[ummonk]

One of my annoyances is that most male pop singing is at too high a range for normal baritone men without vocal training to sing along. I actually find it easier to sing along to female pop songs (by singing an octave lower) than to male pop songs.

[RupertSalt]

If a handsome crooner with a deep voice sings sweet love songs, their fans will consist of hetero women.

If a woman sings in a high voice with a girly-girl image, she will tend to attract men.

A singer or group with great falsetto/whistle register, or female tenor/contralto, ambiguous or hetero lyrics, and androgynous image or radio-only can effectively draw in a broadly mixed-gender audience.

See new wave, synth pop, hair metal, David Bowie, Concrete Blonde, Janis Joplin, Alison Moyet, et. al.

If a performer lands on the far side of the spectrum, the producers will inevitably hire backup dancers and singers to broaden their appeal.

[jasonfarnon]

"If a woman sings in a high voice with a girly-girl image, she will tend to attract men." You mean attract them sexually? maybe. I don't know any guys who are musically into the celine dions or mariah carey's.

"If a handsome crooner with a deep voice sings sweet love songs, their fans will consist of hetero women." Maybe, but male tenors will get that and more, and it's been that way since I was a young man non-tenor in a choir.

From a '96 Royko column:

"Then there are their voices. Clinton's voice is high-pitched. Dole's is much deeper. Does that matter? You bet it does. Clinton has a voice for today. Just listen to popular rock music. All of the singers have high- pitched, eunuch-like voices. It's almost impossible to tell the men from the women, if there is any difference. There was a long-gone time when a baritone such as Perry Como or a bass such as Vaughn Monroe topped the hit charts; when a deep-voiced singer would bellow: "Old Man River, that Old Man River... he don't plant taters, he don't plant cotton." But today, the lyrics would have to be changed to "Old Person River, that Old Person River... he or she does not plant potatoes or cotton because the work is demeaning."

And today's deep-voiced singers are found only in the country music field, self-pitying losers groaning about their two-timing women going honky-tonkying and leaving them with a sink full of dishes and not one beer in the fridge. Their fans will be too"

[RupertSalt]

There is also the aspect of identifying with the singer, rather than being sung to. A deep-voiced man may enjoy singing the same love songs as Isaac Hayes or Barry White. The women may liken themselves to Mariah or Celine (Shania and Shakira are more my speed, tbh).

Also that Royko column (I assume Mike Royko, journalist?) He doesn't take into account other genres. How many rappers have gruff or menacing deep voices to go along with rattling basslines? How about death metal singers who sing in the signature "death growl"? Plenty of goth, industrial, No Wave vocalists pulled it off too, such as Andrew Eldritch, Sascha Konietzko, Michael Gira, Lux Interior. Baritone/bass vocals were not uncommon, but they were definitely drowned out by the radio and MTV.

[projektfu]

Hope nobody tells him about Paul Anka, Frankie Valli, Bing Crosby, or John McCormack. It's almost as if there are popular tenor and bass voices in every year.

[robrtsql]

One of the great injustices of music. As a bass voice, both pop music and theater is _dominated_ by tenors (or maybe they're baritones? The point being that it seems no one wants to hear you if you can't belt a Bb4).

[Sharlin]

Tenors. Only particularly challenging baritone parts go above E4 or F4.

[satiric]

In John Adams' Harmonium, I was surprised to learn the basses go into treble clef for a second. I hadn't sung untransposed treble clef in many years! I think it was only an F#4 or A4 or something but it felt real strange to be singing in the treble clef again.

[wintermutestwin]

On the Song Exploder podcast, Take on Me episode, the artist talks about the producer saying that a male falsetto was a “make this song a hit” button…

[yellowapple]

That tracks with my karaoke singing: the higher the note, the louder the audience cheers.

[jasonfarnon]

doesn't he go really low in that song too? i thought what made that song special was the range in that little chorus.

[rjh29]

Yes. Ironically the non-falsetto portion (low and high notes, particularly belted in the last chorus) is much harder than the falsetto note. Most singers can do the falsetto note. But for whatever reason that impresses people more.

[RupertSalt]

What does "easy" and "hard" mean? Approaching the range? Matching the pitch? Sustaining it for a time?

There are not many tasks that can be cut-and-dried as universally "easy"/"hard". "The Star Spangled Banner" is a more challenging melody because of its wide range. Also, because it's often sung solo, with minimal accompaniment, to huge crowds.

If I were singing falsetto notes, I could probably launch into the range, but could I match pitch and harmonize without AutoTune?

[rjh29]

The Take On Me chorus has a two octave range in full voice (A2 to A4) and a falsetto at E5. I think it's harder to find people who can sing that chorus A2-A4 consistently than to find people who can squeak out a falsetto at E5. Yet the falsetto is more "impressive".

I guess I could be biased because I find it easy and not everyone finds reinforced falsetto easy. But for example Bohemian's Rhapsody famous falsetto high note is Bb5, a full half-octave higher.