Byrne-ism
Recently an acquaintance told me that David Byrne, of the Talking Heads, once said "If someone sings too well, then people don't believe what they are singing." I'll buy that; I mean, people distrust people who are different from them, in terms of ethnicity or religion or philosophy, so it makes sense that they would distrust someone who sounds different from them, someone whose voice is so alien. But people clearly don't dislike these foreign voices; for example, Mariah Carey is in the top ten at this moment. So does the public enjoy being "lied" to? Do they enjoy a voice that they inherently don't trust?
On the other hand, the subject matter of these songs are often foreign to the general public as well: grand romantic love with no hitches or obstacles, vast wealth and success, etc. So maybe people accept the alien-ness of the voice in the context of an alien world. If someone with an average voice sang about how much money they had, it would probably be seen as ironic; i.e., it would be distrusted because it would be out of context. It would be the same thing if Whitney Houston sang a ballad about taking her car to the mechanic to get the muffler replaced: people might enjoy it, but only because the falseness would be so obvious that it would be considered a joke.
I think people (including me) think that "divas" like Houston and Carey sing about about romantic love and wealth because of their lifestyles, because that's all they know as divas. But maybe they become divas because that lifestyle is the only context in which their voice makes sense.
On the other hand, the subject matter of these songs are often foreign to the general public as well: grand romantic love with no hitches or obstacles, vast wealth and success, etc. So maybe people accept the alien-ness of the voice in the context of an alien world. If someone with an average voice sang about how much money they had, it would probably be seen as ironic; i.e., it would be distrusted because it would be out of context. It would be the same thing if Whitney Houston sang a ballad about taking her car to the mechanic to get the muffler replaced: people might enjoy it, but only because the falseness would be so obvious that it would be considered a joke.
I think people (including me) think that "divas" like Houston and Carey sing about about romantic love and wealth because of their lifestyles, because that's all they know as divas. But maybe they become divas because that lifestyle is the only context in which their voice makes sense.