# Basses and Baritones in Contemporary Music?



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

the only ones I can think of (of the last 30 years or so) are Johnny Cash (bass), Barry White (bass), kinda-sorta Josh Groban (baritone? tenor?) and Rick Astley (baritone).


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

There was that guy from Crash Test Dummies but thankfully that band are no longer around. Not sure whether the vocalists in all those death metal groups who growl rather than sing would qualify or not. If you could stretch your timeline to c. 35 years then I would nominate Ian Curtis.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

elgars ghost said:


> There was that guy from Crash Test Dummies but thankfully that band are no longer around. Not sure whether the vocalists in all those death metal groups who growl rather than sing would qualify or not. If you could stretch your timeline to c. 35 years then I would nominate Ian Curtis.


we can do that if you want 
it might also be worth noting that many rappers have some wonderful baritone and bass-baritone voices, but they're not really "singers", so I didn't include them


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Aren't there plenty of male vocalists in pop, and thus plenty of baritones and bass baritones- or are they really now all rappers or horrible girly falsettists like the awful Justin Bieber? I gave up on pop some time in the late 80s (before many here were born, lol) so I don't really know. My favourite currently active male pop singer (probably the only one I could name) is Richard Hawley (baritone) who has a nice laid back retro sound:


















The only other current pop star (I hesitate to say 'singer') who I follow is that remarkable _eminence grise_ Leonard Cohen, but he never had much of a voice to begin with and has long given up any pretence of actually singing where his new releases are concerned. He's a remarkable survivor though- both as performer and man- I saw him twice in 2008 and he was brilliant.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

I'm really bad at judging voices it seems, several I thought were lower aren't that low. Here's an interesting site I found about singer's ranges http://therangeplace.forummotions.com/f1-range-stuff

Bill Callahan (Smog) - 



Stewart A. Staples (Tindersticks) - 



Andrew Eldritch (Sisters of Mercy) - 



Scott Walker - 



Mark Lanegan - 



Stephin Merritt (The Magnetic Fields) - 



Nick Cave - 




Oh and the guardian do a regular feature where they ask people suggest songs on a certain theme, great way to canvas wide opinion. Yesterday's question was "songs with deep voices" http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/may/14/readers-recommend-songs-with-deep-voices


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