So what are your thoughts, would you rather listen to somebody who has a perfect voice, such as well, Celine Dion or...Tina Turner or something.

Or, would you rather listen to a voice with character like Bob Dylan, Neil Young etc.

For me, I'd go with character, just because it makes the song more interesting, and I find perfect voices get on my nerves after awhile.

This isn't a poll because there are so many singers and I just thought I'd go for opinions.

I'd prefer character as well. Although, there are a few singers that I feel achieve the optimal balance between the two.

Here's my list:

Jeff Buckley
Jay Clifford (of Jump, Little Children/Rosebud)
Fran Healy (of Travis)
Matt Bellamy (of Muse)
Fat kid (of Keane)

Oh, voice with character all the way. Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, John Lennon, ect. It's imperfections in a voice that make it unique and interesting to listen to. Singers like Jewel or Kelly Clarkson or Gwen Stefani, really in my book they're all the same.

Character.



You could simply put up a poll of "character," "perfect," and "both."

I rather prefer voices I like.

Me too. My opinions usually reflect my thoughts as well. derrr?

While Nico doesn't really have a very good voice at all, I love it.

Haha, Gwen Stefani doesn't belong with those other singers.

Anyway, I can't stand listening to crappy vocals, which is why a lot of punk/emo/whatever turns me off. But a voice definately needs to have it's own unique sound, otherwise it'll all end up sounding generic.

My favorite vocalists:

Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle)
Ken Andrews (Failure, On, Year of the Rabbit, The Replicants)
Fiona Apple
Alanis Morissette
Freddy Mercury (Queen)

I appreciate both, but character wins out.

Sometimes singing slightly off-key or just not perfectly along with the music works really, really well. See: Damien Rice

both at the same time.

I prefer character. It seems a lot of people try to go for singing perfectly, and that just makes them sound like all of the other perfect sounding people. When you get people with character in their voice that's unique, you can pretty much always tell when one of their songs is playing if you'd never heard it before. Such singers are:

- James Hetfield (well, he's been changing his singing voice a lot over the years, so maybe not as much).
- Dave Mustaine
- Serj Tankien (SP?)
- Ozzy Osbourne
- David Grohl
- Billy Corgan

David Dramen of Disturbed has both.

Also Owen. Amazing stuff, both of them.

Character usually, but sometimes both, and there are exceptions of course. Freddie Mercury, for example, has a voice with a lot of character, but probably could go toe to toe with many theatrical singers . Though he might have needed to develop a more theatrical style. Technically speaking, he's up there.

Freddie Mercury? How can he be MORE theatrical? Hehehe.

For me it's Character, though I do appreciate ethereal voices, such as those by Enya and Tarja Turunen from Nightwish, but I do love voices that have power, even if they sacrifice some quality.

My favorite vocalist/singer of all time has to be Greg Graffin from Bad Religion. I listen to quite a bit of music, and no one I've found so far can sing like him. With his gravely but bright and great sounding voice, theres just something about it that demands my utmost respect.

Some of my other favorite vocalists are

- Mike Virus (the Virus, Cheap Sex)
-Mark Unseen (A Global Threat, The Unseen)
- Al Bar & Ken Casey (Dropkick Murphys
-Lars Frederickson (Rancid, Lars Frederickson & The Bast****)
- The Guy from Dream Theater (I don't know his name)
-Louis Armstrong (just because I love his music, and his leathery voice)

There are a few more, but those strike me as something original, so more than others.

On an ending note, I've found someone with the worst voice.... his name is....*drumroll*....

Tim Armstrong (Operation Ivy , Rancid, and the Transplants)

Although Operation Ivy and Rancid are two of my favorite bands.....

Both. as long as the singer doesn't like he/she is struggling to hit the notes and has a bit of a unique sound, i'm happy.