also loved the post about liam's voice :) i only became a fan in 2013 and when i first watched liam's x factor audition i was surprised at how amazing he sounded back then! i thought his voice sounded much more powerful and unique than it does usually in one direction songs (even in his solo parts). since i don't know anything about music/singing i thought maybe i was just imagining it, but now that i've read your post it really makes sense - so thank you x
Thank YOU! <3 Liam and his voice just mean so much to me and it’s great that people are finally recognizing his talent. He’s actually the main reason I like the band as much as I do all thanks to this video. Before I’d been a bit meh about them as musicians but man did I get respect at least for him after that.
Oh Liam’s auditions. Don’t even get me started. (Just watched both of them and almost teared up because I’m a fucking sap).
Like I mentioned in my post, the thing about Liam is that he’s a natural baritone. For anyone who doesn’t know, that is the mid-range male voice in between the higher tenor and the lower bass. Even though it’s the most common part for a man to have, it’s quite rare in mainstream pop and especially among boybands. EVERY SINGLE BOYBAND FRONTMAN HAS BEEN A TENOR FOR THE PAST 20 YEARS. This makes him the odd man out both in his band and in his genre. Poor guy. What that also means is that his vocal sweet spot, aka where his voice is naturally most comfortable and sound its best, is at a different range than that of his band mates since they are tenors (Niall and Harry could be baritones as well, but they’re still higher than Liam so my point still stands). Since they can’t always tailor every line in every song to suit every member the songwriters have to put them where they fit as many of them as possible. Once again, Liam gets the short end of the stick in that regard. Two examples of this are Best Song Ever and Clouds. Those songs begin at g#4 and g4 respectively and probably fit Harry and Louis quite nicely, even if it’s a bit on the high end they both can go up few more notes. For Liam it’s RIGHT at the top of his range, like I’m sure he literally can’t go any higher without slipping into falsetto, at least without serious damage. No wonder his voice has cracked there a few times.
Another big difference between being a baritone and being a tenor is voice character or timbre if you’re using the technical term. Have you ever heard Frank Sinatra or Seth Macfarlane? Marcus Mumford and Julian Casablancas? Serj Tankian and Corey Taylor? Despite what set them apart, every single one of them have that smooth, roundness in their voices. That is one of the qualities that make them baritones, regardless of genre. Then listen to Liam before he was in the band. He had that too even though he was so much younger. Nowadays some of it is still there but wrapped in this brightness that just sounds forced. It’s like trying to make vanilla out of chocolate or at least trying to hide chocolate inside vanilla. Just doesn’t work. Bro, stop trying to blend in.
In light of this, I must say that this upcoming album has me super excited. Yay! Both Drag me down and Olivia seem to finally let him use the deepest part of his range again! Like, the last note in his Olivia teaser has him sing his lowest since 2010! Not kidding.
LET BARITONE!LIAM RISE!
