Would you please pipe down!

Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and even Jennifer Hudson aren't going to like what this thread is about but they wouldn't care either. That's okay because this isn't as much about them as the wannabes emulating them.

"Please, put a lid on it" begs writer Preston Jones stating that "Bigger isn't better, particularly when it comes to modern pop music" and I, for one, couldn't agree more. Week after week our ears are assaulted on American Idol by wannabes stretching their voices (and our nerves) to the limit as they emulate the ladies who started this high pitched wailing that is currently so popular and really, so far from good singing. Has anyone noticed how often Simon Cowell seems to be telling contestants lately that they are screaming, that it's almost painful? When and why did belting out a song as loudly as you can become the sign of a great singer? I remember my singer/entertainer daughter's voice at 7 years of age. It was huge for a youngster. People were amazed and the more she was praised for her power voice, the more she took pride in it and began taking on songs that really were out of her range and hard on our ears. We never quite had the heart to discourage her by telling her that sometimes she just didn't sound nice at all. Thankfully, over the years, because singing is her life and livelihood, she began to moderate that monster voice and learned how to use her instrument so that today, depending on what's required, it creates beautiful sounds and not just loud ones. But she learned to do all this before the current love affair top artists have with their own voices and with doing vocal gymnastics became so popular. Now it's not just the belting that's hard to take. Now it's all about being able to do "runs" that run on so much you lose the original melody of the song. Now it's all about hitting that "millon dollar note" so prized in the industry i.e. the harder you hit it and the longer you can hold it, the more the fans scream. You can see this phenomena on American Idol each week. It sure makes you wonder how Norah Jones ever succeeded. She must have had a first class marketing manager. Preston Jones who writes the article linked to this, (and is a great read if this interests you) says "It's not singing. It's more like screaming on key." Unfortunately, on American Idol, it's sometimes screaming off-key too. And does the average voter know the difference? Preston blames "a culture that prizes succinct sound bites over substantive art. It's tempting to try to make an impact in 10 seconds." Touche! He calls it "oversinging" and traces it back to its more subtle beginnings with Celine Dion through to Mariah Carey taking it over the top, only to be outdone by Christina Aguilera and the rest. Great voices, all of them, but why do they have to wail out a note and put it through all kinds of contortions, so much so that the original song is no longer identifiable? They can get away with it of course, because they are big names now, but I look forward to the day when a real singer comes along and shows the wannabes how it can be done differently. That's what was so refreshing about the performances on last night's Idol by Lakisha Jones and Melinda Dolittle. They both have monster voices but they exert just enough control to keep us listening and not want to put our fingers in our ears. Patsy Cline would never have made it today. Neither would Ella Fitzgerald. Both of them had huge voices too but they were music to our ears. What do you think?