Who do you guys think have great rock voices?

I'm not really up on the genre, I just have a few folks who's voices I like pretty consistenly - not the greatest singers, but they all have great qualities to their voices IMO. I'm curious to hear other opinions.

Voices I like:

Chris Cornell
Steven Tyler
Scott Weiland
Billy Joe Armstrong


Beth Hart
Nikka Costa


DAMN, mostly men



Y'all enlighten me: what are your picks for GREAT rock voices?

Great Rock Voices (Female)

Joan Jett
Courtney Love
Brody Dalle (from The Distillers)
Pat Benatar
Ann Wilson (from Heart)
Patti Smith
Janis Joplin
Tina Turner
Skin (from Skunk Anasie)
Kim Gordon
Kim Deal
Ronnie Spector (without her, there would have been no Joey Ramone)

Anxiety said:

Thanks Anx! I love me some Courtney Love, don't know why I left her off the list Tina Turner too, damn!

I need to get up on some of these folks, never heard of some of them (Brody, Skin, the Kim's)

great rock voices (male)

La Bowie (of course)
Iggy Pop
Joey Ramone
Lemmy Kilmeister
David Byrne
Paul McCartney ("Helter Skelter"? "Why Don't We Do It In The Road"? c'mon)
John Lennon
Ozzy
Lux Interior
Kurt Cobain
Trent Reznor

Anxiety said:

I'd like to add Freddy Mercury and Meat Loaf!!!

David Coverdale
Ian Gillan

Cheek said:

freddie, of course! how could i forget him?

Eddie Vedder
Scott Weiland
Jim Morrison
Tina Turner

My voice teacher had nothing but denigration for Janis Joplin's voice; I must agree with her. There was nothing musical about her gravelly screaming and shouting.

There is a difference between singing and emoting.

Axl

Axchi696 said:

I second that emotion! I would also like to add...

Courtney Love
Andrew Wood (mother love bone)
I know this will sound bizzare but Mary J. Blige! She sang love is a battle field on the VH1 Divas show a few years ago and tore it up. I think she has a great voice for rock and would love to see her do a rock album.

chuckaducci said:

Voice teachers tend to not know the first thing about ROCK singing. They teach you how to sing with a pure voice, and remove any edge--edge which is crucial to rock singing.

My list:
Kurt Cobain
John Lennon
young Elvis
Janis Joplin
Tina Turner

Damn, mostly dead!

chuckaducci said:

i find that people who study singing hate rock vocalists because it's just, to them, "someone tearing up their voice" and it's "a bunch of yelling".

sorry, but i could get more emotion from a janis joplin album than i ever could from a choral performance...and i've heard some really beautiful choral performances in my life.

sometimes i think education can make us blind to experiencing things with instinct. i'm not saying this is how you or your teacher are not able to appreciate janis...i'm just saying that's been my experience.

I don't think this one's been mentioned:


Richard Patrick




And we can't forget my man:


Layne Staley

Kurt Cobain
Courtney Love
Axl Rose
And how can we be forgetting Jonathan Davis (KoRn) up in here? He's got an amazing voice.

Nobody has mentioned Mick Jagger or Robert Plant ??? For shame ....

Marilyn Manson!

Dio.....
[Edited 12/28/05 13:39pm]

If I remember correctly, the last time this came up there was a difference of opinion as to what was considered "ROCK".

Anyway, my definition would be closest to Classic Rock and that being the case...

Little Richard
Doug Pinnick
Paul Rodgers
Tina Turner
Joyce Kennedy
Betty Davis
Nona Hendryx
Ronnie James Dio
Steve Marriott
Steve Winwood
Rod Stewart (early era)
...these are some of the vocalists that come to mind.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Anxiety said:

That may be true, but not in this case. I learned how to "sing" because of rock singers.



As a musician, I've learned that emotion is not always the object of desire when it comes to music. That being said, Janis Joplin was not a singer, she emoted.



Only someone who's not a musician would say that. I've seen some of your posts and I think you're a writer/journalist; would you mind if a writer said "You don't need to learn how to write sometimes cos a writing education may blind you to experiencing things with instinct." Nope. You cannot break the rules until you learn them.

The reason why I don't enjoy Janis is because she's no control of her voice, she struggles with her pitch and her raspy wailings were horribly unpleasant to my ears.

I'll take Aretha, Bessie Smith and Odetta every day of the week and twice on Sunday before I listen to Janis.

Andyman said:

I don't know about most or all voice teachers. I know about one. And he taught me skills that only enhanced my singing, even in a rock context.

Male singers:
David Bowie
Morrissey
Rozz Williams
Peter Murphy
Rufus Wainwright(i dont think you could classify him as rock..but then the term rock is so banal anyways)
Gavin Friday
Brian Molko(the sheepness of his voice sounds innocent sometimes,the worst has to be on thier first album thought)
Marc Bolan
Billy Corgan(his angry voice of course)..
Nick Cave

Female Singers:
Billie Holiday(Not really rock..but who cares)
Liz Fraser
Tori Amos
Kate Bush
Joni Mitchell
Bjork
Siouxsie Sioux
Tina Turner
Sandie Shaw

dancerella said:

the worst singer ever,but he sures now how to cause drama!..

Militant said:

i agree on the others a tad..but jonathan davis..please..grunting and yelling and the ocassional high pitch "Fuck You" does not move me at all..hence the reason why i think the nu-metal and death metal scene are garbage,i mean anger is good..but soon the topic of anger gets boring..dont get me wrong..i have listen to davis work..it didnt move me..it was "ok"..but i think he had potential only if he caught of that self-loathing wagon that the kind of musicans in his genre typically fall into..of course..shit will always stay shit no matter how much you try to change it...its my opinion only.

chuckaducci said:

actually, i'm something of a writer. okay, well, not really. i can write very well, but i don't make money at it. in any case, i WOULD agree with what you say there. no new form of literature, poetry, playwrighting, etc. was ever created by following the rules.

I'll throw in...


Brian Johnson


Bon Scott

weepingwall said:[quote]

Militant said:

You don't sound like you've really explored the nu-metal genre very much...I'd advise you to check out the new KoRn album, Jonathan has moved on very much from the "self-loathing" wagon... Check out "Love Song", it really reminds me of Bowie. And "Tearjerker" and a couple of others sound like something Trent Reznor might have done circa The Downward Spiral era.

I'd also advise you to check out the new Slipknot album "Vol.3", produced by Rick Rubin. Particularly "Vermilion Part 2". Corey Taylor from Slipknot is another singer with an amazing voice.

Death-Metal gets a bit samey to me, but I'm really into bands who push the barriers of it and aren't afraid to try new ideas - Slipknot, Sepultura (up till Max left), Soulfly, Korn.

Stax said:

that's a good versus thread if I ever seen one

I like Bon's voice better, though I like Johnson AC/DC

I'd add Annie Lennox to the female category.