Cyndi Lauper

She was trying to be like Madonna

She was probably high up to the gill.

She wasn’t being Madonna. I think it’s funny that of the 80’s girls she’s the one that explored genres of music & is making crazy bank from writing the musical Kinky Boots. I also respect her because she spoke up & out about Aids when no one else was & now about homeless gay children.

"Explored genres of music." What veteran hasn't?

Madonna. Janet. Mariah. R4

Re: high-pitched voice/normal, lower voice, I remember reading that Michael Jackson’s helium voice was an affectation itself, and when he was at home or in private, he spoke in a natural, much lower register. Is that true? Seems like there’d be a recording of it that would’ve leaked by now?

He spoke lower, but not like Barry White.

Jackson’s high-pitches voice was a ploy to attract children to molest.

A Try-Hard. A Poseur.

In spite of their tasteless (yet absolutely true) signature, r7 has it exactly right, r6. He had trouble maintaining the affectation the older he got as well; the "This Is It" press launch saw him sound as close to his at-home voice as I've ever heard.

She was playing a character as Lady Gaga did when she was making a name for herself. Lauper dressed and acted like a human Muppet, and her image was the airheaded party girl. She even got into professional wrestling, which is performance art. I’m sure it was all part of the overall package the record label assigned to her—“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and all.

Tori Amos has spent her career mortified that she went along with Atlantic Records’s insistence on styling her as a pirate wench x 1980s Kate Bush for her first album. She was a piano prodigy as a child, and then reduced to being a pirate-themed bimbo to get a major record deal in the 80s.

R6 MJ started to speak in his natural voice near the end...maybe it was the drugs:

Women know that women are better received when they act sweet and girlish, including bashful banners and high-pitched voices. It’s one of the reasons women get sick of being pressured to fit within expectations of women—from consciously altered voices to high heels to constricting undergarments to glued-on fake eyelashes, it takes a hell of a lot of time and attention to present oneself in such a way, and it’s distracting from everything important. I think it’s why a lot of younger women are forgoing gender norms. Some women have voices like Marilyn Monroe naturally—but even Marilyn Monroe did not have Marilyn Monroe’s voice naturally, and she had to practice until it was second nature.

It reminds me of other fake ways of talking or presenting yourself as someone different to get attention.

R11 nails it - she was play-acting Olive Oyl from Queens; it was obviously put-on shtick and part of her goofy-fun image.

I remember when Dr. Drew was raked over the coals for stating that he could identify women who were sexual abused as minors because they affect the little girl voice, while it’s harder to detect this tic in men because of the vocal chord thickening that happens in puberty.

Apparently Drew was right most of the time and used vocal pitch/inflection to diagnose trauma that female callers were reluctant to reveal on his radio show. And yes - Lauper is in this category.

Despite any and all theatrics, this woman is a really, really gifted singer and it’s kind of a shame that she was stuck in the 80s, when pop music was so highly produced that voices got lost. You wouldn’t have known listening to her 80s recordings that Cyndi is such a powerhouse live singer. And she still is so many decades later.

She was too weird and gimmicky for long-term success as a relevant pop artist. Her schtick wore thin relatively fast.

She’s trapped by the gimmicky schtick she never needed in the first place

[quote]"Explored genres of music." What veteran hasn't?

[quote]Madonna. Janet. Mariah.

I don't even like any of them but to say none of them explored different genres of music isn't accurate.

Madonna: Dance, Pop, R&B, Electronica, Latin, Swing/Jazz.

Janet: R&B, Pop, Rock, Funk

Mariah: R&B, Pop, Gospel, Hip Hop, Soul

I'm sure there are others they've each covered.

Plans are made here, games are played here / I could write me a book / Each night astounds you / Rumours are abuzzing / Stories by the dozen / Look around you, cousin / At the news were making here

R19 she’s not trapped. It’s close to 40 years since her radio prime & bitch has millions from kinky boots.

She sabotaged her career by getting involved with the hokey wrestling stuff. Absolutely killed her credibility.

^Goonie.

Her memoir is fascinating. I think she may be on some kind of spectrum. She's an artist that marches to her own drumbeat, even when it's off-key. I think she really is unusual but that aspect got really played up for press. She was left relatively alone by her label, Portrait, until the album was a smash, and then every cook go into the kitchen. By 1989 the team that championed her at Sony was long gone. She played the A Night To Remember (I Drove All Night) USA tour dates in clubs really to warm up for the arenas she could still play in South America and Asia.

Her 1993 album Hat Full of Start is her best.

She is still relevant because of her work ethic and her talent. She really can sing and is an enigmatic live performer. The mid 90s to early 2000s were slim pickings for her - but she played a lot of charity events, small clubs. She put her ego aside - not so easy to do - and kept working and working. If you perform and have talent, you can come around again. I think she has every major award except for the Oscar.

I saw her walking in NYC twice with her husband. Once I didn't even recognize her because she was incognito - scarf over her hair, big sunglasses. Her husband is massively tall and very recognizable. Her voice was in a lower register. It had a New York accent but in real life it ot as pronounced and squeaky. As others noted, many celebs add a persona onto their personality.

A drumbeat can't be off key, dear.

"She's So Unusual" is one of the semenal albums of the 80s.

In all fairness, r20, those genres have really morphed into one marbled hybrid of sterile commercialism by this point, and it's been that way for some time now. Madonna, Mariah & Janet have little diversity, other than updates in their sounds as dictated by the times, in their catalogues. That's not a critique of the quality of their output, but to call their music diverse or to suggest that it offers variety is quite a stretch. Each one of those ladies has been nothing if not consistent with the type of music they release. Again, not suggesting their music is good or bad. Madonna's foray into "swing", as a specific character, is perhaps the slightest exception in all three of these ladies' albums.

Cyndi has released albums of typical pop, country, acoustic, club, American songbook--all with any number of influences within themselves.

And Cyndi's exploration of those genres has nothing to do with commercialism and everything to do with artistic endeavor? Hardly. Every singer and their Grandma records a standards album when they run out of ideas (and most of their fanbase). "Acoustic" in the present day is a playlist tool but in the past has been a way of reclaiming songs through re-recording while sidestepping criticism about cheap/inferior soundalikes. It's also disingenuous to throw "club" out there, when every '80s and '90s artist explored "club" sounds, usually via 12" remix.

R 29, your reply is just defensive. Lauper's The Acoustic Body is an album that stands on it's own. None of the covers on that album sound anything like her original renditions. No one could be duped by "cheap/inferior soundalikes", as every song is a fresh interpretation of Lauper's first take.

[Quote] None of the covers on that album sound anything like her original renditions. No one could be duped by "cheap/inferior soundalikes", as every song is a fresh interpretation of Lauper's first take.

Indeed. And that was the rationale behind it, as I mentioned.

[quote]Cyndi has released albums of typical pop, country, acoustic, club, American songbook--all with any number of influences within themselves.

And 99% of the public stopped giving a shit after her second album. She had/has a few good songs, but JFC her nasal voice sounds exactly the same on everything she's ever done.

Disagree. It may be that way now but it certainly wasn't that way when they released some.of that catalog.

She fucking ripped me off!

Is she family?

R32 her voice sounds the same on every song? Listen to "At Last" and then "Money Changes Everything" and then "True Colors" - her voice sounds dynamically different and is interpreted differently.

I wish my career could have been as good post-True colors. World tours, awards, Emmy win, Tony win, worldwide success with Kinky Boots.

Your life must be amazing!

Her voice sounds the same on every song. Her speaking voice in bone-gratingly irritating.

R35

No. but Cyndi Lauper has done huge amounts for young homeless (and often POC) trans and gays .

While overall gay community at large (especially white middle class to power demographic) couldn't care less or even a damn; CL has put her money and time and effort into this work.

More:

She is a class act. I've met her on several occasions and she is always kind and gracious. She's So Unusual was one of the most popular albums in the 80's and she has grown from the young have fun girl to a well respected Broadway Producer and long-standing LGBTQ advocate. Cardi B thinks she has shocked society with her Wet A$$ P8zzy (WAP) but Cyndi was talking about women masturbating in She Bop nearly 40 years ago!