys
These guys blew me away. I couldn't believe it when they only came in third. I've bought an album of theirs and I'm looking forward to their next album.
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Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
To see someone of such meager status can take her one opportunity in life to break out of her shell and shock the world with something as beautiful as that song... I definitely see that as an uplifting story and I don't know why others want to make me feel like a d*ck for feeling that way. I don't care if you want to say "this is nothing special" and that there are hundreds of thousands more talented than her... I'm still going to believe that this is a wonderful story so screw you....
I don't think anyone is saying you or anyone else can't feel good about this woman "making it big", we're just saying she isn't some generational talent that we should be amazed and grateful for. Perspective is always appropriate.
Much of her success can be attributed to the audition she got on an abomination of a show whose judges openly admit they judged her on appearance alone before she sang. Their condescending attitude of "oh, she showed us heh heh heh" frankly makes me ill; if she had bombed out they would have undoubtedly shown no mercy and heckled her into tears.
THAT is the story I get out of this - nobody cared about this woman until she showed she had something they could take advantage of. Sorry if I don't find that uplifting.
Lastly, I don't think it's inappropriate to wonder why we make heroes out of people who can sing, this is supposed to be a discussion board, not a Facebook fan group. I thought it was an interesting question to discuss, and pertinent to the topic. No more was intended.
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I don't think anyone is saying you or anyone else can't feel good about this woman "making it big", we're just saying she isn't some generational talent that we should be amazed and grateful for. Perspective is always appropriate.
Much of her success can be attributed to the audition she got on an abomination of a show whose judges openly admit they judged her on appearance alone before she sang. Their condescending attitude of "oh, she showed us heh heh heh" frankly makes me ill; if she had bombed out they would have undoubtedly shown no mercy and heckled her into tears.
THAT is the story I get out of this - nobody cared about this woman until she showed she had something they could take advantage of. Sorry if I don't find that uplifting.
Lastly, I don't think it's inappropriate to wonder why we make heroes out of people who can sing, this is supposed to be a discussion board, not a Facebook fan group. I thought it was an interesting question to discuss, and pertinent to the topic. No more was intended.
You said it far better than I could have, especially about the perspective.
Each and everyone of us has talent for something, but the perspective has to be maintained.
