For the majority of human history aptitude in singing has been a question not so much of raw talent but of logistics. It wasn’t so much about “can you hit the notes perfectly and have deep levels of expressiveness and an extensive range?” as “can you physically make yourself heard in the space?” When performing in a theater or music hall or even as small and intimate a venue as a pub, the primary duty of the singer was to make themselves heard above the strings or horns or even simply the dishwashing and chatter. This is why in the earliest recordings of the human voice the singers commonly sound like what we would now describe as opera singers. Even if singing a clearly “lowbrow” popular song as with Charles Harrison’s 1918 number one hit “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” the song is sung with far more gusto and vibrato than we here in the 21st century are used to in our pop songs.