I am going to go to my personal experience on this. Most would be newer.
We have many great historic female vocalists able ASR commenters have mentioned. ASR is a great platform for discovering new music!
To me (and many) the story, and the emotional resonance in a time, forms the mold.
I started sound in high school. I don't think we produced many vocal stars in high school. But I did audio in high school on the television broadcast of the play The Death of Bessie Smith. The play is somewhat fictionalized but tragic. I think we used This Bitter Earth by Dinah Washington.
So that imprinted on me.
Later I recorded and heard many vocalists in the music school. We recorded one sister pair. Those are always special. I recorded Renée Fleming's Fulbright (tape) audition. The audition couldn't be spliced, so I had to ask for a retake because I heard an electronic glitch. She was awarded the Fulbright. What I learned from that is the psychological determinant of singing. If you are playing an instrument, you can always blame a performance not up to your expectation on the instrument. Performers have high expectations and are extremely critical. Vocalists have no instrument to blame. That is the artist dynamic.
Another thing is the audience dynamic of known stage fright. One example was a show of Chan Marshall - Cat Power I saw which worked out. She did not cancel the show or flee mid-set.
I listen for unusal nasal resonance in singers.
An example would be UK Beth Orton. I think her peak was about 2000. Her nasal voice and singing is in
I slightly know singer Laura Veirs. She is a fluent Chinese speaker geologist mom. She is known for quirky lyrics.
Laura Gibson is another unusual high voice with nasal resonance I have met at house parties. This one is a KEXP studio performance. KEXP studio is a great resource for clean live recordings.
An unusual talking lyrics is perfomer Florence Shaw of UK band Dry Cleaning. She has an alto talking style. She is famous for a song about Meghan Markle. I discovered the band by an online UK music festival in Covid. The NPR Tiny Music recordings area great resource for discovering new music.
I keep an eye on new talent. New last 3 year finds I have seen live:
Caroline Shaw (b 1982) is a vocalist and modern composer. I met her and chatted for a show and she is a fine person unfolding her career.
Elise Turouw is a young drummer, multi-instrumentalist, singer with a strong jazz background. We want the next generation to succeed and not be exploited or crash. She has good voice control. Her songwriting is early 20s yet to mature. Her recordists process her voice. Much more on her channels and socials.
ASR is the perfect sensor for new voice musicians!
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