“Do you have to sing great in order to be a popular musician?”

Not in the least. Hell, look at Bob Dylan.

Most rock vocalists suck as well, especially in live contexts.

You could also play an instrument.

The best musicians play an instrument well. They also know that when they crate a song to set the tune to accommodate their voices. A musician like Bob Dylan is able to sound okay singing his own songs. Same with Billy Joel, who also has a limited range, but sings his range extremely well.

Bob Dylan
Tom Petty
Tom Waits
Yoko Ono (okay, she was never popular)

Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen (R.I.P.) are quite popular.

And I don’t think they are necessarily charismatic

Not necessarily. Having bad voice can make one a unique singer.

John Denver didn’t have a great voice but he did play the guitar well, and he wrote a lot of his own songs which were very popular. Bottom line you have to bring something to the table.

I thought bob dylan patti and cohen had amazing voices… haha

Of course not. That is what autotune is for.

@an_hero HOW?

tiny tim, alvin & the chipmunks, weird al.

To be a proper musician, in the proper aspect and definition of the word, you have to be able to read and write music.

@kritiper

As much of a falsehood now as it was the other day.

@Darth_Algar Ran that by your friend the Tooth Fairy did ya??

Obviously not or this guy never would have made it/

@marinelife HE SOUNDS AMAZING :S

Most pop musicians cannot read music. The vast majority of rock musicians cannot. Guitarists and bass players widely use tablature.

@kripiter

Again, by that logic the Beatles weren’t musicians. Almost all of the most highly regarded musicians of the past century are not/were not musicians.