Let’s talk about why listeners can tell when emotion in a song is forced.
Why Listeners Can Tell When Emotion in a Song is Forced
Human brains are highly tuned to recognize subtle cues in vocal timbre, pitch, and timing. It took a little extra research to fully understand the first piece to this puzzle, but overall they’re tied in pretty well. From my experience as someone that creates music, I’ve noticed that critics can tell because of comments like being able to tell that the lyrics were being read.
Vocal Timbre
Timbre. It’s the alternative to what I and many others would easily classify as tone ID. You recognize the distinction in every artist’s voice when you’re tuned in well to this part of sound for emotion.
I’ve encountered examples and such that supports the validity of timbre being a unique trait that an artist can hold. There’s a plethora of artists that demonstrate this in Hip Hop and R&B. Even some country to boot.
Pitch
The pitch is another way to recognize the emotion in someone’s voice. It ties in to an earlier message that was similar in adding emotion to your melodies when creating music. The pitch has range and can travel from what’s known as flat and sharp sounds.
Timing
It’s yet another indicator that listeners can identify emotion with when dealing with music. If the timing of when a specific part of the song is off, it becomes a direct reflection of emotion in many cases. I find that it’s a standard that becomes enforced on a harsher level once an artist reaches a more established point of their career.
Appearing That Lyrics Are Simply Being Read
The comments section is very telling in this regard. My platforms that I host my music on reveal a group that seems very knowledgeable on what traits show when a recording artist is really putting their best effort into a track.
The comment that they occasionally share which sticks out to me most is when they can tell whe someone’s reading their lyrics off. Personally I don’t see that as being an issue, but then again, I’m someone who records their voice over beats anyways. There’s actually plenty of videos that show when artists literally read off their lyrics into a microphone.
My trick to employ that helps someone gain confidence (because that’s the issue) when recording is being familiar and building that emotional connection with what they said.