History VocalEvolution / Music

* Tom Delonge of Music/{{blink182}} has a rollercoaster case of this. His voice on blink albums has got slightly higher and more nasal through the years until Neighborhoods came around, having mellowed out to the level he usually sings at with Angels & Airwaves. Ditto for live shows.

* When Music/LeonardCohen started making recordings, his voice was somewhat normally pitched. It was only during the early to mid-1980s that his trademark BassoProfundo voice came into being.

* Music/MeatLoaf began with a soaring, operatic tenor equally suited to soft and hard rock tunes when he sang on the ''Bat Out of Hell'' and ''Dead Ringer'' albums and although he struggled with voice loss and substance abuse issues during the 1980s, it was more or less intact when he recorded ''Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell'' and ''Welcome To the Neighborhood'' in the 1990s. After that, though, his voice deepened noticeably with age and he had developed a bit of a proclivity for using a lot of [[MelismaticVocals melisma]] when he performed live. When his concerts are reviewed, the thing they'll ''always'' question is whether or not he was still up to the task of tackling his older songs.

* For his first few albums, Music/TomWaits' singing voice was low but somewhat soft and mellow, part of his "late-night bar pianist" vibe. He's become more and more of a GutturalGrowler ever since. Try comparing "I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You" to "God's Away On Business".

* Music/KateBush tended to use the upper range of her voice in her earliest recordings but later shifted to a more natural, mid-range voice. Compare the original version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1pMMIe4hb4 "Wuthering Heights"]] to the re-recording used for her greatest hits album [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9O9DyJnyMU "The Whole Story"]]

* Music/{{REM}} frontman Michael Stipe was known in the early '80s for his murky singing voice, which made him notoriously indecipherable when combined with his affinity for WordSaladLyrics. During production of ''Music/LifesRichPageant'', producer Don Gehman got Stipe to start singing more clearly, and the result is that his voice got more articulate and higher-pitched with each successive album; he sounds substantially ''younger'' on 2011's ''Music/CollapseIntoNow'' (released when he was 51) than he did on 1983's ''Music/{{Murmur}}'' (released when he was 23).
* Adam Lazzara of Music/TakingBackSunday has one of the most notable vocal evolutions in emo music, partly also because of the band's musical shift. The first two albums has him mostly shouting in a high, nasal voice with [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable inflections typical of what emo music had back in the day.]] ''Louder Now'' would find Adam deepening his voice (along with adapting a grittier tone to his voice), along with actually singing. Starting with ''New Again'' his voice would become more and more reminiscent of a PerishingAltRockVoice (along with inflections similar to that of a heartland rock band or an eighties singer), to the point where today it seems hard to believe that this is the same guy that sang "Cute Without the E."

* Music/HundredGecs' early works have extremely heavy AutoTune and {{Nightcore}}[=-=]style pitch-shifting on every song, a stylistic choice motivated by Laura Les' voice dysphoria due to being UsefulNotes/{{transgender}}. The ''Snake Eyes'' EP and ''Music/TenThousandGecs'' LP go significantly lighter on the vocal effects, resulting in vocals sounding closer to her natural voice. She's mentioned that this is due to her having taken voice lessons, making her more confident in her own voice.

* Music/{{Pantera}}: Phil Anselmo started out sounding like a cross between [[Music/JudasPriest Rob Halford]] and "Justice"-era [[Music/{{Metallica}} James Hetfield]] (with hints of a Southern accent). Thanks to the effects of heroin addiction and screaming/growling on a regular basis, his voice became deeper and more gravelly throughout the '90s. This is ''especially'' noticeable when comparing his clean singing voice on older ballads like "Cemetery Gates" to his voice on later ones like "Floods".

* Ryan Clark from Music/DemonHunter started out using Music/{{Slipknot}}-esque shouts on their debut album, but, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness after only one album]], switched to an angrier, more nasal, deeper, and more sludgy style of harsh vocals. Compare his screams on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSAmIYZ2Wjk Screams of the Undead]] to his screams on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya9MsR8qrBY Storm the Gates of Hell]].

** Even more jarring: Compare his vocals during the band's live shows in the '80s to those of their live shows during the '90s. Particularly in 1993-1994, his voice ''really'' struggled with the high notes he used to effortlessly sing in the '80s. And his voice, during the '90s, became quite a bit deeper and huskier due to a combination of heavy smoking and many years of constantly screaming off the top of his lungs (which eventually led to his voice blowing out while recording Metallica's infamous cover of "So What" during the Black Album sessions). In fact, his gradual Vocal Evolution is cited as the main reason why Metallica started tuning their guitars down half a step after Woodstock '94.

* Elias Soriano of Music/{{Nonpoint}}'s singing voice seems to get edgier and edgier with every album. Compare his vocals on the album ''Miracle'' to his vocals on ''Development''.

** Conversely, Barry's brother Robin sang in a surprisingly low voice in his 1984 solo hit, "Boys Do Fall in Love". Compare this to the traditional nasal Bee Gees delivery in songs where he sang lead for the band, such as "I Started a Joke".

* "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton, a natural tenor, lowered his singing and speaking voice from the [[https://youtu.be/0m_giioppT4 clear, androgynous falsetto]] that made him famous as a young man to an [[https://youtu.be/C1rxJ-PZYvI increasingly raspy croon]] as part of his efforts in the late '60s and early '70s to reform the boyish image he was aging out of.

* Music/PhilCollins: He used a mellow, Peter Gabriel-like singing voice in his earliest days as Genesis' lead vocalist. From "Duke" to his solo album "No Jacket Required," he used the now-recognizable high, slightly nasal voice; sometimes even utilizing a "shouty" style. From "But Seriously" and "We Can't Dance" onward, he changed to a smoother, more easy-listening voice.

** Brian's brother Dennis Wilson didn't sing on too many Beach Boys songs, but years of hard living had taken their toll on his voice when he released his solo debut ''Pacific Ocean Blue'' in 1979. At that time, he was singing in a deeper, rougher tone than he did in Beach Boys songs such as "Forever" (1970) and "Never Learn Not to Love" (1968). Clips of Dennis singing circa 1983, just months before his drowning death, are especially sad to watch, as his voice - speaking and singing - had been reduced to an old man's croak, again due to his penchant for drink, drugs, and cigarettes.
* Music/CoheedAndCambria: Claudio Sanchez's vocals sound much higher pitched in the first album (and some of the second) compared to what comes later on.

* Adam Lazzara of Music/TakingBackSunday has one of the most notable vocal evolutions in emo music, partly also because of the change in the band's musical shift. The first two albums has him mostly shouting in a high, nasal voice with [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable inflections typical of what emo music had back in the day.]] Louder Now would find Adam deepening his voice (along with adapting a grittier tone to his voice), along with actually singing. Starting with New Again his voice would become more and more reminiscent of a PerishingAltRockVoice (along with inflections similar to that of a heartland rock band or an eighties singer), to the point where today it seems hard to believe that this is the same guy that sang "Cute Without the E."