Following Guitar Week, Drum Week, and Bass Week, we’ve finally made it to those microphone-wielding folks in the front. Consequence’s Vocalist Week continues with the full results from our artist survey, where vocalists of all sorts told us who they thought were the best of the best. Check out everyone’s picks for their favorite vocalists below, and see how it helped us form our list of the 100 Greatest Vocalists of All Time.
Like guitars or pianos, synthesizers or drums, the human voice is an instrument, and a damn powerful one at that. Since as long as we’ve been making music, we’ve hummed, sung, and belted out our emotions, whether we were setting poetry to a melody or just making noises with the wet muscles in our throats. It’s a storied tradition, one that’s gloriously blossomed into the past few centuries of popular music. With Vocalist Week, we looked to celebrate those who contributed to that history.
But we couldn’t do it alone. Ranking the 100 Greatest Vocalists of All Time is a daunting challenge. Even at 100 entries, the amount of names thrown out as worthy of consideration was many times the limits of the list. So, we reached out to vocalists of all kinds, both to source a pool of nominations and to provide direction when it came to the impossible task of putting these iconic singers in some sort of order.
Luckily, we received over 50 responses. Many thanks to all of the artists who contributed! Each vocalist provided up to five picks, each with an explanation of why that singer was worthy of their selection. Some ranked their choices, others stayed away from putting their favorites in any particular order. All, though, had their own unique perspective.
Parsing through the responses, it became clear that naming one’s favorite vocalists seemed to be even more personalized than doing the same for bassists, drummers, or guitarists. Several singers would top one respondent’s list, only to never make another appearance for dozens of following responses. Still, trends emerged, with Freddie Mercury reigning supreme with the most mentions. You might be able to figure out where he landed on our ranking (and, now, the reasoning behind it).
Check out all of the responses below, including picks from artists like Mike Patton, Rebecca Black, Billy Idol, Linda Perry, Train, Sublime, Blondshell, and more. You can also watch Violet Grohl, Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe, Myles Kennedy, and Alissa White-Gluz explain their choices.
