I am so bored I have a new theory about songs. More specifically, pop songs.
More often than not, I chance upon great English oldies and I fall in love with them for no particular reason. It's just such a wonderful combination of music and lyrics, along with the unique voice of the singer that makes the whole song stand out.
And when I come across such a heart-stopping song, I go online, find the MP3, and the lyrics and soak in the wonderful-ness of it all for awhile. And occasionally listen to it when I'm in the mood or something.
But one fine day, I accidentally, or sometimes intentionally, stumble upon the video of the actual artiste singing the song. And mind you, since these songs I like are mostly oldies, when we actually see them in person or on screen, I actually feel stunned when they don't exactly match my mental image of them previously.
For example, Air Supply is my favourite band. I've never seen their faces before this February, until I got tickets to their concert and researched on them. And trust me, seeing these 2 50-60 years old men on stage was really really mind-blowing.
And despite the sort of disappointment I felt, I also felt it was amazing how it was possible to watch a side of them that I've never seen before, and yet they sound exactly the same as on CD..
It kinda balanced out the shock before, so I guess you could say it's a good and bad surprise...
And with that being the only live example, others are videos I've seen on Youtube.. Like Simply Red.. I always knew that they were a band, and they have a very high voice.. Until just now I just saw the video and it's like.. Hmmm.. Not much to say.
Another one is Bryan Adams. His voice is just so distinctive that I can easily pick out his voice if you played me 10 different songs and asked me to identify him. Yet I don't quite know what he looks like, or any other background (except he's Canadian and rather old-ish)..
I think the most shocking one was Rod Stewart. I found his voice really irritating for quite a long time, and then one day I saw his face and found out he was nearly 60 years old! And somehow that made me like him more, even though he sounds (and looks) more irritating than ever.
So my theory is, what you hear is what you see. But depending on either, it can have very positive or negative effects on the ways you actually end up feeling about the song. Don't judge a song by the voice of the singer, nor by the looks of the singer. Just enjoy the song for what it is. The face of the singer may adversely affect your future impressions of the song.
