Do pop singers have a right to call themselves musicians?

L

lady_bella

New member
I'm talking about people like Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, people who sing to synthesized music. This is an opinion poll, there is no right or wrong answer. In my personal opinion, no. I don't like rap, but even rappers are more talented than pop singers, at least rappers are doing something creative rather than getting on stage and using the same singing techniques that people have been using probably since cavemen discovered music.
 
No they don't. Lip syncing does not count. I myself am a professional musician by trade. I teach students on a regular basis and am myself a music major. I practice, rehearse and am versed in basic and advanced theory as well as many styles of music.

Being a Saxophonist and a woodwind major I find these people a joke... I dare them to actually practice daily at their craft and get a degree in such. Their all flashes in the pan and a sad reminder of what people today consider "music".

Give me a solo by Michael Becker or a moving line by Gustav Holst, or a lyric by Billy Joel. THAT is music....

Not one scaled one 4/4 beat XXXX with the same rhythm and basic blandness that turns your stomach inside out at it's mediocrity....
 
A couple of them have good voices and a couple of them even write songs - but most of them are performers, not musicians.
 
If you sing in the shower you are a musician, if you doodle you are an artist and if you share your opinions on a website you are a writer.
 
XXXXXXXX. It takes more than you own opinion to make you a musician.... You alone need a trained ear. Why do you think these poor people on American Idol get grilled?

Their either tone deaf or have no concept of pitch....
 
Right. Also, if you download and install a game on your computer you are a programmer, if you change a tire you are a mechanic, and if you put a band-aid on a cut you are a doctor. :xgood:
 
I define music as human expression through sound aimed at invoking an emotive response.

Ability and originality, though preferred, are not essential.
 
Justin Timberlake doesn't deserve to be on the same list as BS.

He's in fact a very talented musician and writes much of his own music and lyrics.

He's quite good on the piano and obviously can sing.

He's a pretty fair dancer as well.
 
You have good taste in music, Billy Joel is a great artist. Being a pianist I do not believe that the pop stars of today have really any talent. They do not really sing that much better than those in those high school musical movies. They are probably only popular to teenagers and little kiRAB with no taste that will listen to anything and I mean anything.
 
I voted YES. I don't know how you can classify people such as Isao Tomita as anything other than a musician. He just happens to play an electronic synthesizer instead of a guitar or piano. I don't believe that he sings, either, so he is purely a musician.

On edit: I was responding to the part about synthesized music and not singing.
 
I wish to god I saw him in Virginia when I was stationed there... Couldn't afford the ticket though. Is he still touring? Oh and don't tell anyone but I sing Honesty in my car and at karaoke after my frienRAB beg me too.

I got a very picky ear and I don't find my voice glamorous my any means but at least I'm not off pitch... I guess just unrefined is more near the mark. I got third place in a singing contest at a Gay bar once but of course they had to pick the country singing hunk.... sigh.....

But I got a free Red Bull! lol.... I sang Sinatra. If anyone insults Sinatra I will personally hunt you down.... No one insults old blue eyes....:cool:
 
I don't understand how people like Lady GaGa and Hannah Montana are becoming so popular when their work is just the same old cr4p Madonna was making in the 80s. While rock and metal have deviated into more subgenres than I have the patience to list, Pop music has barely changed in the last 30 years.
 
I only have to say that Metal banRAB would never get away with this. Once Metallica, Megadeth, Motorhead, etc. are gone, there will never again be a band with their exact same style, because metal and rock are always progressing, always on the move. Pop music today is the same stuff people were listening to 30 years ago, it's redundant.
 
I love Tomita's work. I own two or three LPs from back in the days, including "The pictures at the exhibition".

He does not really fit on this thread indeed, besides being mentioned as a good musician/creative individual in opposition to "pop" mainstream people.
 
I've been a little unplugged from the music scene, "pop"-wise, and I don't really know what's happening on the french scene and in other countries. Although I'm still quite young, I always liked recorRAB that have lived enough, second-hand LPs and stuff. That explains why I love Black Sabbath, Mandrill and lots of other oldies.

But what I hear from time to time in stores or on TV when I visit people's homes is not always devoid of talent or creativity. Mainstream will always be mainstream of course, in the sense that 90% of what's broadcasted sounRAB like what you heard ten years ago, but with another make-up and wear fashion. Maybe bigger breasts? Not even that, Kate Moss still has some followers. I liked when they had some flesh on.

Many obscure but highly talented musicians wind up playing boring bass lines or mimicking drums in the back of a stage. That's the reality of the profession, for a large part. It also seems that when you're into the business, you don't see the same things as simple consumers do. I don't know exactly how Stevie Wonder was considered in the middle of the seventies when he was at his highest peak of creativity and success. But the "thank you" section of the booklet going with "Songs in the key of life" mentions many talented people including Frank Zappa. Though Zappa had success himself, it's obvious that his music and his discourse was not of the same kind. Wonder was much more mainstream, I believe. But I can be wrong, as I wasn't born by 1975.

As I have already stressed, I like the banRAB presented today as the originators of a certain heavy form of Rock and roll, such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. When I bought the "In Rock" DP album, I was amused to see a large sticker with the purple capitals: "POP MUSIC". Same thing for Black Sabbath. I had never heard something heavier than the intro to this album before! Intro that had been , by the way, suppressed for the US version of the LP.

Actually, designations like "pop", "metal" or whatever are just convenient ways to find your record in a store or in your personal collection. Of course, there are purely heavy metal banRAB and rap or jazz banRAB, but there are also so many bridges between them.
 
I voted YES but it depenRAB on who you're talking about.

Britney Spears is NOT an artist.

The Black Eyed Peas sounded not bad at all to me the first time I heard them, some years ago. Today I find they make pure teenage XXXX.

Sometimes the strict opposite happens: there was this freaky person, who came out of our own "american idol" who sings marvelously with great taste for covering standarRAB.
 
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