Singing Along

I first have to say how sad I am to find out the that MCA (Adam) from the Beastie Boys has passed. That is crazy to me and will probably take a while to really set in. I feel like I grew up with him. He just seemed like a cool guy and I will do my best to honor him by always remembering to fight for my right to...PARTAAAY!

Keeping on the music theme, I was reminded of a blog entry I read on Madame Noire the other day. It was entitled "People Who Swear They Can Sing But Can't" and I have to admit that she was on target with her choices. There was, however, one question left unanswered.

Why do we keep loving people who don't sing that well? We all know why we love Aretha, Gladys, Whitney, Mariah, Alicia and Jennifer. Heck, I will even openly admit my love for the underappreciated like Teena Marie, Angie Stone. Those girls can tear the roof off of a song. They make you feel like singing. You cry and reimagine yourself to their music. Why on earth after listening to them would you settle for singing along to some overly auto tuned strumpet strutting around in booty shorts in some hyper sexualized video that was clearly written by some sado-masochistic teenage boy or some junior high girl with Bratz doll fetish?

The answer is simple! Whitney may make you want to sing, but J Lo makes you feel like you CAN sing. That is any important factor. When I sing along to her, Katy Perry or Brandy (Sorry. I love her, but it is kind of true. The voice is sweet, but not spectacular.) I feel like my voice is deep and rich like Mahalia Jackson or Leontine Price. I can hit those notes and sing that melody. They make me feel like I could get a record deal too if I tried hard enough.

The songs are catchy and the lyrics are fun, but the real power is that I can sing and let loose belting out the song feeling like I sound good enough to be on the radio. When the song ends, you hit rewind and do it again because I feel good and it is so much fun to...

Sing Along!