I am becomig more and more amazed by the impact of the voices. Your voice is a part of your identity, it expresses extremely well your emotions. The way you articulate, the pauses you make, the tone, the accents, all of that reveal much about you.
A voice is the core of the charisma. You just have to listen to these old dictators’ speech to understand the power of a voice. Yet, I would rather talk about the beauty of voices. Not necessarily a singer’s voice. But those day-to-day voices. The joyfull countryside accent, the softness of a whisper, the funny pace and intonations one has after a few beers… Of course there are some voices that you will carry with you during your whole life. Obviously your mother’s voice (9 months in the amplifier :), your father’s (and the rest of the family), friends’ and lovers’. We can even match colours and memories with voices.
What amazes me the most is that one’s way of life alter their voices. I guess that Louis Armstrong did not sing “What a wonderful world” in the same way when he was young. Alcohol, cigarettes, shouting, crying, silence, all these habits change the voice. A Chinese phrase says that eyes are the mirrors of the soul, well I think that the voice reflects one’s personality and past.
ps: I started a pearltrees about the 
that struck me (Disney’s voices, actors, maybe some singers…). I would appreciate if you could tell me about the voices that struck you.
You write a very compelling post. One of the most easily recognizable voices I can think of in history is James Earl Jones doing Darth Vader in Star Wars. Who can forget “Luke…I am your father”? As for singers, there are so many, but some very distinctive voices I can think of are Leonard Cohen, both from the 70’s and his drastic voice change to rasp by the 90’s. Also Bob Dylan, same change as Cohen, and Tom Waits. What do you think of smell being considered “the sense of memory”?
Thanks a lot! Of course Darth Vader! I should have thought about it! About Dylan I still have some issues though. I cannot appreciate his voice…
I definitely agree with you about smell being considered the “sense of memory”. There is a very famous part in Proust’s “à la recherche du temps perdu” when he describes how much striking it is to be drowned back into his memories just by smelling a recognizable scent. What usually works for everyone is the smell of UHU stick or old-fashioned glue, it sends one straightly back in the first row of their primary school class.
The smell of freshly mowed grass usually gets me for childhood memories. Also chlorine and sunscreen. As for Dylan, he certainly doesn’t have a melodious voice, but I would definitely call it distinctive and easily recognizable. I would guess his major rise to fame, at least initially, came from his master songwriting as opposed to his voice.