What's a better singing voice: male or female?

[addiv]

What do you like better? A man or a woman's singing voice? Or are they about equal and does it all depend on the individual in particular?

 

[anarchywrksbest]

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU AAAAAAAAAAAAAREEEEEEEEEE?!?!?

Male.

 

[cgannon64]

Male.

A female's voice can be more beautiful, but for some reason I just prefer a male's.

 

[Siegmund]

If you want to have any hope of actually understanding the words, vs. just hearing someone wailing away, you have much better odds with a male voice.

 

[stratego]

all soprano voices are beautiful, no matter if they are really good with hitting the right note or not.

 

[Leha]

Strange , 3 voted for male voice here , but bar indicates only 2 .
One of you guys is hiding something
Me , I like female voices :jump:

 

[CivCube]

Both genders can have a high quality.

 

[bobgote]

blokes.

 

[Archer 007]

I think it depends on what they are trying to sing

 

[Ohwell]

Both combined into one chorus.

 

[The Yankee]

If the singing is well-done, then I can enjoy both.

But if they're like a lot of people and can't sing......ouch...

 

[Loaf Warden]

I think it depends on the singer and on the song. When I look at the artists that get played on, say, VH1, a higher proportion of the decent singers are female. And I certainly love listening to the voices of Utada Hikaru, Jasmine Rodgers, Sarah Brightman, Sun Yanzi, and Dido. All excellent singers, in my opinion.

The bulk of the male singer population in popular music today consists of crap. But I'd rather listen to David Bowie or Justin Hayward or Tortoise Matsumoto or Billy Joel sing "It's A Small World After All" than listen to Barbra Streisand or Celine Dion or Christina Aguilera or Alanis Morissette sing anything. (And Mark Knopfler can sing "It's A Small World After All", but only if he puts a long guitar solo on it. )

I realize this thread is about singing in general rather than specifically popular music, but I just think it depends on who it is and what they're singing.

 

[Benderino]

It depends, but generally males sound better.

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

I'd say on average females have better voices, but the odds are against them. For one thing, popular music for female singers is unequivocally crap, even compared to male popular music; the female singers themselves are trained to whine, wheeze, moan, everything but actually sing; and the image problem [no rack, you're sacked] is really weighing on them.

Also, although males are on average worse singers, their very best can outdo any female. Lennon/McCartney, Simon and Garfunkel, etc, are not going to be outperformed by any woman singer I know of today.

 

[Benderino]

I agree there, Pontiuth!

 

[Scrimshaw]

As much as I like radioactive monkey voices, I was forced to vote female.

 

[Pangur Bán]

Women have the better voices by far. What I can't stand are those young guys with effeminate voices :sick:

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Boys.
Female voices are necessary for various parts in Wagnerian operas, but that is about it.

 

[Shadylookin]

depends, on high parts females are usually better while on lower parts males are. Other than that if it sounds good i'll listen to it

 

[Hawkster]

Both depending on the style of music and the singer. Being a fan of rock music (in all it's forms) probably most of the singers in my ahem reasonably extensive collection - are male - it goes with the style but there are some female rock singers who I like to listen to.

A good voice is a good voice regardless of gender - just as a bad voice is exactly that.

But it is all down to the ear of the listner - what I find good other may not.