Worst Voices In Pop?

[-Talbot-]

Just listened to Take That on strictly........

Mark Owen, what a lucky man he is to earn his crust from singing.
And his dancing is friggen worse. Who gets your vote?

[Canary42]

Lee Marvin

[jno]

Lee Marvin, sounding like a frog with a man in his throat...

But Canary, you are forgetting the master

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_PLWqnfFgU

[Gromit]

for some reason I couldn't stand Paul Young.

He had an unusual voice. But his real sin was covering really good songs by great arists like Mavin Gaye, Joy Division and Nicky Thomas and redicing them to souless synth mush. Sound very dated now, whereas Gaye's original still sounds fresh.

[Canary42]

... but I do remember Mr Ifield .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgm0KNICGcU

[tamborine]

Good vid but 'hope for the future' you would retire coz youre past your sell by......boring!

http://youtu.be/163_C5UVU-I

[-Talbot-]

Sorry sj, I was biting my lip.

237SJ

There are probably lots but the ones that come to mind are Lily Allen and the lead singer of REM

Oh, and Elvis Costello


Everybody hurts...is one of my all time favourites songs.
Elvis Costello... is one of my all time favourite artists.

All I could think of typing was ... "Grrrrrrr"

[janbee]

Rod Stewart/Bonnie Tyler (I think they are one and the same person actually!) Mrs Beckham, Cilla, Joss Stone. I'm sure there are many more if I think about it.

[whirlyhurly]

That horrible booming voice of Ethel Merman.

[Caribeing]

Cheryl Cole
Victoria Beckham
Kylie Minogue

[Hopkirk]

I could never understand Bob Dylan's success considering his singing.

[sp1814]

Katy Perry.

Future generations will be asking how we allowed this woman to have a career in music.

Literally cannot sing (I've heard her live vocals - it's astonishing).

[janbee]

That awful song from Titanic . Celine Dion... my heart will go awwwwn and awwwn. OMG. I wish she'd been struck by the darned iceberg.

[aelmpvw]

tiny tim and his rendition of tiptoe through the tulips takes some beating for worst voice

[andy-hughes]

I think we need to be careful to answer the Question properly here - are you suggesting people with genuinely bad voices, or artists who voices you don't like, which is not the same thing.

For example, I loathe Whitney Houston's voice with a passion, but only because it is all technique and volume, over emotion and feeling.

So I would say that I don't like Whitney Houston, but I cannot fault her vocal technique and skill because they are peerless.

On the opposite side of the coin, you could never say that Leonard Cohen has 'the gift of a golden voice' as he ironically admits, but I absolutely adore listening to him because of the way he sings, and what he sings about.

So, make sure your choice is a bad singer, not a good singer you don't like.

Of course, you can combine the two with Chris Martin, who sounds like a nervous fourth-former at a school concert, and contrives to write utter drivel to sing as well.

[mccfluff]

katie perry, she's f***** awful

[EdmundD]

Axl Rose. I'd rather listen to nails scratching on a blackboard..........

[andy-hughes]

jambee - "I wish she'd been struck by the darned iceberg."

Icebergs don't strike things because they don't move fast enough - things strike them.

All together now, "I wish I was a pedant, away away ...."

(The old fool's definitely lost it now!!!

[tiggerblue10]

Anything that comes out of X Factor. All sounds boring and samey to me.

[factor-fiction]

Here's Katy Perry live- judge for yourself.
Her studio records sound pretty good though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_n6Pn6KgPE

[andy-hughes]

Modern pop presentation is hoist by its own petard - if you 'enhance' a singer with technology, and the technology fails, the singer is left exposed - and the ire falls on their head, not their producers / managers / image makers et al.