Vocalists/Musicians Wasting Their Talent

Nonjker I think you summed it up. Too many. There is little in the music scene today that I would categorize as cutting edge. Basically a rehash of something previously done and in my opinion some things better left not started. And so far as Charlotte Church goes Sugarbrie, she epitomizes the absolute mediocrity so prevalent today. A pretty (average) voice with a pretty (above average) face. A child woman is her appeal, I mean what else could it possibly be? Hell, give me a 60 piece orchestra, an echo chamber and a pretty face and the masses might like me too. I recently saw "La Traviata" performed by a Russian touring company. The lead singer of the part of Violetta had the most beautiful lyric soprano voice I ever heard live and ranks among the most beautiful voices I ever heard period, a virtual unknown. Her voice was absolutely pure, effortless and soul reaching. My wife who has been an amateur singer her entire life and is very critical of singers in general, was moved to tears listening to this woman sing, as was I. There is a lot of talent out there but it is reaching beyond the talent to acquire something fresh, new and original that touches us personally. Maybe this is the cry for something we each feel a loss for? The future will tell, I hope it is just a temporary down cycle. So far as squandered talent goes, I’m with Swampwalker, Whitney Houston's got my vote.

Wehamilton,

Very good post. Think you've hit the high spots. I offer just one amplification: since business, especially the music business, measures things in picoseconds these days, the pressure on studios, and therefore the artists, to crank things out quickly becomes overbearing. As you rightly point out, that will allow people who are camera friendly to market pablum or worse and still make a ton of money. That's all the business side cares about. Artists ( and pretend artists ) being human, want to make money and you can't really blame them. One other poster wrote that he chose commerce rather than academia so he could make a more lucrative living. Who am I to say he's polluted his ideals by "selling out"?

It's a whole different culture. Most of the serious talent still goes into classical because they have to - it's the only medium that fires their muse.

Thanks, Adamanteus. Harry "Sweets" Edison was quoted as saying "I'd rather be a mediocre originator than a perfect imitator." Problem is, today we seem to have mediocre imitators, and it shows.

I agree serious musicians are still around (many are drawn to classical) and still "suffer for their art" but very few people find starving as noble as it was in the past. Unfortunately, classical seems to be in an economic, if not artistic, slump. Even I, who was raised on rock and classical, find myself listening to it less and less.

It may be a middle-aged phenomenon, but I've been on a Jazz bender of heroic proportions and have really been getting into this previously undiscovered (by me) treasure chest. As I've gotten older, it seems the structure of classical appeals less and the freedom of jazz appeals more. I guess I've become a musical anarchist!