Pop Singing vs. Rock Singing – What’s The Difference?

I see a lot of comparisons made between Rock singing, Pop singing, Country singing, Jazz singing and so on.

Let me cast a vision or paint a picture for you to see this more clearly.

It is not clear thinking to compartmentalize different styles of singing as though they are alien to each other.

They are all related to “the voice”.

Well that voice is an instrument.

So I’d like to discuss this by looking at a different instrument.

Let’s talk guitar.

If you get really really good at playing guitar, you can play your guitar in many styles. Rock, country, pop, jazz, and the list goes on.
Yes of course playing rock guitar is more aggressive than playing pop or jazz guitar but as you get proficient at guitar you can learn how to play in any style.

The more you work at it and the more you understand the nuances of how to play in different styles the better you get at it.

Now let’s look at the voice.

Good technique is good technique period.

Yes of course if someone has rock tendencies it becomes more difficult for them to sing with pop sensibilities because their mind is geared more towards singing aggressively. However if they learned to sing in different styles and understood the mechanics of how to do it, great technique will provide this roadmap for them.

If I train an athlete to be fast, strong, agile, adaptive, no matter what sport I put that athlete in, it could be soccer, it could be basketball, it could be football, that athlete will excel as they have trained all aspects of their body to accommodate any given sport. Yes of course sports emphasize different parts of the body but if that athlete can adapt to that because if they’re athletic training, they will excel indeed.

And so it is with the voice.

If you train the voice to be strong, agile, adaptive, powerful, sensitive, and so on, no matter what style you put that singer in they can excel in that style.

So going back to the initial question, pop versus rock singing what’s the difference?

A person that has been trained correctly to sing Rock can come back and sing Pop if they understand how to be more sensitive and less aggressive. However it would be very difficult for a person that only trained Pop to sing Rock because they have not developed the strength, stamina and power of a great Rock singer.

Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy – Where The PROOF Is In The Singing!