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Voices: How a Great Singer Can Change Your Life
" Voices isn't just illuminating and thought-provoking and clever; it is exciting." ―Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments
A personal exploration of what singing means and how it works, Voices is a book about our deepest, most telling relationships with music. Nick Coleman examines the act of singing not as a performance, but as a close, difficult moment of hopeful connection. What does it do to us, emotionally and psychologically, to listen hard and habitually to somebody else’s singing? Why is human song so essential to our lives? The book asks many other questions, Why did Jagger and Lennon sing like that (and not like this)? Billie, Janis, must the voices of anguish always dissolve into spectacle? What makes us turn again and again to a singing human voice?
The history of postwar popular music is often told sociologically or in terms of musicological influence and innovation in style. Voices offers a different, intimate perspective. In ten discrete but cohering essays, Coleman tackles the arc of that history as an emotional experience with real psychological consequences. He writes about the voices that have affected the ways he feels about and understands the world―from Aretha Franklin to Amy Winehouse, Marvin Gaye to David Bowie. Ultimately, Voices is the story of what it is to listen and be moved―what it is to feel emotion.
A personal exploration of what singing means and how it works, Voices is a book about our deepest, most telling relationships with music. Nick Coleman examines the act of singing not as a performance, but as a close, difficult moment of hopeful connection. What does it do to us, emotionally and psychologically, to listen hard and habitually to somebody else’s singing? Why is human song so essential to our lives? The book asks many other questions, Why did Jagger and Lennon sing like that (and not like this)? Billie, Janis, must the voices of anguish always dissolve into spectacle? What makes us turn again and again to a singing human voice?
The history of postwar popular music is often told sociologically or in terms of musicological influence and innovation in style. Voices offers a different, intimate perspective. In ten discrete but cohering essays, Coleman tackles the arc of that history as an emotional experience with real psychological consequences. He writes about the voices that have affected the ways he feels about and understands the world―from Aretha Franklin to Amy Winehouse, Marvin Gaye to David Bowie. Ultimately, Voices is the story of what it is to listen and be moved―what it is to feel emotion.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 25, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 14, 2019
I won this in a Goodreads giveaway. This book is part memoir and part music history. Very easy and relaxing read.
December 6, 2020
Sin duda es un libro interesante para los melómanos, ya que habla de numerosos artistas conocidos y otros tantos por conocer. El problema reside en cómo todo está escrito. No quiero decir que Nick Coleman escriba mal, ni mucho menos, sino que su prosa es bastante lenta, densa y pomposa. Te cuenta en dos párrafos lo que podría contar en una línea. Y sí, a veces estas rebuscadas reflexiones pueden ser interesantes, especialmente si tratan de un artista que te gusta, pero cuando no es el caso... ánimo. Ha sido el libro que más he tardado en leer este año, con eso lo digo todo.
February 25, 2019
An exploration of the pop and rock singers whose sound has meant something to Coleman, an established music journalist. They’re not necessarily the most technically adroit or conventionally beautiful voices, but they’re the ones that have connected somewhere deep in his gut. His writing is both off-the-wall (the first chapter includes extended musing on a putative race of post-apocalyptic ant-men and their likely reaction to the music of Elvis Presley and Little Richard) and effectively personal (there’s a beautiful section on watching a friend have a panic attack to the sounds of Joy Division). Really worthwhile – now I have a playlist.
January 12, 2019
Intriguing focus on the power of voice ... and the author’s own hearing problems make the topic all the more acute. Explorations of singing and nuance and the way we, through music, project our voice and emotion into the world was fascinating.
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January 18, 2019Tedious........................at best...……….too bad because I had very high hopes for this
March 23, 2019
Great read. Highly recommended.
May 20, 2019
wasn't what i expected.
February 6, 2021
I absolutely adored this. It is the book about music I have been wanting to read for so long
October 18, 2021
Se puede divagar, pero esto ya es otro nivel. Me encanta la música y el libro prometía, así que el chasco ha sido mayúsculo. Lo he dejado en la página 200: demasiado tarde.
July 19, 2021
Rather than an in-depth study of ‘how a great singer can change your life’ this is a heartfelt and highly personal account of the (mainly) pop singers who have impacted the writer's life.
As we are talking about music here, it is always going to be subjective. The picture of Aretha on the cover drew me in but I found the ‘What is Soul’ chapter disappointing in not really nailing the essence of the music. Rock and pop are the author's forte, and he writes well about them. However, the section on jazz had many interesting insights, and a reflection on the psalms unexpected and interesting.
Coleman is a music journalist and it shows. It feels like a series of articles rather than a coherent book. However, he really writes very well. The prose zips along, it is always lively and interesting, and his genuine love of music shines through.
A surprising epilogue adds a new dimension as to just why and how music is so central to the authors life. It puts a new aspect on what we have just read and acts as a great testament to the power of music in our lives.
As we are talking about music here, it is always going to be subjective. The picture of Aretha on the cover drew me in but I found the ‘What is Soul’ chapter disappointing in not really nailing the essence of the music. Rock and pop are the author's forte, and he writes well about them. However, the section on jazz had many interesting insights, and a reflection on the psalms unexpected and interesting.
Coleman is a music journalist and it shows. It feels like a series of articles rather than a coherent book. However, he really writes very well. The prose zips along, it is always lively and interesting, and his genuine love of music shines through.
A surprising epilogue adds a new dimension as to just why and how music is so central to the authors life. It puts a new aspect on what we have just read and acts as a great testament to the power of music in our lives.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews