When did voices get worse?

When reading music became a default. In Italy and Spain, it isn't. Until after World War II, opera was usually in the language of the country it was done in, rather than surtitles. As a result, people didn't need to read. Conductors and repetiteurs were able to focus on tone rather than diction. Vocal training can be done by ear, and most rock singers do it that way. Ezio Pinza couldn't read. Neither could lots of the star Broadway singers. - I'm a fluent reader and composer, but I'll pick up songs by ear when there isn't a chart. Werawera is by ear, as are a few Kern tunes. - It's like with dancing: some people can pick it up despite a lack of training. - Paul and George sung in a high school choir. Don sang in a church choir. I'm sure lots of those people couldn't read, but they could sing independent lines. Reading music is a peculiarly English/British obsession. I'm an expert, but I'm a satirist. Ironically, thanks to Paul people presume that all guitarists are ear musicians. Paul's able to read now, but he's not a fluent orchestrator. John's ballet was plodding, but that could easily be Paul's fault. I think he's really old-fashioned as an orchestral thinker, but Standing Stone is cool.