Oversinging

Music is the space between the notes.

~Claude Debussy

The BHS drama club held auditions for The Wizard of Oz last week. The audition panel, consisting of the director/musical director, John, the assistant musical director, Amanda, and I, the assistant director (note, that's assistant director, not assistant "to" the director), were very pleased and quite relieved that only two students indulged in singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as if they were contestants on American Idol. You know what I'm talking about: the "trend" toward making a song into too much:   too much volume, too much vibrato, too many extra notes, too much melisma.  I call it oversinging.

If you're still not sure what I'm talking about, consider any pop rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" that you've heard at a championship sporting event in the last decade. It's gotten to the point that the singing of our country's national anthem has become almost as competitive as the game it precedes. "The Star Spangled Banner" is a challenging song to sing. It's a way to show respect to our nation and our flag. It is not a rock 'n roll number, and it's most definitely not about the person singing it!  Not that you would know this with the, dare I say, masturbatory way in which so many people belt it out. And yet the crowd cheers.  We encourage it.  We think that these exercises in vocal self-indulgence are "amazing," but in reality most people can't tell the difference. It's like applauding a fake orgasm.  

A good artist knows that white makes as much of a statement as color.  A good comedian knows that the pause is often more important than the joke.  A good writer knows that fewer words can be more effective.  The space between the notes leaves us wanting more.  

Note to singers:  don't fill those spaces with crap.  Don't try to be someone you're not.  And stop showing off!

"Oversinging for the sake of oversinging," in my opinion, originated in the early 80's, you know, like the AIDS epidemic. (Oh, I'm sorry, is that a tasteless comparison? Well, too bad.). The first person to spawn a generation of oversingers was Jennifer Holliday of Dreamgirls fame, and fleeting fame it was. When my father came back from an out-of-town-tryout (back when they had out-of-town tryouts... in Boston...so for us it was an in-town tryout), he was effusive in his praise of her. "If the audience could have given this girl a standing ovation after that number, they would have!" Holliday won a Tony Award for the role and yet as it turned out, singing "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" turned out to be all she could do.  She was a one-trick pony (and apparently still very bitter about it).

The other "culprit" was Sam Harris, a vocalist who blew everybody's mind (and by "everybody," I mean all the gay guys at the Boston Conservatory) with his rendition of, you guessed it, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" during the first season of Star Search in 1984.  His voice was amazing, but it's not like I ever bought his albums or anything, or yearned to see him perform. Once I heard him hit his money notes, I was pretty much done.  There wasn't much else about him to keep me coming back for more. His recent Tony nomination notwithstanding (and don't get me started on the Tony Awards as a way to judge quality; that's another blog for another day), he can still be heard overdoing it and listening to himself sing on his website.  Check it out if you don't believe me.  And don't watch him.  Turn away and just listen.  A good singer will compel you to look at him; you will not be able to not pay attention.

To be fair, both Harris and Holliday have successful careers as singers. They do have great voices, but what they triggered in America was this tendency for singers to show off and ONLY show off.  People thought they "had to" sing like Sam Harris, not understanding that the way Sam Harris sings is his style and his alone.  If you don't sing with an excess of melisma, you can still be talented.  You can still get the lead in a Broadway show.  You can make thousands of dollars singing jingles in voice-overs.  You could be Jennifer Lopez.

As a former hirer of good voices and as a person who possesses a good voice of her own, let me assure you that good voices are actually a dime a dozen.  Several years ago, I was in Kappy's Liquors in Malden on a Saturday afternoon.  The radio in the store was tuned to the now defunct AM 1430, which at the time, only played old standards. Frank Sinatra was singing "Witchcraft," and so apparently was everyone else in the store.  Every time I went down a new aisle, another person was singing along, and not badly either.  I was impressed.  Many people can sing.  Most don't.  I think some are afraid to sing because it won't be "good enough."  Like, if you can't sing like Barbra Streisand, why bother?  Ridiculous!

Consider The Divine Miss M, Bette Midler, in my opinion one of the greatest singer/actors of the last 30 years.  Her voice is pretty.  It's fine, but the way she sings a song is superb.  She is barely five feet tall, and yet from the mezzanine of Radio City Music Hall, it's impossible to miss her, impossible to take your eyes off of her. Everything she sings comes from her heart - and only from her heart. Every pause, every breath and every note that she sings is there for a reason.  She's able to communicate something about humanity through the art of song.  When people connect through art, they go to a place that is not of this world, and Bette Midler has the rare ability to take us there.  I don't think it's unfitting that one of her nicknames is "divine."

So where does this leave us as a nation of fans?  Do we continue to encourage, reward and applaud every wannabe that Oprah or Ellen trots out onto the stage?  Is there any way to teach people the difference?  It heartens me that I'm not the only person I know who hates oversinging.  It also heartens me that so far, everyone I've mentioned this peeve to (John, Amanda and two co-workers) are seven to nineteen years younger than I am.  Perhaps the solution is to simply continue to expose people to quality music and encourage them to share their unique gifts via the arts, rather than use the arts to make themselves into something they're not.