I Don’t Like Their Voice

“I don’t like their voice” is about the least compelling criticism I’ve ever heard.

Almost any singer whose voice is distinctive from the average sound is going to receive this criticism. I’ve heard it recently about both Jacob Collier and Lin-Manuel Miranda. But I could have heard it said about so many singers across the decades: Macy Gray. Louis Armstrong. Billie Holiday. Billy Eckstine. Betty Carter. Bob Dylan. David Byrne.

The truth is, we are reacting to how different a voice is from the usual voices we listen to. By that token, when I first listened to great operatic soloists, I “didn’t like” their voices – because they were so very different from the jazz and pop singers I was familiar with. The same happened the first time I heard Bulgarian choirs.

But with exposure, voices stop sounding different and start sounding familiar. We expand our range of what we expect from the human voice, and we learn to appreciate how singers use their voices to express their art.

In that context, “I don’t like their voice” becomes an easy way to dismiss a person’s art without engaging with it.