After hearing all the nice comments about Frank Sinatra lately, I wonder if any young performers will take them to heart and do something about improving modern musical entertainment.
Mr. Sinatra was praised for his ability to give real meaning to lyrics by his enunciation and phrasing, and with pleasing melodies. Today’s singers seem to find it necessary to almost stick the microphones into their mouths while performing. We can neither understand the lyrics nor can we even read their lips. Most of them sound as though they came from south of the Mason-Dixon line–even if they haven’t. Natural Southern drawls are beautiful to listen to, but when a non-Southerner sings “ah” instead of “I” and “mah” instead of “my,” and so on, it sounds ridiculous.
During the Sinatra era, singers looked pretty and handsome when they sang. Today they screw up their faces to where they really look ugly. I wish performers would rehearse in front of a mirror and learn how to have pleasant faces and yet sing lyrics with emotion.
Perhaps part of the problem, too, lies with the songwriters. Repeating two lines over and over is not my idea of a good song. Come on, writers, write some pretty words with pretty tunes, and just maybe the performers will again sing pretty and look good too.
