I noticed the trend started in earnest when Mariah Carey's career took off. She would do those canine-torturing notes to show of her range at first, but when even she must've realized doing that for every song was getting silly, she started in with the melisma. Soon every hip-hop group started doing the same thing. By the time Ms. Spears hopped onto the scene, it was the standard form of style and phrasing - kinda like the way Sinatra's popularity transformed the pop music of his day and everyone started singing and phrasing the way he did.

Streisand did it occasionally, but as a nice touch and not the constant show-offy way it's done now.

The only place I saw that kind of vocalization happen before in the pop world (outside of spiritual singing as you mentioned, of course) was the video/song "We Are the World" where the USA's biggest musical egos of the day where packed together in one room for the event. It was clearly showing off and one-upmanship there, too. But thank God most of the artists didn't continue to sing like that on their own recordings.

At least, that's how I remember the early days of this egregious fad.

As for noises over beats (not real song structures), yeah, that's a solid trend. Electronica, raves and rap have foisted that horror upon our older ears. There are still bands out there, but clubs and companies prefer the DJ/sample freak over a group because the sample freak is cheaper to hire, easier to control, and the samples are often from a label's back catalogue, so they rake in even more bucks from the old songs, while making money on the "new" one, too.

However, thanks to the White Stripes, the Strokes, Sleater-Kinney, and the Foo Fighters, rock is about to have another rebirth.

Posted by: Yahmdallah on December 19, 2002 1:57 PM

"We Are the World"... Mariah Carey ... That does kinda bring something back, doesn't it? Warble, warble, swoop, trill... Though I'm not sure I should be saying "Thanks for the memories."

Hey, any votes on whether this new style will show any staying power? Or whether it's just a passing fad?

Yahmdallah, I admire your continued interest in pop music. Once I got into my 30s, keeping up (and doing the necessary sifting and sorting) just got to seem more and more tiring, and less and less rewarding. I found myself barely even listening to pop or rock. These days, it's all jazz, classical, blues, c&w.

Do you find that your listening tastes are changing as you (ahem) age?

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on December 20, 2002 8:25 PM

This would be why the female groups I listen to tend to be folks like Melissa Ethridge and the Indigo Girls. That throaty three-pack-a-day singing voice is much easier on the ears. (And, to my tastes, the singers are also much easier on the eyes...)

Posted by: Cybrludite on December 20, 2002 10:59 PM

I think Gospel has something to do with the current pop tendency to hit 27 notes when one or two might suffice, although I don't really know enough about the genre to say anything too deep.

Couple that with the fact that pop music is much more about beats than anything else (although I think this is the continuation of a trend that has been going on in pop music since rock in the 50s) and you basically have your contemporary pop music: beats, with gospelly/R&B/Hip-hip on top of it.

Re getting older. I must admit, all the midriffs of the moment sound EXACTLY THE SAME to me, namely boring/annoying. Can't keep up and don't know why I should bother. It's music for 12 year old kids.

So it's jazz and electronic music for me pretty much. (The latter is not all crude dance music - although there's nothing wrong with that if you want to dance). Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, etc.

I do think people mistake (or present) histrionics for emotion. I dunno why exactly. The music is so dull real emotion is unavailable? I think you're on to something with your Streisand Hypothesis too.

Posted by: me on December 21, 2002 1:52 AM

Dave's Law of Pop Music: If all the people doing a particular art form are beautiful, then the art form can't be difficult.

All you need are album-cover looks, some dance moves, and a nice belly. What's worse is that there are no adult voices in pop these days.

Posted by: Freezing in Chicago on December 21, 2002 8:30 PM






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