What happened to vocal harmonies?

Question

My father was talking to me about how when he was a kid, on the school bus, 12 year old girls used to sing popular songs in 3 part harmony!

Back then pop music consisted of great bands like The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, who harmonized beautifully.

What happened to the vocal harmony? Why don't you hear them in popular music anymore?

And why, if you sing a note, can you not find a single kid in the country who could sing a third above you.

Answer 1

Vocal harmony still exists in what might be considered slightly less popular and less mainstream music.

And there plenty of kids (and other people) who can sing beautifully in three part harmony.

Answer 2

Everyone is saying "hip-hop and rap" blah blah blah...well why the hell is it popular then? Because people are buying and the rappers are making money so the industry thinks sex in the video and song sells so that is what we are hearing now.

80 percent of "SINGERS" NOW CANNOT EVEN HOLD A NOTE..so they just shake their Azz..it's sad and we still listen and buy the Cd's.

Another funny thing I'm 20 so yea i do listen to the crap now because i like the beat and there are some cool musicians out here still Mariah Carey, Micheal Buble, even in hip-hop there is Kanye West, Mos Def, common..some that talk about everything..then coldplay and nickleback and others..

And last year i started listening to my dad's Cd's and i realized so much of that music is sampled now and copied..and that type of music will never come back?

Answer 3

Unfortunatwely we are stuck with Rap Crap and Hip ****. But don't worry this music will fade and a new genre for music will appear. Hopefully the musically content will incorporate harmonies.

Answer 4

No doubt there are lots of groups today who harmonize well, but you're right, there is a major scarcity of great vocal harmonizing in today's popular music. In the 1950's one of the popular music forms was doo-wop. Interestingly enough that particular style was not known as doo-wop until 1972 when that term was coined. In many ways the term “doo-wop” trivializes the music of these artists, but the term stuck and that’s now the name of that genre of music, like it or not. In the 1950's and ‘60s they were known as vocal groups. Vocal groups originated on the street corners of New York with usually 3 to 5 persons singing and harmonizing without instrumentation (a capella) as these people were poor and could not afford instruments (interestingly enough, rap also originated in New York in the same manner!). They had to practice and figure out how to best use vocal back-up techniques to help fill in the sound because of their lack of instruments. Recognizing this gold mine of talent, small record labels sprung up and recorded these groups using their in-house musicians to back them up. These were incredible times that drove one of the biggest changes in popular music that ever happened. There are many musical historians who consider these early original doo-wop songs to be the first true rock and roll records. It’s understandable why they believe that way because these songs were drastically different from the big band and jazz styled vocals that were prominent in the early ‘50s. Simon and Garfunkel honed their sound during the ‘50s (at that time they called themselves “Tom & Jerry”) doing their versions of doo-wop. Their big hits of the ‘60s, of course, were not doo-wop but had they not gone through this doo-wop “boot camp” they might not have had the vocal skills to create their trademark harmony. The Beatles also did some doo-wop very early in their career which may also have helped their vocal style. I actually have some of these songs on CD and quite frankly their doo-wop wasn’t all that great. Their vocals were more suitable to their unique type of rock (at least unique when they first brought it forth) which was much more instrument laden than is typical of doo-wop. In fact they were so good at this style that The Beatles, along with the ensuing “British Invasion”, forever changed the direction of rock which, consequently, brought an end to the doo-wop era. By 1965 there was very little doo-wop in popular music. It’s my opinion that as time marched on there were fewer and fewer musicians who learned to do vocals though the “school” of doo-wop. Newer and younger groups who were ignorant of the possibilities of vocal group harmonizing finally came to fore and slowly replaced older artists on the pop charts. It’s not to say that today’s musicians aren’t good, because I really like a lot of today’s vocalists. It’s just that they sing differently and harmonizing is not a major part of their approach to singing. Part of the problem that we don’t see much of a resurgence of the traditional vocal groups may be, in part, due the extraordinary value a great vocalist can add to a band. Successful musicians today make disproportionately more money today than they did in the 1960's and 1950's. If you were to get a great vocal group today then you would have an entire group of accomplished vocalists. That’s a high concentration of talent in one group. Well, since you make more money as one great vocalist fronting a band the pressure to go “solo” for every single member of that group would be enormous. This doesn’t even take into account the “ego” factor that comes in fronting a group. As it is there aren’t enough truly good vocalists for every good band. This may not bode well for a return of great vocal harmonizing. However I can’t predict a dim future for vocal groups because you can’t predict what factors could change this trend. Hopefully, something unforseen could crop up and bring back a resurgence of this lost art. Occasionally, but rarely, some bands will incorporate doo-wop into one of their songs to a great effect. One great example is the Zephyr Song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Listen to the second half of this song. It’s a simple form of doo-wop, but it is true doo-wop with harmonizing that’s true to the 1950's style of harmonizing. The musicianship is modern, so modern, in fact that many may not realize that it’s a doo-wop. Incidentally, this band just played in the biggest arena to a sell-out crowd near where I live this week. So there’s hope!

Answer 5

I think it went out with real music!
You wanna hear really good harmonies listen to the Eagles!!
Seven Bridges Road in particular, it is the best.I bet I am about the same age as you dad!!

Answer 6

Have you ever heard of the SWEET ADELINES?They sing in four part harmoney and very young people join them They're all over the place.They sing all sorts of modern songs, too. You seem to be interested in singing. Why don't you look in the phone book, they'd love to have you, and it's great fun!

Answer 7

You can find a kid who can sing a third above you, you're just not looking hard enough, trust me.

And you forgot Cream for your list.

Answer 8

Rap and hip hop is the answer - that's todays harmonies.

Answer 9

HIP HOP & RAP