The "Britney Has A Deep Voice" Delusion

It sometimes feels as if Britney fandom is a kind of global religion, with all its different faiths, beliefs, forms of worship, orthodoxies, sects and cults. One of the strangest and most impenetrable sects is the bunch of people whose mantra is that “Britney has a deep voice”.

This would be no more than a highly questionable observation were it not for the conclusions they draw from it. Basically, if you hear a high voice on a Britney song, it’s not Britney. It can’t be, because she has a deep voice.

And so you find a whole bedroom industry dedicated to the familar sport of trying to take away from Britney any credit that might be due. We discover attempts to prove that somebody else sang most of the song in question; attempts that are almost always fatally flawed by the assumption that Britney’s lead vocal is always at center and if you take the center channel out you’re left with the proportion of the song that’s supposedly sung by somebody else.

The determination of these supersleuths to find derelictions in Britney’s studio performances blinds them to something that’s incredibly obvious when you listen on headphones - the lead vocal isn’t always at center! On some tracks almost all of the lead vocal is divided between the left and right channels! Sometimes it's multi-tracked! And, unless you’re dedicated to undermining Britney, it’s beyond question that the voice is her own.

However, over at my own site, www.newbritneyology.com, as well as in comments here at PoorBritney, I’m regularly informed of some amazing discoveries: Keri Hilson sang most of “Gimme More” and of “Break The Ice”! Kara DioGuardi sang most of “Ooh Ooh Baby”! Nicole Morier sang most of “Heaven on Earth”! And so on. I’ve even been informed that “Toxic” was actually an unacknowledged duet between Britney and Cathy Dennis. Somebody had to sing the high bits after all....

There is actually no auditory reason to believe such claims. Most of “Toxic” is so obviously Britney that nobody disputes it. But what about those high parts? That can’t be Britney, right? She has a deep voice! So it must be.... who else was on the track...... Cathy Dennis by elimination! But her voice isn’t especially high, and it doesn’t sound like her at all. Similarly with the claims that Ina Wroldsen sang the chorus on “He About To Lose Me”. It sounds a lot more like Britney on the chorus of "You Oughta Know" than it sounds like Ina.

The claim that “Britney has a deep voice” flies in the face of the evidence anyway. Her lengthy recording history shows her singing in a variety of registers, including a high one, and using falsetto quite freely too. Away back on “OIDIA”, most of the tracks towards the end of the album are sung in a much higher voice than those at the start. Who do the doubters think sang “You Got It All”, “Heart” and especially “Dear Diary”?

On “Britney” there are also several high-voiced tracks, such as “Anticipating”, “Cinderella”, and especially “When I Found You” to contrast with the deeper-voiced tracks like “Let Me Be” or “Overprotected”. On “In The Zone” you have songs like “Breathe on Me”, “Touch of my Hand”, “Don’t Hang Up” and “Everytime”. On “Circus” you have “Mannequin”, “Rock Me In” and especially “My Baby”. Is anyone disputing that Britney’s singing them?

Yes, actually. Some people are. Despite the very clear statement by an eminent record producer that “you can’t manufacture tone”, there are those among the more conspiriatorially inclined portion of the fanbase who think you can. All you do is take all the recognisable characteristics of Britney’s voice (“How?” one might gently enquire) and “blend” them with a high-voiced singer and Bob's your Auntie.

If this procedure was as readily achieved as some people think, it would be of great interest to the criminal fraternity. To me it seems beyond laughable, and you can Google from now till this time next year and you won’t find a single article on the professional studio websites and online magazines confirming that it can be done or explaining how. Yet certain individuals regularly assure me that it’s standard practice and everybody does it. Complete delusion, but they’d sooner believe that than accept that Britney can sing in anything other than a deep voice. That’s their faith and their religion.