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Guest blogger Ian Gillespie: Bob Dylan vs. Mariah Carey

By Michael Barnes | Friday, November 7, 2008, 09:30 AM

Some readers have wondered who our guest bloggers have been this week. Students in the St. Edward’s University Entertainment Journalism class. The same group contributed the House of Torment fragments.

Today, Ian Gillespie pits two very different musicians against each other in What’d I Say.

Crazy question out of the blue: Who’s a better singer? Bob Dylan or Mariah Carey? Now the answer may seem obvious to you, but please think to yourselves, what makes a great singer? It’s not just about who can hit a high C, what truly makes a great singer is his or her ability to make the listener feel exactly what the song is trying to portray. To give the song character, a life of its own.

Now if I had to pick anybody in the world to hit a high C, it would be Mariah. On top of that she earned 18 No. 1 singles, the most for a solo artist in the U.S.; she also tucks five Grammys under her belt. But despite all of her success and talent, Mariah is not necessarily who I want standing behind the microphone. Now I admit, I have listened to her music sparingly, but when I have heard it I only hear a voice. She sounds like a producer told her to sing this way. No edge, no real distinctiveness.

Now seminal songwriter Dylan certainly can’t hit the high C, and according to some, his Achilles Heel as an all-round artist is his voice. And maybe I’m biased, being somewhat of a Dylan worshiper. But I think few can bring what Dylan brings to the microphone. Whether he his howling “HOW DOES IT FEEL!!!” in “Like A Rolling Stone,” or preaching in “Gotta Serve Somebody,” or reflecting in “One Too Many Mornings,” Dylan forces the listener to feel love, hate, hope, disappointment, and everything else that one experiences in life.

Now I don’t mean to put Mariah down, she could do things with her voice that seem impossible. But I’ll take Dylan every day of the week.

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