The Belt voice is the most common sound used in today's popular music as well as many forms of traditional music in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It can be described as a sound which has a more "spoken" or "forward" quality to it. People think of it as loud or like yelling, although Belt can be sung quietly or loudly. Belt is becoming the most common voice used in Musical Theatre. It is distinguished from the deeper more traditional sound of Classical, often called Legitimate voice (though the inference that Belt is somehow illegitmate is objectionable,) associated with Opera and Sacred Music.
Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez, Barbara Striesand, Shania Twain, Janet Jackson, Ann Wilson, Cyndy Lauper, Reba McEntire, Avril Levine, Bonnie Raitt are among the many female pop stars that use a belt voice for most of their songs. Michael Jackson, Don Henley, Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel and Steve Perry are a few of the male pop stars who usually sing in the belt voice.
Belt is not chest voice nor is Belt an extension of the chest voice into the higher register. Neither is it a nasal version of the head voice mixed with chest. (Chest and head voice are forms of classical voice and are distinctly different from safe proper Belt production.)
1 comment:
Good words.
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