For reference, I’m that kind of singer.
There’s no shame in being strictly a singer. That is an ability in and of itself. Besides some songwriters don’t perform or sing, and there’s also nothing wrong with that. (Drummers and bassists in bands write songs too!)
Seems like a weird preconception in the first place. I mean, who goes to an opera and wonders if the singers wrote the music? Or watches a movie and wonders if the actors wrote the script?
Personally I have no issue with it as long as the artist / performer doesn’t lie and say they write their own music.
Nothing really.
Some of the greatest racecar drivers built their own cars. Some of the greatest race car drivers literally had no idea how to build a car.
Do your thang and have a good time.
That they are singers not writers, producers or composers.
There are more songs than singers. This is inevitable. Aside, some of the greatest versions of songs are covers.
“You’re scammer and a liar, you’re a disgrace, you failed at being a decent human, you disgust me,” said no one ever.
No one gives a fuck, making music, arts, singing and stuff is about having fun or expressing your emotions. Keep on doing that, and remember that the opinion of others do not count unless it comes from loved ones or friends. Trust me, I’m old enough to have wasted way too much time on wondering that kind of thing.
Also I’m a computer programmer but I’ve never written an operating system. I know a billion other things though, I still have fun every day.
Same as I think of actors who don’t write their own films or plays.
And to labor the point, also cooks who don’t create their own recipes. Or football players who don’t invent the rules of the game. Or fighter pilots who don’t build their own jets. Or doctors who rely on “book learnin’” instead of figuring out how the human body works themselves.
You don’t even have to leave the realm of music. “A flautist that doesn’t write their own symphonies? Gasp, what a hack!”
this concept that you describe is very boring. the product is probably very boring.
Why? Just because two (or more) people work on creating a song doesn’t necessarily make it boring or lifeless. The song writer can put his emotions into the song and the singer adds his own interpretation and feelings into the performance.
I guess that’s why they call them singers?
No one ever asked that question about an opera singer. Or of an actress/actor. Why should it be different?
No one ever asked that question about an opera singer
I actually have asked this specific question to my idiotic boomer father recently (not MAGA but almost). He “knows” (or religiously believes) that people must both compose AND perform, otherwise they suck. I had some free time with this moron so I kept on trying to find examples until I went to your question.
An opera singer cannot “write” lyrics because they sing Mozart stuff and Mozart is dead. My father answered very seriously that, yes, even the best opera singer is still a failure because he’s singing songs from dead people.
Now you know, Bocelli and Pavarotti failed at life.
Let’s say that we have a complicated relationship, he never was a father to me, and I’ll grieve him for 30 seconds when he dies, but some people do believe that. Sorry for the rant.
Would that also make Frank Sinatra a failure?
What a bizarre line of thinking.
Yes, Sinatra too. He is obsessed by the 60/70s first rock music (the real kind, not the fake stuff of the 50s) and he’s stuck there.
You know what’s worse? He is listening on a regular basis to singers he hates because they wrote their own songs. Having pure principles is more important that liking something. Yep, he’s fucked up in his head somehow.
60/70s first rock music? Rock is a 1940s/50s genre if we are looking for its origins.
Can’t deny that there’s a really big difference between late 60s rock and 40/50 rock, though - it’s not really wrong to consider it a new genre, even if it appropriates the name of the older genre.
I think the difference is the opera singer is their own name and you can point to some parts or performances, but the songs belong to someone else. “Toxic” by Britney Spears is considered her song… even though it was written by other people, for example. Nobody thinks that Queen of the Night is Diana Damrau’s song.
And I get there’s a difference, because nobody think Beyonce’s version of “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” is anything but Elton John’s song regardless. But the line is so blurred amongst pop singers (as some write their own and some don’t) that credit seems falsely attributed often.
Basically, if you’re a songwriter/composer, you have songs. If you’re a singer, you have performances.
Toxic by Britney Spears et al.
