Vocal Tag Team: Difference between revisions

Pretty much [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]], a '''Vocal Tag Team''' is a band/musical act which features two (or more) lead singers, rather than the more typical singular vocalist.<ref>although, as illustrated by the example list below, it's much more common than you might expect</ref>. The singers may trade off vocals on a song-by-song or even a verse-by-verse basis, or they may just harmonize constantly. Particularly common, if not ubiquitous, in musical duos and vocal groups. If more than one member of a band is a songwriter, the band member who wrote the song is usually the one who sings lead on it.

For a former backing singer (or a non-singing instrumentalist) suddenly getting lead vocal chores, see [[Step Up to Thethe Microphone]]. Compare [[SopranoandSoprano and Gravel]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

* [[The B 52s (Music)-52's|The B 52s]] (Fred Schneider, Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson)

* [[The Free Design (Music)|The Free Design]].

* Most modern [[Boy Band|Boy Bands]]s and [[Girl Group|Girl Groups]]s do this: [[Backstreet Boys]], [[New Kids Onon the Block]], [[The Spice Girls]], [[Wilson Phillips]] etc.

* The Spice Girls: their songs often sound like a prolonged instance of [[Finishing Each OthersOther's Sentences|Finishing Each Others' Sentences]].

* [[Hanson]]. All three brothers sometimes take lead vocals, though 2007's "Go" is their only single to date that doesn't feature Taylor singing lead.

* [[Scissor Sisters (Music)|Scissor Sisters]]: Jake Shears and Ana Matronic

* Tally Hall (Rob Cantor, Joe Hawley and Zubin Sedghi) Andrew Horowitz gets to [[Step Up to Thethe Microphone]] at least [[Once Per Episode|once per album.]]

* [[The Temptations]] (David Ruffin and Eddie Kendrick switched off as lead singers on many of their biggest hits, [[SopranoandSoprano and Gravel|with gritty baritone and falsetto voices, respectively.]] The post-David Ruffin hit "I Can't Get Next To You" featured all five of the then-members of the group singing lead.)

* [[Three Eleven (Music)|311]]

* [[Alice in Chains (Music)|Alice in Chains]]- Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley originally, now William Duvall

* [[Barenaked Ladies]] (Steven Page and Ed Robertson -- untilRobertson—until Page left, but Kevin Hearn has taken duties on several Page vocals since then)

* [[The Beatles (Musicband)|The Beatles]] (all four of them)

* [[Blink -182]] (Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge)

* Blonde Redhead's ''Misery is a Butterfly''. The two vocalists, female Kazu Makino and male Amadeo Pace, alternate between tracks -- Kazutracks—Kazu is the only vocalist on the first track, Amadeo is the only one on the second, Kazu is the only one on the third, and so on...until the tenth track, "Pink Love" -- the—the climax of the album. Amadeo starts as the lone vocalist, for the verse, and then Kazu comes in to sing the chorus. They keep alternating within the song.

* The [[Blue OysterÖyster Cult (Music)|Blue Oyster Cult]] saw two equally talented performers, Eric Bloom and Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser not only trading lead and rhythm guitar, but also alternating lead vocal between them. (While Eric and Buck did 80% of BOC vocals, it's fair to say the other three core members all got a go too, so there were perhaps three reserve members of the tag-team)

* [[The Cars (Music)|The Cars]] (Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr)

* [[Chicago (Musicband)|Chicago]]: Initially the vocals were shared between Peter Cetera (tenor) and Terry Kath and Robert Lamm (baritones). Kath died and Cetera left, and they were replaced by Bill Champlin and Jason Scheff respectively.

* [[Cold Chisel]] had Jimmy Barnes as its frontman, but effectively had a second lead singer in guitarist Ian Moss -- theMoss—the former's screaming vocals contrasted nicely with the latter's more melodic tones. Many songs were either sung by Moss (e.g. "My Baby", "Saturday Night") or began with Moss singing and had Barnes take over halfway through (e.g. "Bow River", "When the War is Over").

* Goo Goo Dolls have John Rzeznik (their recognized [[Face of the Band|frontman]]) and Robby Takac. Takac actually handled the majority of the lead vocal duties before Rzeznik's voice caught the attention of record producers and he was asked to [[Step Up to Thethe Microphone]].

* [[H Ea RTHeart]] (Ann and Nancy Wilson)

* [[Journey (Musicband)|Journey]] (Steve Perry and Greg Rolie, though Perry sang lead exclusively when Rolie left).

* [[The Mamas Andand Thethe Papas]]

* [[My Bloody Valentine (Musicband)|My Bloody Valentine]] had Bilinda Butcher and Kevin Shields

* Nine Days (you remember, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIANBamMgas Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)]?) did this, but nobody knows it because neither of their [[One -Hit Wonder|two singles]] had the second vocalist on lead.

* Super Time Pilot - for most of their [[One -Book Author|lone album]] ''Did We Happen To Begin?'', Rob Potylo and Nikki Dessingue either harmonize or trade off verses. The exceptions are four tracks where Nikki sings alone, and one where Rob does. Oh, and far from using the male/female vocals for silly little love duets, they spend many songs acting like [[Vitriolic Best Buds|type 2 vitriolic best buds]], for humor's sake.

* [[Stereolab (Music)|Stereolab]]. While Lætitia Sadier handled lead vocals and Mary Hansen handled backing vocals, they harmonized and played off each other so often that it was widely considered a defining feature of Stereolab's sound. That is, until Mary Hansen's death in 2002.

* Regardless of whether the official lead singer is Bobby Kimball or Joseph Williams, [[Toto (Music)|Toto]] albums often featured songs where the lead vocals were either shared or performed exclusively by David Paich and Steve Lukather (and, more rarely, Steve Porcaro).

* [[The Velvet Underground]] had shared vocal duties between [[Lou Reed]] and [[Nico]] on their debut, and between Lou and Doug Yule on their last two, with additional [[Step Up to Thethe Microphone|guest spots]] for John Cale and Maureen Tucker.

[[Category:TropeExamples Need Sorting]]