Many voices, one sweet sound

I have noticed a trend in a lot of the music I like: the more vocals, the better.

Most of my favorite bands have more than one lead singer. I've mentioned my love of the band downhere more times than I care to count. They have two lead singers, who happen to be two of the greatest singers I've heard in my life.

I've been a die-hard dcTalk fan for as long as I can remember, and they had three voices going for them (the great Kevin Max being one of them, rounding out my top three favorite male vocalists, Marc and Jason of downhere having the privilege of holding the other two slots).

I've been an Audio Adrenaline fan just about as long as I've been a fan of dcTalk, and while they started out with one lead singer, before all was said and done, Tyler Burkham started sharing the lead responsibility with Mark Stuart. And while I have a lot of sentiment attached to their early music (the days when Mark was the sole lead) and for me sentiment usually wins over everything, I have to say that the stuff they made in their later years gives my sentimental feelings a run for their money. The first time I heard "Leaving 99," which is lead by Tyler, I promptly declared that it was my favorite Audio A song ever. So as great as they were in the beginning, and as much as I love Mark, I think they did improve with the extra vocals.

Family Force 5 is another example, with Soul Glow, Phatty and Crouton trading off. I love those guys. Their music is some of the most unique I've ever heard and I have so much fun listening to them.

Caedmon's Call is another good example. I'm not as familiar with all their music as I would like to be, but I know that they always have a lot of people involved and I love everything I've ever heard from them.

A few more examples are Eisley, Bodies of Water, Newsboys, PFR, Jonas Brothers. And although I don't listen to them as much anymore, I used to listen to ZOEgirl, Avalon and FFH quite a lot.

I'm also a sucker for a good choir. Which is why I'm in a choir. Even if I wasn't singing (which is unlikely to happen), I would still want to go to choir practice and just sit and listen and I'd be content. It's one of the greatest sounds I've heard in my life.

Furthermore, I always get really excited when people in the industry collaborate with each other. Everyone, including me, makes fun of stuff like "We Are the World," but if I'm to be honest, I really get into stuff like that. Makes me want gather everyone in a circle and sing "Friends." Good times.

Also, these guys don't sing, but I really get into Grits. Rap is not typically my favored genre of music, but those guys are some of the few that make me really like it.

There are clear exceptions to this rule. There are plenty of good bands who just have one lead singer. Jars of Clay and Switchfoot have been two of my longtime favorites. I also have to mention The Wedding, Mute Math, Third Day, The Elms, just to name a few. But still the majority of bands that constitue my favorite music, and most certainly my top two favorite, are bands that have multiple vocalists.

This says nothing of solo artists. Some of my most favorite music comes from solo artists, but solo artists, like the term suggests, are solo. That's a whole different story. Bands are not solo, however. They are groups of people making music together on a regular basis, and I think they're generally stronger when more than one person in that group lends their voice to the music.