thumb, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin
Crooner
is an epithet given to a male singer of a certain style of popular songs, dubbed pop standards. A crooner is a singer of popular ballads
and thus a "balladeer". The singer is normally backed by a full orchestra or big band. Generally, crooners sang and popularized the songs from the Great American Songbook. "Crooner" was originally used as a negative term, and many people given the term, such as Russ Colombo, did not consider themselves to be crooners. In an interview, Frank Sinatra said that he did not consider himself or Bing Crosby to be crooners.
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CROONERS TICKETS
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Evolution
Crooning is a style that has its roots in the
Bel Canto of
Italian opera, but with the emphasis on subtle vocal nuances and phrasing found in
jazz as opposed to elaborate ornamentation or sheer acoustic
volume found in opera houses. Before the advent of the
microphone, popular singers, like
Al Jolson, had to project to the rear seats of a theater, which made for a very loud vocal style. The microphone made possible the more personal style. Crooning is not so much a style of music as it is a technique in which to sing.
Some crooners, most notably
Nat King Cole,
Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin,
Bing Crosby or
Andy Williams, incorporated other popular styles into their music, such as
blues,
dixieland and even native
Hawaiian music. Crooning became the dominant form of popular vocal music from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, coinciding with the advent of radio broadcasting and electrical recording. For example,
Bing Crosby's
radio show,
Kraft Music Hall (1935-1946) was heard by 50 million listeners every Thursday evening
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The genre enjoyed tremendous popularity within the former
Soviet Union. Leading the way were artists such as
Leonid Utyosov,
Mark Bernes,
Georg Ots,
Vladimir Troshin,
Rashid Beybutov,
Oleg Anofriyev, as well as
Sergey Zaharov,
Mykola Gnatyuk,
Valeriy Obodzinskiy,
Vadim Mulerman,
Vladimir Makarov,
Iosif Kobzon,
Vahtang "Buba" Kikabidze, and
Muslim Magomaev. Their performances included a variety of influences ranging from jazz, romantic ballads, big-band, swing and ambient mood music, as well as popular film soundtracks.
Decline
After 1954 popular music became dominated by other styles, especially
rock 'n' roll, while the music of latter-day crooners such as
Perry Como and
Matt Monro was recategorized as "
easy listening" or "
adult contemporary." Crooners have remained popular among fans of traditional pop music, with contemporary performers such as
Tony Bennett,
Luis Miguel and
Engelbert Humperdinck keeping the form alive. While both male and female singers can sing in this style, the term "crooner" is rarely used to describe a female singer.
List of famous crooners