Nine times out of ten, even in music I like, I ignore them as a mere vehicle for the vocal performance.
... whereas, conversely, I have very little appreciation of vocal performance beyond noting whether it's adequate to the job. People who can't sing in tune, or refuse to, consistently irritate me (and I seem to have an above averagely demanding idea of "in tune" – I've been known to turn my nose up at music that everyone else raves about for this reason); but it's rare (although not entirely unheard of) for me to think someone's singing is particularly good.
("Refuse to sing in tune" annoys me particularly when it's the standard approach within a certain genre. My classic example of this is Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters": I like the song itself, but Metallica's performance of it really annoys me because the voice does a lot of wavering and portamento and, well, posturing when it would be so much more effective to just stay on the note and put the point across directly. As far as I can tell this singing style is fairly common in metal.)
So you don't appreciate the artistry in the vocal performances of, for example, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Sarah Brightman, Freddie Mercury, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Carreras/Domingo/Pavarotti?
If you hear the same piece sung by two different singers, provided they're both in tune you're indifferent to the distinctions between them?
How does this compare with your attitude to instruments? Do you care about the quality of the instrument a piece is played on? What about the quality of the playing?
The quality of a singer matters quite a lot to me.
Most of the names on your list I either haven't heard, haven't knowingly heard, or haven't heard for long enough to form an opinion. Freddie Mercury is the major exception, since it would be hard to have missed Queen.
I think you've exaggerated what I said far beyond what I intended it to mean. It's entirely possible that I appreciate the artistry in the sense that if someone not so good covered a Queen song I might think there was something missing (see "not up to the job"). However, I don't listen to it and have it consciously strike me that a particularly good piece of singing just happened, in the same way that it does strike me when (say) a particularly good bit of tune goes past.
I probably do appreciate instrumental playing more; comes of having tried it fairly seriously myself, I suppose.
I presume you don't mean failing to sing in tune like Saint Etienne...
I think this is similar to my dislike for opera, especially the operatic female voice. They completely wreck the music in the pursuit of enough vocal welly to be heard over a full orchestra.
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... whereas, conversely, I have very little appreciation of vocal performance beyond noting whether it's adequate to the job. People who can't sing in tune, or refuse to, consistently irritate me (and I seem to have an above averagely demanding idea of "in tune" – I've been known to turn my nose up at music that everyone else raves about for this reason); but it's rare (although not entirely unheard of) for me to think someone's singing is particularly good.
("Refuse to sing in tune" annoys me particularly when it's the standard approach within a certain genre. My classic example of this is Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters": I like the song itself, but Metallica's performance of it really annoys me because the voice does a lot of wavering and portamento and, well, posturing when it would be so much more effective to just stay on the note and put the point across directly. As far as I can tell this singing style is fairly common in metal.)
If you hear the same piece sung by two different singers, provided they're both in tune you're indifferent to the distinctions between them?
How does this compare with your attitude to instruments? Do you care about the quality of the instrument a piece is played on? What about the quality of the playing?
The quality of a singer matters quite a lot to me.
I think you've exaggerated what I said far beyond what I intended it to mean. It's entirely possible that I appreciate the artistry in the sense that if someone not so good covered a Queen song I might think there was something missing (see "not up to the job"). However, I don't listen to it and have it consciously strike me that a particularly good piece of singing just happened, in the same way that it does strike me when (say) a particularly good bit of tune goes past.
I probably do appreciate instrumental playing more; comes of having tried it fairly seriously myself, I suppose.
I think this is similar to my dislike for opera, especially the operatic female voice. They completely wreck the music in the pursuit of enough vocal welly to be heard over a full orchestra.