Favorite Male & Female Vocalist

[seraphim]

I like lists and while looking for videos for the "Your You Tube Favorites" I thought this one may (or may not) be fun; who are your top five female and male vocalists. They can of course be of any genre, I say that because after thinking hard and careful about it, none of my all time favorite vocalist are in the synth genre (mostly). Who knew?! Ha!

Female:
[1] Lesley Rankine (Silverfish, Ruby)
[2] Nicole Blackman (Golden Palominos, Recoil, KMFDM)
[3] Toni Halliday (Curve)
[4] Carla Bozulich (Ethyl Meatplow, Geraldine Fibbers)
[5] Severina X Sol (Fockewolf, Dva Destruction, Cylab, The Myriad Form)

Male:
[1] Justin Sullivan (New Model Army)
[2] Nick Cave (Boys Next Door, Birthday Party, Bad Seeds)
[3] Blixa Bargeld (Einsturzende Neubauten)
[4] Robert Smith (The Cure)
[5] Daniel Ash (Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, Love & Rockets)

[Vicky]

Female:

1. Kelly Clarkson - Yes, from American Idol :)
2. Ann Wilson - Heart
3. Allison Moyet - Yaz
4. Terri Nunn - Berlin
5. Chrissy Hynde - Pretenders

Male:

1. David Bowie
2. Dave Gahan - DM
3. Jim Kerr - Simple Minds
4. Simon LeBon - Duran Duran
5. Peter Murphy

[Nautilus]

My list is weird in some respect, and in no particular order.

Midge Ure
Bono
Nick Cave
Michael Hutchence
Dave Gahan

Gwen Stefani
Annie Lennox
Alison Moyet
Kristen Hersh
Lisa Gerrard

[seraphim]

My list is weird in some respect, and in no particular order.


Nothing weird about your list, they're all very accomplished vocalists. Its a good list. :)

[Dusty Chalk]

I don't know if I can keep these down to 5 each. And as usual, I'm sure I'll forget someone.

Male:

Dave Gahan
James Baker (Rorschach Test)
Jason Miller (godhead)
Freddie Mercury
Danny Elfman (if you've ever tried to sing the line "From my heart and from my hands, why don't people understand my intentions?", you know why)

Honorable mention:
Holly Johnson (Frankie Goes to Hollywood -- Power of Love has quite possibly the most perfect vocals from beginning to end I've ever heard, but doesn't get favourite status due to lack of output)

Female:

Rebecca Coseboom (Halou)
Heather Thompson (Tapping the Vein)
Bjork
Shirley Manson (if for nothing else, just for stage presence)
Anneke van Giersbergen (Gathering)

There are some very good operatic vocalists that are just amazing -- the male and female from Lacrimosa, Dawn Desireé (Rain Fell Within), and a bunch of others I can't think of right now.

Honorable mention goes to Ann Wilson, but gets disqualified...well, mostly because I hated their Heart/Brigade/Bad Animals period.

I can't believe anyone would pick Robert Smith, though -- I mean, don't get me wrong, I can't imagine anyone else singing his songs, but he's not exactly the best vocalist I've ever heard. Good calls on Midge Ure, Toni Halliday, Justin Sullivan, and Alison Moyet, though.

[seraphim]

I can't believe anyone would pick Robert Smith, though -- I mean, don't get me wrong, I can't imagine anyone else singing his songs, but he's not exactly the best vocalist I've ever heard. Good calls on Midge Ure, Toni Halliday, Justin Sullivan, and Alison Moyet, though.

Robert Smith really is a stylistic sort of liking for me, as well as how well his vocals carry over from recording to live execution. the list could've gone on to include vocalists like Richard Butler (The Psychedelic Furs, Love Spit Love) and John Lydon (Sex Pistols, PIL) who by no means are your conventional vocalists; I like unconventional. Another vocalist whom I think has a great voice is Brian Molko (Placebo); there's an amazing sense of honesty about his vocals (which is why I also love the vocals of Justin Sullivan).

You've listed a lot of great vocalist and many I would agree with as well. However (you knew it was coming), I just can't get behind Shirley Manson. Sure great stage presence (though I've never seen them live myself), but damn it, their sound is just too close to what Curve were doing before them and Curve so often gets the, "They're just trying to be Garbage" card dealt to them unfairly. Other than that, I like them and her (and it doesn't hurt that she's cute in that weird sort of way).

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeah, they really owe a royalty to Curve, no argument there. Don't get me wrong, I love Curve -- saw them two nights in a row when they were touring Cuckoo with Mona Lisa Overdrive and ...uh... someone else -- Dean is the man, Toni is just sublime (talk about stage presence) and Debbie was just great (live guitarist).

I don't know why, there's just something about Garbage that appeals to my pop sensibilities. Their Tower of Babylon striving to achieve the "perfect pop song" with every track just resonates with me perfectly.

But yeah, since then, I've thought of at least one vocalist I like better -- Kate Bush. So take out Shirley, put in Kate Bush. I can probably think of vocalists I like better than Anneke as well.

Oh, and I completely understand unorthodox -- I wasn't trying to dissuade you from not liking Robert Smith, I was just babbling -- sometimes I can understand why people like certain vocalists (I don't like Bruce Springsteen, but I can see what other people like about him), but Bobbers just eludes me.

[seraphim]

Oh, and I completely understand unorthodox -- I wasn't trying to dissuade you

Oh I didn't take it as an attempt to dissuade me at all; it's all a matter of taste and preference really - that's why you would never see me say that a certain singer sucks.

Garbage is perfect pop. They went into it that way. Hell, aren't they all established producers in their own rights? I heard that's why they called the band, "Garbage".

Ooo. Yes. Kate Bush. Amazing vocalist. You know another that shouldn't be left out? Miki Berenyi of Lush. See, this could go on forever.

[A04]

Male Vocalists (in no specific order, and more than five):

David Gahan
Marc Almond
David Sylvian
Brian Ferry
Seal
Peter Murphy
Douglas McCarthy


Female vocalists:

Siouxsie Sioux
Alison Moyet
Elizabeth Fraser
Jennifer Parkin (Ayria)
Ringo Shiina (Japanese artist, sometimes also called Shena Ringo)

Thinking about my collection, I have far more male vocalists in my collection, but oddly I tend to like Japanese female vocalists better. Annie Lennox might have made the list as she is a great vocalist, but I honestly don't listen to her (Eurythmics) all that much. A lot of people like Bjork, but I've never felt anything for her voice.

[Trentreant]

Freddie Mercury
Paul Rodgers
Steve Perry
Billy Joel
Jim Morrison

Amy Lee
Beth Gibbons
Janis Joplin
Tracey Thorn
Kate Pierson

Again, some of these are also stylistic choices but for lists you have to come up with something concrete.

[MiscGenius]

corey glover
thom yorke
sting
chris cornel
lou gramm




gwen stefani
suzanne vega
avril lavigne