12. "Very funky, but man..." In response to Reply # 0
...it comes up so short in the singing (lackluster as hell) and songwriting (this sounds like a throwaway b-side by the standards of their obvious models like Zapp and the Gap Band, and the lyrics might just as well be "blah blah blah / blah blah blah").
I wouldn't mind hearing more just based on the production, I suppose.
14. "A lot of the OG boogie jams had terrible, terrible singing." In response to Reply # 12
Either laughably bad or just a tad bit....off. Didn't help that the only things they ever sang about were dancing, love, and music. Every time. I'm convinced that some of those female vocals were done by chicks that the musicians met at a club and ended up in the studio after a 36 hour coke binge.
With that said, 80-83 is one of my favorite eras of black music and this song captures that vibe perfectly, right down to the questionable vocals.
If you're talking about Freestyle and mid-80s electro tracks, that's one thang... but early 80s boogie was probably the last stand for hardcore *sanging* in R&B. You could even make the case that the singing on those records was "better" than a lot of what you got in the 70s.
16. "Major labels had some great vocalists....the indies, maybe not as much." In response to Reply # 15
Change might be my favorite group from that era and their vocals were immaculate.
On the flip side, a ton of the one-off 12"s that make the boogie genre so vast are filled with DOPE production and downright mediocre singing. They're just as valuable to me as the major label stuff though.
Even shit like "Must Be The Music"....the female vocals on that one just never sounded right to me. Maybe my ears aren't as fine-tuned as I once thought they were.
19. "I don't think that's 'bad' singing at all" In response to Reply # 18
but between that and "Must Be the Money," I know the kind of vocals you're talking about and I understand where you're coming from.
But I still don't agree that that style of singing was even really the norm. This was the era in which big bands took their last gasp, and the singers had to be strong as hell to compete with the music.
Even with more studio-bound projects, if you wasn't sanging, producers were not trying to fuck with you too tough. For what? Because you look good? Most of those "acts" never performed live, so that shit didn't matter as much...
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