Preach Sister!

PILIPINAS ARE WE READY!!!? Shet

MANILLA HAS A DATE! - 30.05

Babee your hands are enough to kill me 💙💙💙💙💙

FAITH IN THE FUTURE

happy 30th birthday king! (insp)

Maybe it's just me. But this sounds like a queer song to me. Like someone who is closeted. Specially the line

Do you ever ask why?

It's not black and white

How you sleep at night

When you're just like me

Oh god…

Always in my heart, Louis William Tomlinson 🥺

Louis Tomlinson: A Study in Vocals

(Part 1/?)

28th September 2021

Right off the bat, I’m going to let you know that this is a really long post which has not been kept under the cut. The tags ‘ #s28op ‘ and ‘ #m.masterpost ‘ have been used so feel free to filter them out. This is an aggregate of posts from over the years that have talked extensively about Louis’ vocal abilities. I’m sure there are more analyses out there which have slipped past me (more on that in the end notes); as of now this post is stable enough on its own. This is also a Louis appreciation post :) Enjoy!

VOCAL ANALYSES

A vocal profile 

A video from 2014 that talks about his vocal range

On head and chest voices 

“Don’t tell me his voice sounds like shit until you can do what he does on a stage to thousands of fans night after night.” 

A unique sound without which every 1D song would be monotonous

Vocal coach reacts to Louis’ voice (and appreciates it *pretends to be shocked*)

Louis’ vocals on Four - a song by song critique

YouTuber reacts to a Little Things live performance

Singing really low notes live

Not a vocal analysis but a very important pop punk post

Changing octaves in BTY

“He doesn’t even seem bothered to hit really high notes without switching into his head voice.” (thread created pre-Walls era) 

The highest note he has sung in each song off of Walls (and some 1D bangers too)

How his voice has improved over the years (post written pre-November livestream)

Copy of a Copy of a Copy - parallels with Fight Club and a musical analysis

Helene Horlyck, vocal coach and life guide, on the AFH Festival

Why Louis Tomlinson’s voice is one of the greatest things to happen to anyone ever

This post just because this is what all the anons sound like these days:

“louis: doesn’t have a bland, generic, boring voice like the majority of artists these days

some of y’all: uhhh this means his voice is BAD” via (x)

And to those anons I say this.

VIDEOS AND AUDIO CLIPS

Holy shit (I’ll always be bitter about the fact that he didn’t have more solos)

Speaking of solos, here’s some compilations: 

All of his solos in UAN

TMH

 MM

 Four 

 MITAM

You will not regret listening to this (Stereo Hearts cover)

The cause of my demise, if we’re being honest. This is his solo in Truly Madly Deeply.

Look at him smiling and giggling and HITTING THEM NOTES (Moments)

Covering Valerie. Iconic.

Last First Kiss at iHeartRadio

Harmonizing with Liam before singing Infinity in the Live Lounge

Use Somebody solo from their cover at the iTunes Festival

Over Again, live on tour

A slight note change in Night Changes that he carries off flawlessly

His solo in Night Changes, live in concert (OTRA 2015) (link to vine)

I mean… the No Control chorus (by himself)

Another No Control clip

Nailing his solo in No Control, live in Brussels (OTRA 2015) 

I’ll never get tired of linking No Control videos (OTRA Indianapolis)

Alive, live in Adelaide (2015) (link to vine)

DFWYB Zouis duet, OTRA Osaka (link to vine)

Singing Zayn’s part in DFWYB, OTRA Jakarta 

Fireproof solo, OTRA Winnipeg

Louis in Better Than Words, OTRA Osaka (link to vine)

Drag Me Down, then and now

Listen to this note change in COACOAC during the festival  

Practicing scales with Helene, from the Away From Home documentary

He carried that band on his back (some highlights)

“This whole ‘Louis is the weakest one vocally’ is just a myth with little substance because his voice is absolutely pivotal to their overall sound.”

See what I mean. (SOML acapella)

Watch this performance of WMYB

Little Black Dress, with and without Louis

Rock Me, with and without Louis

THAT voice break in Better Than Words (live in concert, OTRA 2015)

The last chorus of Olivia

“Our guy Louis Tomlinson shines on Made In The A.M.”

This post, basically

This one too

And this, because it’s true 

“He’s the link that holds One Direction together.”

It was always Louis

“Tomlinson’s reedy tenor is in especially fine form on ‘No Control’, punching out the chorus like the vocal equivalent of a pelvic thrust.” (x)

“Your voice makes One Direction sound so amazing” (here’s the original vine)

Always a fan favorite 

This is just me appreciating fans appreciating him 

Did I say he’s a fan favorite

A fan recorded the safety video from a July 2014 1D concert :)

On why Louis was quiet at bootcamp

“I feel much more confident. I’m very, very happy now.” 

This technically should be in the video clips section but just listen to those screams. 

“And he doesn’t even have a hard time singing it.”

“Raw, raw talent.”

“That’s on being a successful live performer.”

I agree, Ricky

“It was a moment of honesty and solidarity, and it was incredible.” - some thoughts on 1D covering FourFiveSeconds in the Live Lounge

Speaking of, here’s his solo from the cover

Reactions to BTY 

Everyone loves Louis.

Let’s cry together shall we?

XFactor edition of Louis appreciation

Another royal version of this series

Your fav is definitely going to let you down. Not Louis tho xx 

There you go. If you find any post that you think will fit this series (because I definitely plan on making more of these), send them my way! Either via my ask box, a DM, or directly to the Louis Projects tumblr ( @louisprojects ). Thank you so much @berlinini​ for beta-ing this and @28louistomlinson​ for making this last minute video compilation of Louis and Helene from the documentary that makes me want to bawl every time.

Do know any single songs from Lou? Louis voice is the best :3

well louis hasn’t recorded songs of his own that we know of but here’s links to only his solos :D

louis soundchecking for live lounge || another video Louis’ solo in night changes (acoustic) for 1 minute and 8 secondslouis’ high note in love you goodbye from ellenlouis’ solo in don’t forget where you belong from otra ottawa || dfwyb part 2 louis’ solo in no control from otra seattlesteal my girllouis’ solo in history from alan carrlouis’ solo in infinity from the london sessionlouis’ solo in FourFiveSeconds from live loungetorn from live lounge

Oldies:

rock melouis leading the chorus in live while we’re younglouis’ solo in momentsi wouldVALERIE

other stuff:

thisall his solos from up all night to fourall his solos from made in the am

For concert

Sav

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce0XfbfuQMp/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= hhahaha

Hahahaha!

x

OBVIOUSLY!!!!!

literally the funniest thing to ever happen in this fandom is someone coming up with a very definitely green drink that combined orange and blue components to make green… and calling it The Blue Direction

guess Blue’s direction… orientation if you will… is Green

I feel like it’s time for me to share my theory about 1D’s formation (and why it had been planned well before this X-factor video was shot - though this video did very well at making it seem organic)

A lot of this theory comes from reading stuff from @verily-i-say who, if you weren’t around when she was, worked with reality television and talked about how casting for reality shows works (ie everyone is assigned a role before they are even cast and you just try to find someone who can fit the roles that you need)

Liam giving that talk a couple months back about how 1D was something he believed Simon made for him because of their talk only solidified this theory for me. So lets get into it.

Let’s start with what was going on in pop culture in the start of 2010, and what 1D was originally supposed to be. Because remember, 1D was never supposed to be as big as they ended up being! By 2010 boy bands still weren’t as big as they had been in the late 90s and early 00s. There were the Jonas Brothers who were starting to wind down their activities just by the nature of how long they had been. The producers of X-factor would have known this without any sort of inside knowledge it’s just how pop bands are. They have shelf lives. K-pop was trying hard to pierce the western market but so far nothing had stuck and there was a feeling at the time that kpop would never make it big in the west because of how their bands were crafted/promoted.

What that means is there was room for a boy band. I think Simon and the people in the X-factor knew it was a good time to make a boyband. There was a market for it, and something that needed filled. So they start crafting their story. No group had ever won the X-factor because pre-made groups kinda sucked/weren’t fully crafted the same way they used to be. Clearly this meant they would have more success making a group than anything else.

We know the producers knew of Liam and Louis. I think they started with Liam - and again this is all before we even got to the filmed auditions. I think they had the idea to make the band with these 5 boys from the original auditions and it was ALWAYS going to be them.

Niall filled the Irish niche. They had just opened auditions to Ireland. This was an easy way to gain success in Ireland.

Zayn filled the “ethnic” niche. How else is the group supposed to be “diverse” if they don’t have a POC?

Liam filled the group leader. The band was originally crafted around Liam and I will die by this.

Harry filled the “baby” role. He was the youngest. You think it was coincidence his age was brought up during his filmed audition? No it was meant to cast him as the “baby”. It’s not as intense a role as the “maknae” in kpop groups but it’s a role to fill. It also leads into him being marketed as “adorably slow”. He’s baby.

And Louis? Well Louis filled the “gay” role. Vee has talked about how obvious it is to anyone with eyes that 18 year old Louis was gay. I’ll get into why they needed a gay member in a moment.

So that was their initial set up: Irish, POC, Leader, Baby, Gay. Those are the roles the X-factor deemed they needed for a boyband in early 2010 and then they went about looking for people who fit those roles.

Now, like with any casting, it doesn’t always work out perfectly. You see it constantly in tv shows and reality shows. Audience reaction to people and also just general “character development” changes where people fall. Liam’s role of “leader” and “face” of the band swiftly fell apart because Harry is SO FUCKING CHARISMATIC. If you rewatch any X-factor stuff you can see it happen almost in real time. I could go on a whole tangent about how this affected Liam and Harry’s relationship but that’s not exactly the point of this post and it’s already way too long lol.

But what happened to Louis being “gay” and why did they need a “gay” member to begin with? It goes back to the idea 1D was never meant to be as successful as they are. In 2010 being gay and coming out/or being outted was like… pop culture candy. It was trendy. It got you promo. I’m not saying it’s right but that’s how it was. So I think they always wanted a gay member so that way they guaranteed a 3 album commitment from the boys. Album 1 rides off the back of X-factor. If Album 2 wasn’t as successful you pull out the gay card and BOOM instant interest in album 3. Enough to get Simon’s money worth from the band before they’re allowed to fade into obscurity.

Obviously that didn’t happen. Why? Well for starters the band was INSANELY popular. And secondly 🤷🏼‍♀️ Larry? They got put in a position with Larry where they couldn’t out Louis even if they needed to without outting Harry and ruining his “role” in the band.

And there’s my theory ✌🏻

Harry is so lucky

i think the way louis markets himself is SO interesting, because its so different from every other popular artist out there. in hollywood its basically a given that if you want to become a big star you will have to be sexualized out the wazoo (besides some exceptions) but for louis thats almost nonexistent. none of his songs are about sex, nothing is racy or revealing or raunchy, i think the farthest he goes is talking about kissing. in all of his photoshoots its very much almost proving a point to show no skin at all, with high collars, long pants, long sleeves, etc and lots of big powerful stances and searing eye contact. you dont even see the media sexualizing him either, there are no articles talking about how sexy he is or talking about how his latest music video was about certain sexual acts. i know thats probably due to a lot of factors but i just think its so wild to think about how anti-sexualized louis is in every aspect of his life. his songs, his fashion, even his fans dont interact with him the way we see het harries do. have you ever heard of a het louie that goes as far as harries do? no way man. i just think about this a lot.