Graycap23 said:

and drummers play drums, guitarists play guitar. Singers & guitarists are types of musicians.

And golf is a sport! maybe not that one...
[Edited 4/8/10 10:38am]

NDRU said:

A musician can create an entire ALBUM without opening his MOUTH. Can a singer who CAN'T play an instrument create and entire album without opening his or her mouth?

If it weren't for semantics I guess discussion forums would grow fairly quiet.

I think where we sometimes fail is allowing the terms artist and musician to speak to some standard of quality that varies greatly.

Some don't even want to be saddled with either term, as they can tell the type of snobbery that they don't wish to prove or live up to.

I think anyone can be an artist or musician. I don't think there's any magic in those terms. The magic, if there is any, is in the creation and how relevant it stays with the passage of time.

Even being good at this is rare. Being great is unusual. Living beyond death is like a needle in a field of haystacks. Prince's music I believe will live way beyond death, way beyond the immediacy of his non-music behavior.

Graycap23 said:

YES! It might not be a good one, but yes he or she can. Just like an instrumentist can create an album with vocal but it might not be good. Try again.
[Edited 4/8/10 11:04am]

Graycap23 said:

horn players do need to open their mouths to make music. guitar players need their fingers. You might think of musicians as playing something separate from their bodies, but the music is in their bodies, not the instrument.

tubby said:

I would make a smart comments but these speak 4 themselves.

Could anyone read my post?

Again
Musician: a performer of music.
Instrumentalist: a person, musician, who plays instruments.

VenusBlingBling said:

Oh great another thread going off topic.

Anyway, agreed with Venus.

Timmy84 said:

and I agree with both of you (not that I am helping matters)!
[Edited 4/8/10 12:09pm]

NDRU said:

VenusBlingBling said:

Artist: a performer of music.
Musician: a person who plays instruments.

Graycap23 said:

But artist is more general, including painters, sculptors, etc.

Musician is a performer of music, or more specifically "one who performs, conducts, or composes" it according to the dictionary.

Graycap - What about this are you not understanding? Do you not know that colleges have vocal performance majors through..guess what...the school of music?

NDRU said:

A music ARTIST. We are not talking about painters, etc.....this place is a trip.

NDRU said:

Every dictionary I've been looking in has said the same thing. Singers are musicians, ie performers of music.

tubby said:

Take away artist whom actually play instruments and all u have are acapella songs, WITHOUT music. I am a musician and I will never agree with these false premise.

Graycap23 said:

They're not false. Facts can only be false. This is your opinion, which is fine. Opinions cannot be false.

tubby said:

This has noting 2 do with my opinion. Either u can play an instrument or u can't. Either u can sing or u can't. Where is the opinion?

Graycap23 said:

Just because people might refer to the backing tracks as the "music" that's not an all encompassing definition of what music is. That's more of a practical application, not the true definition of the word.

Singing is just a specific label for a type of music, just like drumming is a specific label for another type of music.

Graycap23 said:

the opinion is that A capella MUSIC is not music!

Graycap23 said:

Yes, but it is your opinion that singers aren't musicians. That's opinion, not fact.

NDRU said:

Lol.....a rich friend of mine told me years ago, never hold a conversation about money with a BROKE mofo. I agree with him.

erik319 said:

Thank you. If he'd bothered to scroll down, i explained why i felt the way i do in a following post. But by the time he'd read my first post, the tears of anger were there, the blind rage. too late!

Graycap23 said:

I play instruments too, but this is not about whose more skilled at that--you or me--it's about the definition of a word

Well, regardless of what the dictionary says, most musicians who are serious instrument players do not consider non-instrument players as being "musicians." I doubt Prince himself would say that someone like Mariah or Kanye is a musician, lol. The definition and understanding of that term is relative.

WaterInYourBath said:

that is true, but that's also based on opinion. My opinion is that Britney is not a musician, but technically she is one.

NDRU said:

Graycap23 said:

He said "technically". She not a good musician. Barely one at that. She's akin to the piano player who can play Heart and Soul

NDRU said:

Yeah, based on one's own standards of musicianship.

But technically, like you and others have said, anyone who does anything regarding musical work and composition is a "musician." That's just not a widely accepted meaning unless people ask Merriam-Webster, lol.

And I agree with you: Britney Spears is not musician.