Female listing / Male vocals???

[byllsong]

Hi, everybody Question! I see lots of listing for female songs. I sing all of my own demos and was wondering if the fact that a male voice singing a female song will affect my being forwarded / returned? Everyone says 'It's all about the song'. I sure hope so. I try as much as possible to write songs gender free. Has anybody had any experience, positive or negative regarding this. Thanks, Billy

[arkjack]

From my own experience, I tried doing female songs with my male vocal and was told flat out "if its a song for a girl, find a girl to sing it." This was not only Taxi, but NSAI as well. Getting a forward on a high bar listing is hard enough with a great song and decent production, you have to consider that you know wrong gender vocal is a drawback, and you will lose 'points' as well as meaning, content, and emotion that the gender difference makes. The girl singer doesn't have to be Jill Scott. If its a decent production, a great song, and only mediocre vocal, at least the screener/ decision maker doesn't have to try to listen past the male voice to see if its a hit.ArkJack

[byllsong]

Hi, I submitted a song that is pending. The listing is for a female vocalist, but the song is gender free. Anyone can sing it, so it's not from a male/female POV. Billy

[hummingbird]

We had this discussion a little while ago -- and I think I said something like...imagine you were a male fashion designer and a call went out for a certain style of dress for a femalewould you model the dress yourselfor hire someone who could show it off to it's best advantage?chances are, the listing party is not interested in hearing male vocals on a song sung in a male key (whatever the POV). they want to hear a female voice in a female key. Dress your song in its best - hire a good singer to record it for you. In this day and age, there are many good singers on the net, you may even find you can trade... they do a vocal on a demo for you, and you do a guitar track for a demo for them, kind of thing.HTHcheersHummin'bird

[byllsong]

Hey there Hummingbird, I have already had an indirect contact with you. (See General Hangout 'Newbie introductions and apologies'.) I understand what you mean about giving them what is requested. I'll submit it to a male singer when on is requested. Meanwhile I'll continue to write and learn. Thanks, Billy

[billg]

Hey Billy. I've only had one experience with this. It was a female artist pitch and my demo with my voice was forwarded. BUT I didn't receive any follow up, my voice could have been the reason, who knows. Anyway the point is that at least it's possible to get a forward in a case like this if someone thinks the song is on the money for the listing.

[squids]

I think we did have a conversation about this once before. I remember saying something horribly un-PC; something like 'male singers (not singer/songwriters, mind you) will listen to a female singer and write off the song and females will at least consider the song if it's done by a male', generally.That being said, I come from a generation where the majority of singers in my preferred genre were males, so I had to make that work for me. Still make it work, actually. But that's a personal choice, not anything else.For Taxi's purposes, I think some kick-butt songs are forwarded but I don't remember anyone getting a deal from them. Someone will come on and have an example, though, I'm sure. Bill, GREAT tune, btw.