I'm not familiar with too much of her music, but the divided opinions over her vocal talent ("She can't sing..", "Nah, man! It's all about the soul!") have me intrigued.

What would you guys say? Can she really sing (depending on how you look at it.. or hear it, rather), or not?

is she good on record? yea
is she good live? sometimes

I think Mary CAN sing...but she just sounds bad sometimes....


Definitely soulful....

Rhondab said:

I'm not denying that she can sound bad sometimes. That soulfulness is what I love in her voice. I'd rather have the passion and pain than the vocal prowess. That's why I think of her as the closest thing this generation has to Aretha.

i like her songs. she isnt a 90's mariah carey. but her songs are nice

zsazsa said:

That's what makes her great.

I hate all the fake "trauma" which she perpetuates vocally. All this "my life's so hard" crap; what a load of bullshit. Why not pitch a note and hold it for once, Mary?

RipHer2Shreds said:

tA

Tribal Disorder

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

I heard a clip of her doing One that sounded very good.
Sounded like she could have a career as a Country artist.
Maybe it was just the fact that on the section I heard, she stayed true to the melody.


tA

Tribal Disorder

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

theAudience said:

[Edited 1/15/06 18:51pm]

jjam said:

but we already have that:

jjam said:

theAudience said:

I didn't say she was as strong a singer as Aretha. I'd be a fool to make that statement. I said she's the closest thing this generation has to her. You can make your own conclusion as to whether that's a good or bad thing.

RipHer2Shreds said:

aretha would punch you in jaw for that. mjb is just like faith evans--good in the studio--poop live--and yet she appeals to a certain group of people who generally don't know that raw emotion doesn't make up for having good vocal ability.

I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut on these MJB threads from now on.


...
[Edited 1/15/06 22:41pm]

"aretha would punch you in the jaw for that"

I've heard many people say that Mary is this generation's Aretha,and I think that is just ridiculous.

meltwithu said:

welllll.....I've been to an aretha concert were she sounded like shit from beginning to end. SINGERS have their good and bad days vocally. The only singer I've never heard sound bad is Gladys.

I think Mary definitely has her good moments of sounding pretty damn good live (along with Faith).

I couldn't classify them as bad singers or awful.....I think they could use some voice lessons to train their voices.....

I think Mary HAS made her mark on this generation. She's not the "next" anything....she's just MJB. Aretha will has be the queen. We all know that.

I'm not feeling her new album. She's got a good voice (at least on the albums, it's hit or miss live), but the songs she chooses are boring re-treads of everything she's done before. The only shining moment on Breakthrough is her cover of One at the end, she needs to expand and start working with different styles of music and different songwriters. And like what Prince said about Beyonce, Mary needs to try out more stuff with a live band.

It's like she tried to a bit with "Mary" but went back to the same old right after that.

At least she stopped doing the answeing machine interludes...

DavidEye said:

Totally agree. (David, we almost always agree, will you be my friend? )

I enjoy some of Mary's music. In fact, I have even spent my money on her music. But I think she is one of THE most overrated vocalist in my lifetime.

And this, "so what if she doesn't have vocal ability, she has soul", attitude is some Bulls**T. Anyone can scream at the top of their lungs, stomp their feet, and jump around in cirlces over drama they've had in their lives, that doesn't mean they can sing. And it certainly doesn't warrant placing her name in the same sentence as Aretha, and the fact that many view her as this generations Aretha, speaks volumes on the state of music and talent today.
[Edited 1/16/06 9:48am]
[Edited 1/16/06 9:49am]

Tom said:

somebody pass that memo on janet, and we can have 14 track cd's again instead of 28:lol:
[Edited 1/16/06 10:19am]

RipHer2Shreds said:

Don't do that I understand what you're saying now.

she can sing on wax
she can't sing live...

all in all, she does better when she doesn't try too hard and sound like she is straining herself...

Download Will Smith's song "Tell Me Why" (It features Mary J) and you can hear for yourself, how amazing her voice is. She is awesome in my book!

"Mary J. Blige's vocal prowess"

well there's a group of words you don't see in the same sentence everyday!
[Edited 1/16/06 12:02pm]