History VocalEvolution / Music

* Music/GeorgeJones has had both evolution and decay. His voice was much higher on early songs such as "White Lightning", and got gradually deeper and warmer over time, even as early as "She Thinks I Still Care" in TheSixties. With his hitmaking days pretty much behind him in TheNineties, his voice became less expressive and more weathered, thanks to both old age (he died at age 81 in 2013) and drug and alcohol abuse at the peak of his career.

* Music/MartinaMcBride started out with an above-average soprano, only belting when the song called for it (most notably on "Independence Day"). Starting with "A Broken Wing", her sound became increasingly pop-oriented, and she began relying more and more on bellowing out melismatic {{Incredibly Long Note}}s that showed off her upper range ''á la'' Music/CelineDion. While she's since reined in the belting a little bit, she did another very odd switch in mid-2011 with a chirpy, thin, almost Music/TaylorSwift-esque delivery on "Teenage Daughters" (her first release for Universal Republic after 19 years at RCA) even though the rest of the corresponding album (''Eleven'') has her singing in her usual style. Concert footage from TheNewTwenties shows that the belting has finally taken its toll on her voice, reverting her to a softer delivery more akin to her early albums.

* Eddy Raven had a more quavering, Music/ElvisPresley-esque delivery on early songs such as "Good News, Bad News" before developing his more relaxed, Cajun-flavored delivery in TheEighties.

* Tiffany, one of the first teen pop icons [[https://youtu.be/w6Q3mHyzn78 back in]] UsefulNotes/TheEighties, [[https://youtu.be/THEPiydBx-U has long since matured]] to a rough, {{Grunge}}-sounding contralto.

* Scott Stapp of Music/{{Creed}} was infamous for his nonstop yarling during the band's heyday. After the band's second breakup, he toned down the yarling and started to use other expressive ways of singing.
* {{Christian|Rock}} PostGrunge band Kutless's lead vocalist Jon Micah Sumrall had a much scratchier, lower voice, and sounded a lot like Scott Stapp from Music/{{Creed}} on the band's debut album. He sounded like Scott to a point where if you were half-asleep, you'd mistake the two (the chorus for 'Tonight' is a good example). On the second album and beyond, his voice was higher and much smoother, probably because he wanted the Creed comparisons to stop.

* 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's developed a bit of a proclivity for using a lot of [[MelismaticVocals melisma]] when he performs live. When his concerts are reviewed, the thing they'll ''always'' question is whether or not he's still up to the task of tackling his older songs.

* Music/MarianneFaithfull stands out as a prime example of this trope. In her famous 1964 rendition of [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Jagger/Richards]]-penned "As Tears Go By" she exhibits her already pretty deep, but gentle and varied contralto voice which bears little resemblance to [[SmokyVoice the alto croak she developed after years of substance abuse]]. Her later re-recording of the song provides a perfect comparison.

* Music/PeterGabriel, like most male singers, saw his voice become deeper, huskier, and somewhat more strained as he got older. Because his studio albums have always had increasingly long gaps between them (his most recent album came out in 2002 and he's ''still'' working on the follow-up), this change is particularly more noticeable than with other artists when one goes through his backlog in chronological order. Compare his voice on ''Music/{{So}}'' to that of his following album, ''Music/{{Us}}'', and the six-year difference is already like night and day.

* Music/BobSeger's voice began to deepen in the mid-1980s due to aging, smoking, and vocal strain. The change is noticeable as early as ''The Fire Inside'' and he deepened even more by ''Face the Promise'' to the point that he is no longer able to do the raspy shouting that he was known for and to compensate, his older songs are pitched lower when performed live these days.

* 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. From "But Seriously" and "We Can't Dance" onward, he changed to a smoother, more easy-listening voice.

* Puberty obviously affected Music/MileyCyrus' singing voice over the years, as her voice became lower, more raspy, and lost a bit of her strong Southern twang. She also seemed to project more around the time of ''Can't Be Tamed''. "We Can't Stop" is certainly very raspy and lower-pitched. She's taking to belting, and even some MelismaticVocals more since ''Can't Be Tamed'', and in particular on ''Bangerz''.
** Fellow ''Series/HannahMontana'' star Creator/EmilyOsment sang with less projection or control and more of a high-pitched voice (granted, she was very young) in the "I Don't Think About It"/"Once Upon A Dream" phase of her career, but gained much more technique and projection by ''All The Right Wrongs''. She still naturally has a high-pitched speaking and singing voice, but it has gotten more mature, deep, and projecting over the years.

* 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.

* Music/{{Metallica}}'s James Hetfield, compare his vocals on ''Kill 'em All'' to ''The Black Album''.

* Chuck Billy of Music/{{Testament}}, his voice in the '80s and early '90s extremely high but in mid-'90s Billy's voice is more deeper and GutturalGrowler.
* Ryan Clark from Music/DemonHunter began 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]].

* Music/MarianneFaithfull stands out as a prime example of this trope. In her famous rendition of [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Jagger/Richards]]-penned "As Tears Go By" she exhibits her already pretty deep, but gentle and varied contralto voice which bears little resemblance to [[SmokyVoice the alto croak she developed after years of substance abuse.]]

* Music/{{Rush}}'s Geddy Lee notably has undergone several. In the early days, his voice was very raw and screamy, and he could hit some ''amazingly'' high notes, his voice was naturally an "astoundingly high" tenor. See the fourth movement of "2112" for proof of how dynamic his voice was in those days. However, around 1978-1979 during the ''Hemispheres'' tour, his voice deepened considerably, and he lost his raw, screaming power (Compare [[https://youtu.be/XHqpmqMDZx0?t=29m22s these]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW-_aUNh39E two]] performances of "2112" for the shift), likely due to over-touring, which led to him singing in a much lower range starting with 1980's ''Permanent Waves''. His voice then shifted to a lower, more "normal" sounding voice starting with 1982's ''Signals''. With 1996's ''Test For Echo'', his voice got a lot thinner and more nasal. Most recently, with 2007's ''Snakes And Arrows'', he started singing with a fuller, less nasal sound again, albeit significantly deeper than before. Naturally, fans are [[BrokenBase split over what era is his best]].

* Music/MarianneFaithfull stands out as a prime example of this trope. In her famous rendition of [[Music/TheRollingStones Jagger/Richards]]-penned "As Tears Go By" she exhibits her already pretty deep, but gentle and varied contralto voice which bears little resemblance to [[SmokyVoice the alto croak she developed after years of substance abuse.]]

* Music/NeilYoung started as a quite conventional '60s folk singer but after a series of small, subtle changes, he had found his own [[PerishingAltRockVoice distinctive]] high tenor voice on 1969's ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere''. Averted since then, his voice famously ''hasn't changed'' at all.

* On Music/BlackSabbath's debut album, Music/OzzyOsbourne's voice is noticeably different; it's harsher and less melodic than later releases. Made particularly noticeable since he's sounded pretty much exactly the same from ''Music/{{Paranoid}}'' to the present day (over forty years).

* [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury's]] voice was youthful and almost ethereal in the early '70s; his voice gradually became heavier, and he started smoking in 1980, which caused his voice to gradually turn huskier. However, when he was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1987, he stopped smoking, and his voice lost a little huskiness and became somewhat angelic again, although still very mature.

** On ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'', Eminem uses a variety of voices for Slim, mostly a sort of passive-aggressive half-whisper-growl (which he uses consistently on ''SHADYXV''). He also goes into parodies of various 80s rap flows and - a couple of times - the original, squeaky ''Slim Shady LP'' voice.

** On ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'', Eminem uses a variety of voices for Slim, mostly a sort of passive-aggressive half-whisper. He also goes into parodies of various 80s rap flows and - briefly - the original, squeaky ''Slim Shady LP'' voice.

* Music/RonnieMilsap's voice aged considerably on his 2019 album ''Duets'', where his renditions of his previous hits show a considerable age-induced weakness compared to his trademark delivery back in TheEighties. What makes this all the more surprising is that even in the early 21st century, as late as 2013's "Summer Number Seventeen", his voice was not significantly different than in the '80s.

** Throughout ''Encore'', Slim starts speaking in a ShiftingVoiceOfInsanity with a variety of accents, including a deeper voice with a slurred, arrogant delivery influenced by the then-popular SouthernRap flow, a sort of carnival-barker-showman voice, {{Crunk}} flows, and an impression of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

** On ''Slim Shady EP'', aside from the initial EnemyWithin-RageAgainstTheReflection skit in which he's a pitched-down demon, Slim speaks in a softish voice tone with a stereotypical Detroit projects accent - fitting the more straightforward GangstaRap tone of the material on the album.

** On ''The Marshall Mathers LP'', Eminem blends the two voice tones he was using together, creating a new voice that is shared by Slim, Eminem, and Marshall. In "Stan", Stan is voiced with a higher-pitched voice that is intended to be reminiscent of Slim; Marshall's reply at the end is in a deeper voice closer to Eminem's own natural voice pitch and accent. The voices he uses on this album remain pretty much his voice palette for ''The Eminem Show'', by which time Slim is so integrated with the other personas that he isn't making appearances as a specific character separate from the real Marshall anymore.
** Throughout ''Encore'', Slim starts speaking in a variety of accents, including a deeper voice with a slurred, arrogant delivery influenced by the then-popular SouthernRap flow, a sort of carnival-barker-showman voice, {{Crunk}} flows, and an impression of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
** Slim returns in the {{Horrorcore}} concept album ''Relapse'', where he now speaks in a [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent peculiar accent]] inspired by dancehall music. Eminem claimed the accent was to [[AccentDepundent allow him to rhyme things that wouldn't rhyme in his normal accent]], but it also makes Slim feel less familiar, suiting his DarkerAndEdgier take on the album.
** On ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'', Eminem uses a variety of voices for Slim, ranging from parodies of various 80s rap flows (particularly Music/BeastieBoys-style shouting) to the original, squeaky ''Slim Shady LP'' voice.

* When she first started doing covers on Website/YouTube in her early teens, Lera Yaskevich's voice was much higher and more nasally, and her singing technique was still rather unrefined. By the time she hit her mid teens, her voice deepened due to the natural aging process, and both her range and singing technique greatly improved. Most notably, this is when her signature vibrato truly started to shine through.