Comparing The Top Artists, Past And Present, By Vocal Range

Concert Hotels put together an interactive chart examining the recorded vocal ranges of the world's greatest, and most popular, singers. Plotting the octaves successfully captured in the studio, the chart demonstrates just how far across the keyboard their pipes have spanned, listing the songs in which each vocalist has hit their lowest and highest notes.

At the top of the chart: Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose, closely followed by Mariah Carey, Prince, Steven Tyler and James Brown. At the very bottom: country singer Luke Bryan, who is just topped by Taylor Swift, Karen Carpenter, Sam Cooke and Justin Bieber.

While the chart is extremely informative, it is important to remember that it represents the recorded vocal range of each of these artists, not necessarily their actual range. This also doesn't define Axl Rose as the greatest singer of all time. Vocal range is a great indicator of a vocalist's talent, but there is much more that goes into it: tone, creativity in melody composition, lyrics and dynamic abilities, to name a few. It also helps when a vocalist has a great band or composition behind them.