Went to see a Tango show tonight ... Corporación Tango's "Vibraciones del Alma." Perhaps I'll post a review on that later, but mainly was wondering (again) about the extremely unfortunate habit amongst contemporary Tango singers, of "belting" their lyrics, often practically to the point of screaming them.
None of the singers of the Golden Age seemed to need to do this (and they had arguably weaker amplification equipment); on the contrary, they were far more convincing in expressing the melancholy and bitter-sweetness of the lyrics of their Tangos "pensively," rather than screaming them like an infant having a tantrum (albeit in better tune). But the audience (Argentine, foreigners, Tango dancers, non-dancers, doesn't seem to matter) seems to love it. Or is it that they have been conditioned into applauding automatically the louder he sings? Is there no contemporary version of a Roberto Ray (just to pick one of my favourite Tango "crooners," though I could have used almost any of the classic singers as an example)? Is it an ego thing with the contemporary Tango singers that they feel they have to overwhelm every other instrument? Is there even anyone else on Tango-L who feels this way (or who LIKES the "belting" style, which would actually be better in some ways so I can try to understand the phenomenon ... even though I doubt I will actually start to appreciate it)? Shahrukh _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
