The singer Grace Slick said sounded too “corny”
These days, to make it in the music industry, most labels demand more from their artists than just a good voice. The aftereffects of this advice are everywhere across the industry, but esteemed vocalist Grace Slick, who understands the trials and tribulations of the industry more than any label executive ever could, has a different stance altogether.
There are ample examples of this expanded expectation all over the charts today; take Lily Allen, who returned with a bang with West-End Girl, her first album in seven years, but still, not even she could rely upon her quintessentially British cadence and lasting cult status.
As such, at her latest shows, Allen concedes to the demands of the attention economy by wrapping herself in a huge printed list of the receipts for presents her ex-husband, David Harbour, bought for the women with whom he committed infidelity. The painfully personal becomes a spectacle in one of the more bombastic displays of the industry’s need to be entertained through more than just their ears.
Or take Harry Styles, who couldn’t rely upon his star power and soaring vocals at his return to the Brit Awards after a three-year musical hiatus, and instead welcomed a huge team of dozens of dancers flapping jazz-hands crazily around his head. My point is this: musicians might become stars through their voice, but it’s not enough to retain their status as such, and they must act, dance, jump, perform, and market themselves as the next big thing.
This logic makes sense to Slick in some way, as sure enough, she posited one of her own: “If you don’t have a very good voice, then get a lot of dancers like Britney Spears, have them march around”. Slick was speaking at a time before Spears’ solo dancing Instagram posts, when her huge arena shows were ablaze with fantastic dancers clad in crazy fashions, but largely, the point remains the same.
One wonders if there are any exceptions to this rule, and whether excess can ever ruin rather than add to a performance. Slick certainly thinks so, as in the 2017 interview with the Recording Academy, she touched upon a few artists who she believed had that star quality in their voice alone: “As far as just a good set of pipes, obviously Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga has a pretty good voice. What they’re saying may or may not be relevant. But just the instrument itself, like an Amati, an Italian violin, is nothing unless somebody plays it.”
She went on, “So Celine Dion has a beautiful instrument, her songs are kind of stupid, but her instrument is good. I’d love it if somebody would write her some good songs”. Ouch, and the backwards-handed half-compliment went on, as she said, “Or she’ll sing ‘My Heart Will Go On’, and she’ll pound with her fist on her heart, and I’ll think, ‘Oh, don’t do that, your voice is good enough, you don’t have to be corny.’ Stand there and sing.”
Harsh words, and perhaps a little misplaced; can one sing like Dion without outward emotion? Despite my reservations, Slick appeared to find an artist who ticked all of her boxes, as she talked about Whitney Houston, with whom she was rehearsing for an awards show, “about 25, 30 years ago”, recalling, “She came into the rehearsal, and she stood in the middle of the stage and sang the song. She just sang the song, and she has the voice to do that. She doesn’t need exploding chickens or midgets running around; she just sings.”
I wonder if she might change her mind, since the industry now relies upon buy-in from a generation bombarded with highly-tailored algorithmically-chosen content diversified into thousands of consumable and commericalised avenue. Sorry, Slick, but corny is in.
