Tako wrote- >I'd say 80% of male pop voices are tenors, 15% countertenor, 5% baritone - >hardly a natural distribution!
While 80% of male pop voices may *sing* into the tenor range, i'd bet most of them aren't real tenors. It's easier to sustain a high pop tessitura than a high classical tessitura, because you can do it *anyway you like*- some like to shout, some scream, some whine, few sing. 95% of the larynxes are raised, throats are closed etc.
Voices that are bass or baritone are usually expected to sing lighter and higher than opera, as the writing isn't by voice experts such as verdi, but by songwriters who often don't even think about vocal ranges. Also a young high and light sound is often preffered, as the audience is much younger than the classical crowd. Furthermore, the microphone lets many singers mimic vocal types that they couldn't normally do without a microphone. Imagine the guy from Savage garden singing without a microphone- he'd probably collapse after half a song. he sings 'off' his voice and can sustain a higher (albeit light and quiet) tessitura than he could without a mic. But i'm sure he's perfectly happy with his voice.
A real pop tenor for example like jeff buckley could sing in that range properly, same with thom yorke. You can hear when these guys sing, they have the option of going into a full voice, even though they don't always do so.
I've seen many, many baritones and basses singing pop in a tenorish range, that's why you get so many strained sounding voices in pop. It's not about vocal perfection, it's about emotion, atmosphere, or just pure energy. Off the top of my head, i can think of quite a few pop baritones (remember they might not sound baritonish, because they usually aren't trained, but they sing in a baritonish range- when they get up above an E4, they strain- the sign of a lower passagio)- beck, john lennon, eddie vedder (pearl jam) marilyn manson (if you can call him a singer), billy corgan, the guy from bush, neil diamond, barry white, james taylor, kurt cobain (possibly), the guy from korn, trent reznor, i could go on and on- It seems that most of the boy bands are tenors, as they are usually auditioned, and often trained, even though Ronan Keating (from boyzone?) is definitely a baritone.
I'd say this- there are many more baritones than you think singing pop, but they don't stay in the comfortable baritone tessitura (~C3 to D4) because they don't even know what a vocal type is. Most musicians are suprised when I tell them about vocal types- "I'm a..what?"
Mirko
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