Vocal Groups
You may ask, isn’t any group that sings a “Vocal Group”? As with many musical questions the answer is not that straight forward. But think of the ‘Backstreet Boys‘. My understanding of the difference is that a “Vocal Group” primarily consists of a front of at least three singers (three part harmony) with a back-up band. While researching I ran across this website The Vocal Group Hall of Fame (VGHF) by the names it mentions it also allows for two part harmony or Duo’s, though I can’t find an actual definition on the website. However to me this site seems contradictory in that the typically guitar playing Everly Brothers seems to fit for them. I will use this website as a bit of foil for this post. Aside from the VGHF view, in my definition it would be very uncommon among these groups for one or more of them to play a musical instrument (not that they can’t) as part of their performance. Therefore disqualifying the commonly guitar playing Everly Brothers. On the other hand, the VGHF initial inductees for the most part reflect this singing only criteria. But again in the ‘Hall of Fame’, I’ve found many more exceptions to this such as the ‘Bee Gees’, Robin was the only ‘vocalist’ while Maurice Gibb quite often played the keyboards among many other instruments during performances (and when recording) and Barry played guitar. Read More »