MH FEATURED POLL #17: Do you prefer male or female vocals in J-music?

[CAT5 9075]

Do you prefer male or female vocals in Japanese music?
 
To submit a poll for the MH POLL OF THE WEEK, P.M. @CAT5 with your poll question, choices, and state whether it's multiple choice or not.

[togz 2004]

This is tricky because I don't want to sound biased or completely close minded. I'd have to say male vocals. With scientific studies and research that I read about somewhere, they say it's natural that males have a wider vocal range than females, so I find a lot of times they can achieve more leaps and bounds. However, there are female artists that I favor as well, given that their vocals are tasteful and step outside of the norm kawaii chuchu nasally pop vocals.

 

So basically I'm not close minded to trying anything once, but looking through my favored artists, about 70% of them have male vocals.

[eiheartx 1310]

It really depends the tone (it can be easily unbearable in japanese lmao).

[Bear 1817]

I don't have a preference and don't give a fuck. I prefer fitting vocals. Doesn't matter if they're male, female, can sing or can't sing for shit. It just have to fit the music.

[Lestat 2167]

In any type of music I prefer male vocalists. To be quite frank, I can't stand female vocals.

[nick 10212]

I'm fine with both except for male vocals in non-rock music.

[PsychoΔelica 648]

Judging by my listening tendencies I'd say I prefer male vocals more. But that depends a lot on the genre. Where visual kei is concerned anyway I listen to male vocals about 90% of the time, but I do like to listen to female (fronted) bands, such as Danger Gang every now and then (although that kinda makes sense seeing as most vk bands are still male). 

[violetchain 912]

I like both. I do listen to way more male vocals, but I think that's mostly because a lot of the genres I like are dominated by men.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

Like bear, if it fits the song then I'm down for whatever.

 

My biggest problem with female vocals in Japanese music, especially in pop, is when they're too squeaky.

[Furik 832]

It depends on the genre for me. In metal or rock in general, I feel men do it better. In other genres, pop, etc. women slay.

[doombox 4421]

I used to hate most female vocals in japanese music, just for the higher pitch of their voices. I couldn't take most male vocalists who had higher voices either. But with anything that you take the time to dig into, I found more female vocalists who had lower registers or less nasal tones. And over time I got more acclimated to a lot of higher voices too. These days I'm more in the "idc as long as it suits the music" camp, but a lot of my old favorites are male fronted bands because of this and that still dominates a lot of my playlists. So I picked male because I think my listening charts still reflect a big male bias.

[Zeus 7997]

I don't have a preference and don't give a fuck. I prefer fitting vocals. Doesn't matter if they're male, female, can sing or can't sing for shit. It just have to fit the music.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I tend to prefer male vocals in Japanese music. I do like me sum female-sung poppy tunes now and then tho.

[fitear1590 2414]

I like both, but I would say I'm a bit pickier when it comes to male vocals.

[beni 2149]

I also think it depends on genre but I am more of a fan of female vocalists overall. Being a fan of mainly J-pop, I think that's become apparent.

[Nisimaldar 153]

I just don't like overly high and clear voices. Granted, most of the time male voices fit that description better than female ones, but technically it doesn't really have anything to do with male/female.

Perfect example for female vocals that I love is Alannah Myles.

[saishuu 3220]

I really don't have a preference. Like Bear said, it the vocals fit the music, it should be fine. Right now I probably listen to the same amount of male and female vocals.

[shinobu. 252]

Well... being that visual kei is mainly dominated by men and that's what I listen to the majority of... I'd guess I have to say male vocals. But, really, it just depends on the genre and my personal taste.

[herpes 1597]

female, because much like in the rest of the world, 9/10 men are terrible. 

[shizukasou 47]

Voted for no preferences but I realize I rarely came across a Japanese female vocalist that left an impression on me as much as many male ones did. Thanks to Cat I recently found out about Kaimokujisho and I l-o-v-e their singer, hope I'll be able to discover more in the future! 

[emmny 4139]

its funny because visual kei is the only genre where i prefer male vocalists, probably because im a (slightly) closeminded vkei listener. im neutral to female vocals in metal but i adore female vocals in indie rock/pop and im especially partial to boy/girl vocals--there's no boy girl visual band is there?  *swoons*

[Ro plz 1290]

For the softer and calmer stuff I am totally for female vocals. They really do that aspect very well.

 

Prime examples of this are Ringo, Kalafina, FictionJunction, etc.

 

K-Pop has warmed me up 2 female vocals as well.

[TheStoic 176]

It all comes down to the character and delivery of the voice and how well it mixes as another "instrument".  I have more artists I listen to with male vocalists, but that is because that is the trend in rock music.  However, I do have many female vocalists I adore that can deliver vocals with the best of the men.  There are certain styles of delivery that I simply detest, and it applies to male and female.

[takeruismyhero 19]

Male vocals. I just get so mesmerized by the beauty of voices for males in visual kei. Some of my favorites are Sono from Matenrou Opera, Takeru from SuG (obviously lol), Ruki from the GazettE, Byou from SCREW, Jui from Gotcharocka... the list goes on forever really. I usually fall pretty quickly if the male voice has a good smooth voice as well, but then... there are some that are still great even if their voices aren't smooth. It's kind of hard to explain. ><

[Igyou_Hime 80]

I prefer male vocals in any kind of music. I really like dark and deep voices, but of course there's exceptions, I like the old band Kilhi+Ice and Tarachan has a really light voice and I still enjoy her singing style. But in general I have to admit I'm all about the male vocalists.