An interesting article yesterday in the Telegraph by Ed Power, charting the (alleged) changes in how lead singers see their role.
It's behind a paywall, but the relevant sections are below:
It’s hard to understate how seismic a shift this represents. In the alternative milieu where Wolf Alice and Black Country, New Road operate, the cult of the front person has long reigned unchallenged. Mention The Smiths and nobody thinks of Johnny Marr’s dexterous riffs. They think of Morrissey on Top of the Pops waving shrubbery over his head...
That’s because Stipe’s duties went beyond merely singing. As with Morrissey and other great frontmen and women, the job, above all, was to be an embodiment of the band. The music, rightly or wrongly, was seen as an extension of their personality. Its angst was their angst, its euphoria theirs.
It's behind a paywall, but the relevant sections are below:
It’s hard to understate how seismic a shift this represents. In the alternative milieu where Wolf Alice and Black Country, New Road operate, the cult of the front person has long reigned unchallenged. Mention The Smiths and nobody thinks of Johnny Marr’s dexterous riffs. They think of Morrissey on Top of the Pops waving shrubbery over his head...
That’s because Stipe’s duties went beyond merely singing. As with Morrissey and other great frontmen and women, the job, above all, was to be an embodiment of the band. The music, rightly or wrongly, was seen as an extension of their personality. Its angst was their angst, its euphoria theirs.