Does Versatility equal a successful playback..

Does versatility equal a successful playback singer? Yes it might equal a winner of a singing competion, they can sing more things with perfection thus they are a good singer. But does that really mean that they will be sucessful in the music industry. I think not. Here are my reason why, yo

1) ask your self how many "versatile" singers there are in the music industry. How you heard udit narayan singing a sufi song? Have you heard kalish kher do a soft romantic song?

2) Playback is based on a voice thrown, quality and sound, singing on sur is a given. Just because you sing on key that doesnt mean you're right for the song. Udit, Alka and kumar sanu we're the best in the 90s. No one comes close. This has to do with there voice, they had the voice of a hero and heronine and no other singer could compete with that. It suited the movie style then. Sherya, Sunidhi, kk, sonu, shaan they have voice of today. KK especially, he suits ranbir kapoor. a music directior thinks of this when hiring singers.

3) When music directors make songs they have singers on their mind, they have a singer in mind who can sing it. How do the rememer them, their voice. they know what voice suits there song. Just like when a director has a role, he as an actor in mind that can play it, sometimes based on their look. yes this overshadows talent a bit but imagine sunidhi singing some of alka famous songs, it wouldnt work even if sunidhi was in sur and had feel. The same goes the other way around. Sometimes when reality contestants get you sang it better than the original. No they didn't sing it better, there voice just suited it and better and if they had been there at that time they would have gotten the job.


So basically what i'm trying to say is that verstaility and wiining idol isn't going to give you a free ticket, your voice is. Swaroop voice is original, earthy and he can sing his genre amazingly. Meaning if I'm a music director and I'm making a folk type song(new trend) I'm thinking of calling him. Bhoomi has a western style voice, her only problem is that sometimes she's off key, but her voice is like no other. If I'm maikg a western type song( also popular) I'm thinking of her. She can even be the next pop star. Shivam has a very youthful tone to his voice, halke halke showed this off, an asset. Rakesh has old school style, like rafi ji( maybe cuz he sings only old sngs i think this). this is good but those types of songs are found much these days. Sreeram, most versatile, sings amazingly, should be idol, but I'm sorry sonu nigam, kk, mohit, shaan all sing in his genre. So out of all the contestants, I think he will have the most problem followed by rakesh.


So what do you all think?

I do agree to most of the points that you said, the only advantage that a true versatile singer has are firstly he can be more adaptive than others, secondly more often than not he can have a hero's voice. Though in the current competition I think Swaroop can get songs a bit easier than others for the reasons you said above i.e his voice is different and he is very good when the song has Rajesthani folk touch to it, so if any MD want to shoot a folk song he has more chance to get it than others, but people like Sreeram might find it a bit harder to make his mark, but if he is able to, he would be much more popular and would get many more songs as he can be the hero's voice.

Originally posted by: scinerd

Does versatility equal a successful playback singer? Yes it might equal a winner of a singing competion, they can sing more things with perfection thus they are a good singer. But does that really mean that they will be sucessful in the music industry. I think not. Here are my reason why, yo

1) ask your self how many "versatile" singers there are in the music industry. How you heard udit narayan singing a sufi song? Have you heard kalish kher do a soft romantic song?

2) Playback is based on a voice thrown, quality and sound, singing on sur is a given. Just because you sing on key that doesnt mean you're right for the song. Udit, Alka and kumar sanu we're the best in the 90s. No one comes close. This has to do with there voice, they had the voice of a hero and heronine and no other singer could compete with that. It suited the movie style then. Sherya, Sunidhi, kk, sonu, shaan they have voice of today. KK especially, he suits ranbir kapoor. a music directior thinks of this when hiring singers.

3) When music directors make songs they have singers on their mind, they have a singer in mind who can sing it. How do the rememer them, their voice. they know what voice suits there song. Just like when a director has a role, he as an actor in mind that can play it, sometimes based on their look. yes this overshadows talent a bit but imagine sunidhi singing some of alka famous songs, it wouldnt work even if sunidhi was in sur and had feel. The same goes the other way around. Sometimes when reality contestants get you sang it better than the original. No they didn't sing it better, there voice just suited it and better and if they had been there at that time they would have gotten the job.


So basically what i'm trying to say is that verstaility and wiining idol isn't going to give you a free ticket, your voice is. Swaroop voice is original, earthy and he can sing his genre amazingly. Meaning if I'm a music director and I'm making a folk type song(new trend) I'm thinking of calling him. Bhoomi has a western style voice, her only problem is that sometimes she's off key, but her voice is like no other. If I'm maikg a western type song( also popular) I'm thinking of her. She can even be the next pop star. Shivam has a very youthful tone to his voice, halke halke showed this off, an asset. Rakesh has old school style, like rafi ji( maybe cuz he sings only old sngs i think this). this is good but those types of songs are found much these days. Sreeram, most versatile, sings amazingly, should be idol, but I'm sorry sonu nigam, kk, mohit, shaan all sing in his genre. So out of all the contestants, I think he will have the most problem followed by rakesh.


So what do you all think?

I think you are right to a certain extent. I think there are two qualities to being a playback singer.

1) Have an extremely unique voice/singing style. This will create a niche for you and since there won't be much competition in this area you will quickly rise and settle comfortably,

2)The other is to have an extremely malleable voice. Which means that whatever the requirement, whoever the actor is and despite the type of song you can sing that. However,the disadvantage in this case is that this is not a niche market. So yes definitely you have to be much more accomplished to succeed in this genre and it will take a longer time to be recognized


- In Sreeram's case, I am constantly amazed that he sounds exactly like the singer who sang the song be it Kishore Kumar or Rahman or Rafi or Javed Ali. Basically he sounds like every singer who ever sang any song. This kind of malleability is very desirable for a play back singer I think.
Yes, there are others before him like Sonu, Javed Ali etc but I think with this type of voice, the more you have the better it is. Of course, you cannot count out luck and politics from any opportunity in life, but I feel Sreeram belongs to the category of those special singers.

- In Swaroop's case, I agree with you. He will find work in the beginning much easier than the others but there won't be that many songs that he can sing

-In Rakesh's case, his voice is very good, pleasant sounding male voice. But it is neither special nor very malleable. He may get chances to sing an occasional romantic number but he is not going to survive very long. Just my opinion.

-Shivam is where I am a bit confused. He is still young and he needs more polish though he is very versatile and pretty good. But he belongs a little bit in the category of Mohit Chauhan.He has that extra harshness to his voice which makes it appealing for some kind of modern songs. So I cannot say for sure.

-Bhoomi is pretty average, There are a lot of other women who can sing Western songs also much better than her so I wouldn't rate her chances very high.

Of course having said all this, there is 99% probability that none of them will ever make it big and will be long forgotten.

I have said it before. Versatility is not defined by the ability to sing differen genres. There is versatility WiTHIN one's own genre. That's what all singers should strive to achieve IMO.

I completely agree with Sushrutaji

I com*pletely agree with u all....though i do like sreeram,shivam ,rakesh and others voice but i think Naushad'S voice and singing style is much more powerful than Rakesh and shivam etc.

if u mean versatality meaning none of the singers mentioned in the post can be called versatile,but they are successful playback singers in their respective genres.
success aspect is totally different to versatality,
all the points are nicely discussed and explained by sushruthaji.

kishore kumar is one of the most versatile singers i have ever heard, carrying success and fame even after his sad demise.he can give a run to the current and upcoming singers had he been around.any music director would love to have him as the singer for their songs ,as he is not binded to one genre.oh i miss him so much today in every post i tend to mention him.

Agree with you 100%

here is my opinion:

Swaroop = Sufi = Kailash Kher
Bhoomi = Pop = Hard Kaur
Shivam = young Voice = like ???
Rakesh = romantic = Udit Narayan or Kumar Sanu
Shreeram = Versatile = Sonu Nigam

Nobody can say Kailsh or Hard Kaur or udit are bad singers. they all are good at what they sing. even if it is same style. sufi or pop.
so i think Versatility is good but not necessary to success in field of singing.

if you sing good at what your are good at..then success will come to u...and u can be good playback singer...

Originally posted by: sushrutapandey

I think you are right to a certain extent. I think there are two qualities to being a playback singer.

1) Have an extremely unique voice/singing style. This will create a niche for you and since there won't be much competition in this area you will quickly rise and settle comfortably,

2)The other is to have an extremely malleable voice. Which means that whatever the requirement, whoever the actor is and despite the type of song you can sing that. However,the disadvantage in this case is that this is not a niche market. So yes definitely you have to be much more accomplished to succeed in this genre and it will take a longer time to be recognized


- In Sreeram's case, I am constantly amazed that he sounds exactly like the singer who sang the song be it Kishore Kumar or Rahman or Rafi or Javed Ali. Basically he sounds like every singer who ever sang any song. This kind of malleability is very desirable for a play back singer I think.
Yes, there are others before him like Sonu, Javed Ali etc but I think with this type of voice, the more you have the better it is. Of course, you cannot count out luck and politics from any opportunity in life, but I feel Sreeram belongs to the category of those special singers.

- In Swaroop's case, I agree with you. He will find work in the beginning much easier than the others but there won't be that many songs that he can sing

-In Rakesh's case, his voice is very good, pleasant sounding male voice. But it is neither special nor very malleable. He may get chances to sing an occasional romantic number but he is not going to survive very long. Just my opinion.

-Shivam is where I am a bit confused. He is still young and he needs more polish though he is very versatile and pretty good. But he belongs a little bit in the category of Mohit Chauhan.He has that extra harshness to his voice which makes it appealing for some kind of modern songs. So I cannot say for sure.

-Bhoomi is pretty average, There are a lot of other women who can sing Western songs also much better than her so I wouldn't rate her chances very high.

Of course having said all this, there is 99% probability that none of them will ever make it big and will be long forgotten.

Nice analysis by sushrutapandey! Agree 100%.

I would like to add it is undue expectation to find many versatile singers, as a whole. You can see from above analyses, there many singers out there for each Sonu. However, a talent search like II, I like to see at least one singer (either male or female) who is versatile out of thousands of try for auditions.

In II5, I expect all top five doing some playback singing at various levels of volume. I believe Sreeramchandra gets close to be a versatile singer. The next closest is Shivam - but I also have mixed feelings - his young voice is still maturing. I hope to see Rakesh and others playbacking in their genres.