There are countless singers who always knock it out of the park whether they’re recording an album, singing acapella, or performing live. If I had to write about all the skilled and incredibly talented singers out there whom I admire, respect, and love, it would take me at least a couple weeks.

Truth is, it is much more fun and interesting to talk about the artists who don’t have that stuff going for them. There are singers who are rich, famous, and beautiful (I may even like their music), but their “live voices” are far from what we hear on the radio. And I don’t mean that in a good way.

A couple weeks ago, I was mindlessly scrolling through Youtube videos on my laptop when I came across a video titled “Top 10 Worst Live Singers” on the home page with a whopping 5,000,000+ views. Needless to say, within the first couple minutes of the video, my ears were practically bleeding.

Here are a couple singers (in no particular order) who made the list.

Selena Gomez

Brittany Spears

Ke$ha

Robin Thicke

Katy Perry

As much as I absolutely love jamming to the songs of these artists on the radio or at a party, hearing them perform live confirmed that you don’t necessarily have to be a good singer to have a music career.

You might be wondering… who cares? Why does something that seems so trivial matter? Obviously, the purpose of this post was not to trash or blatantly insult familiar singers. Youtube videos like the one I watched perfectly exemplify the drastic extent to which modern music has evolved. Nowadays, it seems like practically anyone’s voice can be altered or manipulated to sound phenomenal through the magic of auto-tuning and highly advanced sound editing tools. What pertrubes me is that we are tricked into believing this illusion that a singer sounds a certain way based on the heavily edited voice we hear on the radio, when in reality, that is far from their actual voice. More recently, it appears as if the music industry is specifically seeking visually attractive singers, or those who have unique or controversial personalities simply to gain attention amongst the media and public, despite how horrendous their voice may sound. In other words, the music industry is placing their focus on the appearance and personality of the artist over their voice. As long as someone is attractive or captures attention, who cares what they sound like live, right? With modern technology, we can make anybody’s voice sound “amazing” right?

I completely understand that visual appeal, personality, and stage presence is crucial for marketing and publicity purposes, but shouldn’t music be centralized and focused on a singer’s true voice? This brings me to another topic that’s been constantly running across my mind. Most current singers, despite how talented they are, seem to focus on creating a dramatic performance full of dance moves, props, and creative costumes, as opposed to focusing on what is truly significant: their voice. I love a great performance, but if it means sacrificing or detracting away from a powerful voice, is it really worth it?