Vocalist VS Instrumental

[blackdoll 907]

Which part do you care about more, or end up leaning toward? Do both parts have to be good for you to listen to the band?

 

Me personal, I'll go with vocalist because i don't really listen to music with out vocals. Also i can get attached to them, for example if a band disbands i want the vocalist to come back to music the most, and not so much the other members even if they were wonderful too.

 

but then again the instrumental is what you moving to, hmmm what do you guys/gals think?

[sai 868]

I need both. If there is a really REALLY great vocalist at work then sometimes I can overlook a lack of good instrumentals, but mostly it's necessary. Especially with good audio gear, hearing small details in the instrumental is great and adds to the song in general. I can't listen to a song where the same riff is just chugged 5 minutes in a row.

 

Vocals are not needed for good tracks either imo. Some instrumental bands are just fantastic without. I've heard progressive rock bands and also post-rock bands without vocals where there really was no vocalist necessary.

[madygrain 515]

Vocals are just another instrument for me. Can you have a nice without a flute? or piano? or drums? Yes.  I don't see it as if I had to choose between them.  All music is instrumental for me regardless of if they use vocals or not.

[Champ213 1858]

I openly admit that I have a bias for vocalists. A boring vocalist is more likely to ruin things for me than boring instrumentals. On the other hand an amazing vocalist may just be able to a save a song for me.

 

I do appreciate good instruments too though, and for truly great songs, both things have to fit. I just tend to notice the vocals more, but maybe that's just me.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

I openly admit that I have a bias for vocalists. A boring vocalist is more likely to ruin things for me than boring instrumentals. On the other hand an amazing vocalist may just be able to a save a song for me.

 

I do appreciate good instruments too though, and for truly great songs, both things have to fit. I just tend to notice the vocals more, but maybe that's just me.

More or less the same as Champ. There are plenty of crappy 90s vkei songs I really dig because they have a vocalist I like or a vocal melody I like but the instruments themselves are lackluster (to sugar coat it). 

 

I am more likely to dislike something solely because of the vocals, even if the instrumentals are something I'd like. See also: Nega, a lot of power metal bands, Dali, Lycaon, and Muse.

[coffee000 14]

To me, instrumentals are the most important. Then vocals come next. A singer doesn't even have to be loved or liked very much by me. I have to at least not dislike the lead singer's voice to get into a band. If I dislike/cannot accept a vocalist's voice, no matter how good the instrumentals are, I still can't like the music. Which vocalist sounds good to a person is very subjective.

[blackdoll 907]

 A boring vocalist is more likely to ruin things for me than boring instrumentals. On the other hand an amazing vocalist may just be able to a save a song for me.

 

works both ways for me

 

 

 for truly great songs, both things have to fit

agreed

[Original Saku 1593]

I can listen to lackluster vocals if the instrumentals are good, but if it's the other way around.. no way. I'll take flawless instrumental performance over great vocals any day. I'm of the opinion that music wouldn't be anything without the instruments, so therefore I can't stand people that to tend to think that vocals matter more than the actual music... :/

[Bear 1817]

Vocals are just another instrument to my ears. I listen to plenty of bands both with and without vocals. And just as with drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and whatnot, if it's done poorly it can ruin the whole song, but it doesn't necessary have to ruin it either. What's important is that it is interesting as a whole. If a song has nothing beside good vocals, good guitars, good bass, good drums OR good keyboards it won't be enough to keep me interesting. Not even close. If there's only one element in the music that's good, then it really isn't good. Ya? Ya.

[Pandabear 414]

Both are important for me. Can't have an amazing instrumental without equally quality vocals. It works the other way around too. Can't have amazing vocals without a proper instrumental backing it up. It does no good if you have an awesome vocalist when the rest of the music is crap/boring or vice versa. 

 

I think most bands can get away without having a great vocalist, or maybe even having a crappy one, if the rest of the members are great composers/players, but even if you have  a god like vocalist, it won't be enough to save a horribly performed/written track.

 

I'm a huge guitar/music nerd so with me, all the components ( great vocals, great instrumental, great composition, great production) have to be there for me.

[miyuu 40]

i need both.  i have to like the voice and the music.i can not listen to it otherwise.
unless it's just instrumental or A cappella that i like.

but i know many examples in vkei with decent music and awful voice that i can't stand and so i don't listen to them.
i don't remember the oposite.can you give an example were the music is bad but the voice is good or decent??

i think good music  highlights a good voice.  a good voice would get lost without fitting music.
but mediocore voice with awesome music is more possible to success maybe than the opposite.

 

unless you can give me an example of famous good voice with bad music that i can't recollect

[hiroki 5521]

I have a huge bias towards vocals. I guess I'm one of those that don't really see vocals as just another set of instruments (and maybe that's why I've never really been able to get into most metal bands). Lyrics have a semantic aspect to them that's in excess of what instrumentals can ever do. If I feel like just listening to instrumentals I'd happily switch to my classical playlist.

[Bear 1817]

I have a huge bias towards vocals. I guess I'm one of those that don't really see vocals as just another set of instruments (and maybe that's why I've never really been able to get into most metal bands). Lyrics have a semantic aspect to them that's in excess of what instrumentals can ever do. If I feel like just listening to instrumentals I'd happily switch to my classical playlist.

 

Would you care to elaborate this? I'm not quite sure I get you here. Is it because of the styles of the vocals you find in metal, or because of the lyrics you find in metal?

[hiroki 5521]

Would you care to elaborate this? I'm not quite sure I get you here. Is it because of the styles of the vocals you find in metal, or because of the lyrics you find in metal?

 

I suppose you could say it's the style of vocals one tends to find in metal.

 

I've never really been a fan of harsh vocals (the more "extreme" it gets, the more uncomfortable I feel XD), and am used to vocals carrying the melody line. I had a discussion with a friend about this, and was told something to the effect of vocals being augmented in metal to perform what an instrument typically does (e.g. through distortion or percussion). Even if I'm not particularly irritated, I still find harsh vocals distracting most of the time.

 

There are exceptions, though. DELUHI is one of my favorite bands, and I can't really put my finger on the reason - I suspect it's how the amazing overlay of Juri's clean/harsh vocals more than offsets the roughness of his harsh vocals (and his voice is easier on my ear than most other metal vocalists). I like Para:noir too, and it's prob owing to Akane's harsh vocals being modulated by autotune to the point that they aren't "harsh" anymore. Sadly I can't stand D.I.D at all.

 

But, yeah, I digress

[Bear 1817]

I understand. But metal is a huge genre though, and a lot of the sub genres doesn't take use of any harsh vocals.

[miyuu 40]

i like clean vocals too. i could not like a band if it hasn't at some point clean vocals or melody.

but the type of voice we like or the type of music . makes the music less or more important?

does the music matter less in pop? well maybe but it has to be smart or catchy there too.doesn't it

[blackdoll 907]

yeah i think its vocals for me, most of the time, but i love instrumental too

 

and about the "bad intrumental" more like generic, boring or its not you cup of tea.

[blackdoll 907]

ok so I think I need a good instrumental but the vocals have to be great or catchy. and who every has the best vocal is the one i want to listen to, but their instrumental cant suck though

[togz 2004]

If the instrumentals aren't good I'll decide I won't like it xD

[MaikoMizu 167]

Always the instrumentals that catch my ears first. I don't really care for vocalists too much even if they're decent, sometimes forcing myself to go along with them. 

[beni 2149]

I favor the vocalist in a band most due to my attention being mainly on them. I enjoy the vocals more than the band playing in all honesty, and see it as the main attraction. This is probably due to my massive fondness for reading lyrics and hearing them sung. It doesn't take me more time to get into instrumental though, I just adore vocalists more. And it might just be me, but I can never tell if a vocalist is a "bad" vocalist or if the instrumental is "bad." Even if it might be bad, it's something different and still enjoyable.

Hella hard to put into words xD

[RpgRiser 70]

I'd have to go for vocalist o-o
There are a lot of bands with very good instrumentals but the vocalist ruins everything >,<
It then becomes a chore to listen to the song.

[hiroki 5521]

always the vocalist for me. like benibana, lyrics mean a lot to me, and for that reason i usually can't really stand songs with too much cheesy/lame lyrics or undecipherable harsh vocals. conversely a song can be simple or even uninventive in its instrumentation, but if the vocals are good and its lyrics move me i'll probably love it to death.

[eiheartx 1310]

For me, It's a whole package.
I need a good vocalist, a vibrant, powerful or unusual tone (it can be simple, it really depends the mastery), a good chorus &/or verse, a synth (I adore synths, piano or classical/symphonic instruments; something that add value to the compo), or a catchy riff &/or melody, something that attracts me enough the first time and makes me want to listen once again (and +). I want to feel something. A love at first sight. :'D
Vocals is my number 1 expectation, I think. I cannot listen to something -as good as it is- if the singer is bad or have a boring/monotone tone.
Now that I think about it, it can be the contrary but it's rare. for example, Vidoll : I always loved Jui's voice, absolutely hated their music (excepted all their oldschool stuff ofc). Or Aoi period 彩冷える. In this way, I felt like their voices were...wasted. and it was annoying for me.

[Slsr 207]

Both are important and needed for good result (if not instrumental song.) Also vocals can be very powerful livening up song from nothing that impressive to something totally amazing but also instrumental can alone create something most special ever just by itself. Kinda feel I have to choose instrumental tbh, even if my very favorite vocalist probably would have good fight at least but in general it gotta be instrumental.