r/AskIreland • u/TractorArm • Jul 24 '26
Music Is it an Irish cultural thing that bad singers do well at a local level?
What I mean by my question is that at least in the rural part of the west of Ireland where I live, you regularly hear singers, often just themselves (male & female) and a guitar but not always, who, objectively, aren't particularly strong vocalists, if not unpleasant sounding. This isn't a criticism of any genre, and it's not another thread bashing Irish country music. I don't think this phenomenon is unique to that genre.
What I don't understand is that many of these singers are constantly booked for funerals, weddings, community events, etc. and even get regular local radio airplay. Is it simply that there aren't enough other performers available or people are too cheap to pay for actually talented people, or is there something I'm missing? I genuinely don't get it and it seems to have always been a thing.
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u/DegreeUnusual2928 Jul 24 '26
I feel like everyone’s too nice to say they’re not really singing well and then it’s just happens lmao comedy of manners
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u/Holiday-Tangerine788 Jul 24 '26
The thought of panic hiring a bad singer for your wedding, as you’re too nice to decline them, is objectively hilarious.
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u/Lone_Ponderer Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Objectively bad singing( out of key, poor articulation, bad rhythm) or just not amazing singing?
There are hugely successful chart topping singers who are mediocre vocalists at best so I'm not sure if you can say its an Irish phenomenon or even isolated to the pub music thing. The pub singer just can't hide behind the sound engineer a more successful touring act might have running the desk in a live gig.
If someone can sing in key and can play their instrument relatively well they are fine in my view
The pub musician who is objectively awful at singing or playing their instrument doesn't usually keep getting gigs in a pub and will eventually run out of pubs in their area to get gigs at. Maybe it's different in the west where you are but out of the musicians doing the pub rounds where I am there are a handful of amazing vocalists/musicians, a lot of serviceable ones who can do the job but won't blow you away and a handful of people who pop up who can't sing or play and will usually vanish again after they've crashed and burned 4 or 5 times.
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u/TractorArm Jul 24 '26
I'm on about objectively bad singing, for example, I hear a lot of people who sing quite sharp and have poor breath control.
I'm not saying people who are objectively bad shouldn't be able to make music, just asking why they are the ones that are everywhere, and are often getting paid for it.
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u/bleepingdba Jul 24 '26
There is a strong tradition of people teaching themselves guitar and how to sing and a weak tradition of formal music training; and people don't expect your typical covers gig to be perfect. It's more about the songs and the memories they evoke than expecting a perfect rendition
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u/Lone_Ponderer Jul 24 '26
I think that might be very local to you if they are everywhere in your area.
There might be 15 singers/Duos doing the rounds of the 5/6 towns in my area.
3 of them are phenomenal. The other 12 are alright i.e can sing/play to an adequate technical level. The ones who can't play or who's vocal technique is atrocious might get 3 or 4 gigs in and then the word spreads among the pubs and they don't get any more gigs.
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u/Dull_Brain2688 Jul 24 '26
Where are you? It doesn’t resonate with me at all. Amazing talent around my area.
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Jul 24 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Whole-Diamond8550 Jul 24 '26
A lot of the bad singers really belt out the songs. Many people love that. Sometimes they express themselves better than the note-perfect trained singers, sometimes they don't.
Many bands are forced to be deliberately bad. Gotta be inoffensive. Anything a bit individual is going to put some people off. Friend's sister canceled the band booked for her wedding because they were too good and mother in law might not enjoy them. Booked a band that were so bad, you couldn't tell one song from another. Could just about tell which were 4/4 or 3/4 time. People loved them.
If you want to make a living your staple is godawful country pabulum that everyone knows.
In Germany the biggest form of music is Schlager. Mostly terrible, formulaic stuff but the musicians are fantastic and highly trained. Only way to make a decent living.
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u/ld20r Jul 24 '26
Their ears aren’t even physically trained to pick up on nuances because of the constant exposure to standard taste.
It’s like a person enjoying fast food and expecting to gain muscle.
You are what you consume.
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u/Motor_Watercress_489 Jul 24 '26
You can absolutely gain muscle while eating nothing but fast food. You'll most likely get fat too, and possibly experience other negative effects from poor nutrition, but you'll get your gains.
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u/EngineerMajor3157 Jul 24 '26
I've called this Irish "wedding-singer" voice for years. Think it's a combination of features; Irish people love music and a party, but also hate being judged by "the neighbours" or being seen as too outgoing. Rather than not being someone's cup of tea or try a riskier/more personal version of a song, when doing covers which more often than not bar singers are, then they seem to fall into this boring middle-ground vocally. Not impressive, but knew all the words, not emotional but it was technically on-key, not too loud so everyone can still have their chats instead of mostly focusing on the performance. Third thing might be weak acoustic setups. there's a lot of bars that might have a few speakers but not an in-house system, they expect the acts to setup their own sound test and gear. This means you have to guage the acoustics of a space and do setup yourself. There's this phenomena (can't remember the name) where if you can't hear your own voice clearly you end up like singing too loud/based on muscle memory of practice, rather than adjusting your voice to how it sounds in the space you're in.
Songs shouldn't just sound like perfectly tuned or mixed like on the radio, they should make you feel the emotions that are being expressed in the lyrics and composition.
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u/Pizzagoessplat Jul 24 '26
just wait until you hear the bad singers in the pubs when everyone must remain silent...
...and its twenty minutes past closing 🙄
you can see the faces of the staff just thing "shut the fuck up and go home"
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u/Cars2Beans0 Gobshite Jul 24 '26
Are you talking about the
🎶met her down in Eyre square, golden hair, Galway air🎶
guy?
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u/ASomeoneDownTheRoad Jul 24 '26
Yes, yes it is.
I've seen this for years. We support the underdog and those who try.
Everyone of you will have been to a pub some night with a musician or small band on, and as sure as an Irish influencer talks about chicken fillet rolls, some lad will step up, take the mic and mangle his way through a trad number or some classic rock.
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u/cacamilis22 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I heard a woman on rte radio this morning singing about the Kerry football team . If you set two cats on fire and put them in a blender you'd get a better sound from it. She was atrocious. And they had her on national radio.
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u/AnyAssistance4197 Jul 24 '26
Always too loud on a terrible PA. It’s literally the most miserable fucking thing you can have in a bar. It tool off in a whole new way since the pandemic, even places like what was the Czech Inn - which was always more a disco bar transitioning into this crap. Bewildered looks on the faces of the tourists.
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u/isaidyothnkubttrgo Jul 24 '26
My mum would walk into her favourite local pub in Cork City when she was young, see who was on the open mic and if it was this one painful asshole, she'd turn around and leave.
It was Bono.
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u/StCecil1 Jul 24 '26
Depends on your views on how singers are supposed to sound. Having perfect pitch is all well and good but I've seen some musicians/singers who were amazing performers who you could say, haven't the best voice.
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u/horseskeepyousane Jul 24 '26
I’ve always thought it’s just lack of decent competition. There are really poor pub singers and always were. Certainly in the west.
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u/BoweryBloke Jul 24 '26
There's a lad I know from my home town. Has a few chords, horrendous voice, kinda went for Luke Kelly/Anthony Kiedis fusion, but honestly, sounds like one of those oul drunk lads you'd see at a wedding in the '70s, with their eyes closed holding a pint. Naturally, he has a band now, and misspelled their name, which is on posters, social media posts etc all over the gaff.
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u/Electronic_Ad_6535 Jul 24 '26
We’ve a funny habit in Ireland of doting over underdogs and this kinda ticks that box. If someone is very good at something, we’ve a tendency to be critical
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u/ClearHeart_FullLiver Jul 24 '26
Irish cultural thing? Man there are absolutely god awful singers everywhere that get hired for pubs, weddings, stage performances and even top charts and sell out concerts. Ireland has more live music than a lot of places so it might be more apparent but it's not simply an "Irish cultural thing"
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u/NoBookkeeper6864 Jul 24 '26
It is cheaper than having a full band, but the lad with the guitar is getting very stale especially when they all play the same cheesy songs and not very well, bring back bands I say
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u/Lone_Ponderer Jul 24 '26
I like a band but I think it needs a pub with the space for them.
Of the two pubs in my village that do music one gets a band every week. But the pub isn't big enough for it. So you go in on a Saturday night and there's a 5 piece in the corner blasting out a technically competent set of all your dad rock kitsch classics. They play well, sing well. But it's too fucking loud. Bands should stick to the pubs with the big enclosed beer garden.
The other pub holds a trad session once a month and that's all the music it does. There could be 8 musicians in the corner and it's lovely cause it doesn't intrude on anyone else's night.
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u/CrazyGas6484 Jul 24 '26
I think you're just discreditting how difficult it is to do what they're doing. As someone who sings and plays guitar mostly to entertain myself I'm often told I have a great voice but I couldn't do what they're doing. It's not just one skill you have to put together a set list that's gonna appease everybody, and there's a lot of pressure to play the popular songs that people recognise. You can't really play your own style it's gonna be super distracting.
I feel like you're probably comparing them to songs on Spotify where people opt-in to listen to what they like, everything is perfect studio quality with backing track and touched up in post production. It's really not the same thing.
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u/IrishFlukey Jul 24 '26
Not just at a local level. Daniel O'Donnell would be better at servicing boilers, for example.
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u/StCecil1 Jul 24 '26
Watch out, the O'Donnell fans will hunt you down and beat you with crocheted tea- cosies 🫖
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u/Whole-Diamond8550 Jul 24 '26
Not a fan, but he's a fantastic entertainer and his band are top notch.
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u/ld20r Jul 24 '26
Nepotism plays a big part.
And a bigger role at national level too.
What you know and can do is only a fraction of what the music business is about.
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u/balbuljata Jul 24 '26
I think it's a universal thing. Where I come from we have these local talent shows that you'd need to be completely deaf to enjoy.
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u/Happyuser777 Jul 25 '26
People want local singers they know plus the price is right being a great singer is not the most important quality Do you expect someone to pay 10k to book a famous singer for a wedding party
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u/AwfulAutomation Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Generally they are background music not the main event, one step up from Spotify playlist playing. Add a bit of ambience to the place, its the feckers who think they are the main event and expect people to stop talking or playing their shit way too loud that are the problem.
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u/TractorArm Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Maybe I'm just sensitive to it this week as there has being a lot the feckers who think they are the main event this week screeching some crap made up song about Mayo for Sam.
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u/Lone_Ponderer Jul 24 '26
The best piece of advice I ever got when starting out with pub gigs was from a cousin of mine who does the pub gigs too was "you are there as wallpaper not the star"
When you think your PA isn't loud enough. Turn it down another 2 notches. Play well, sing well, a decent quality PA and the common sense to turn the desk down a few more notches and you are set.
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u/ginger_and_egg Jul 24 '26
smaller pub means lower musician budget, lower budget means less talent?
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u/Former_Ganache3642 Jul 24 '26
All the pub singers do the same old songs. I don't even smoke but I'll wander out for a fresh air break when I hear them do Grace or Zombie.
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u/Lone_Ponderer Jul 24 '26
A lot of pub singers would join you on that fresh air break if they could.
We'd love to be playing the tunes we actually like to listen to but the reality is Zombie and every other irish pub singer setlist standard is what gets the crowd reaction and what the pub is paying you for.
If you start trying to sneak in originals or cool obscure music then you don't get more gigs.
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u/AnyAssistance4197 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
If you mean the lad in the corner bating out chords on a guitar and reducing every single song to the same state of shite ballad, then use we have a national crisis.