# Is there a name for this hyper-annoying singing style? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2014, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704 "2014-01-02T15:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/123 "2015-09-29T07:44:52Z")
The Rugby world cup is currently taking place in England and the channel ITV are showing most of the games. Which is a shame because this is the fucking travesty that they are using as the intro/outro music before the show and around the ad breaks. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0m-YnH0j78) Paloma Faith absolutely butchering “World in Union”, every time I hear a clip it makes me want to rip my ears off and bolt some sound deadening pads in their place. Nasally waify bullshit that takes a great song and makes it unlistenable, who the hell thought that was a good idea. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/124 "2015-09-29T08:57:16Z")
Maybe it is that I grew up listening to [Shoegazing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoegazing), but I seem to have always liked this sort of stuff. Slowdive, for example, employ it for both their male and female singers. Take [this track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRYAOAd6iJQ) from 1991 or from a completely male take, [this one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eR3sv_RgBE) from 1994. I’d take it over the vocal masturbation of the types you get on TV “talent” shows any day of the week. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/125 "2015-09-30T03:23:44Z")
I love me some shoegazer music too, although I wonder if this is the kind of singing meant by the OP. ---
**Author:** ![McDoogins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@McDoogins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDoogins)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/126 "2015-09-30T03:37:20Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I love me some shoegazer music too, although I wonder if this is the kind of singing meant by the OP. Only shoegaze music I know is Explosions in the Sky and M83. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/127 "2015-09-30T04:53:50Z")
I think Suzanne Vega (now in her 50s) was the original annoying waif voice for me. Loathe her, loathe her less talented waif-daughters even more. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/128 "2015-09-30T05:25:04Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > But doesn’t this singing style (or a precursor of it, anyway) go back at least to [Blossom Dearie](https://youtu.be/A0r63K_wYu4?t=98), nearly a half century before Chan Marshall entered the music scene? THAT’S who I was thinking of. I was trying to find some School House Rock videos that she did to demonstrate it was much older than the 90s but I was having no luck. I do have to admit a cheesy affection for Donna Lewis, who did the same style. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/SqdWTeXWvOg/maxresdefault.jpg "Donna Lewis - I Love You Always Forever (Official Music Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqdWTeXWvOg) ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/129 "2015-09-30T07:09:21Z")
Whoa, that is a pop song I had long forgotten existed but now recall that it was indeed a guilty pleasure of mine as well. Glad to hear someone agrees about Blossom Dearie! It’s fun, kind of like researching the origin of slang words, to feel like you’ve found the earliest cite. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/130 "2015-09-30T09:26:09Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I love me some shoegazer music too, although I wonder if this is the kind of singing meant by the OP. It was more the very breathy style. Not all shoegazing is like that, but the likes of Slowdive were. In my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/131 "2015-09-30T09:28:02Z")
> [@McDoogins](#): > > Only shoegaze music I know is Explosions in the Sky and M83. Explosions in the Sky are post rock. Quite different. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/132 "2015-09-30T09:31:47Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > It was more the very breathy style. Not all shoegazing is like that, but the likes of Slowdive were. In my opinion. Without speaking for the OP, my sense of the music s/he posted is that the style involves spare instrumentation and a kind of meandering, almost halting, vocal style. Shoegazer is very flowing and far from spare. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/133 "2015-09-30T09:50:02Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > The Rugby world cup is currently taking place in England and the channel ITV are showing most of the games. Which is a shame because this is the fucking travesty that they are using as the intro/outro music before the show and around the ad breaks. > > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0m-YnH0j78](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0m-YnH0j78) > > Paloma Faith absolutely butchering “World in Union”, every time I hear a clip it makes me want to rip my ears off and bolt some sound deadening pads in their place. Nasally waify bullshit that takes a great song and makes it unlistenable, who the hell thought that was a good idea. :mad: Oh yes, this. A thousand times this. She seems a lovely young lady but I fear I might happily kill her with fire. It is a modern pestilence that needs stamping out. There is no song that is actually improved by covering it in this fashion. Jose Gonzalez dig a decent job with a waify-style cover of “heartbeat” but the original was far better. But possibly the worst example, and I hesitate to inflict this on you all, is [this](http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/nov/08/renault-zoe-thats-entertainment-advert) fucking travesty. Paul Weller created one of the greatest songs of misery, despair, hopelessness and urban decay. Possibly _the_ most sarcastic title of any song ever and it gets turned in a helpless, gutless little ditty to sell a _Renault_. I get the feeling that when that came out and Weller saw it, he spent some considerable time just staring into space, clenching and unclenching his fists with his eyes twitching occasionally. I know I did. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/134 "2015-09-30T11:25:12Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > But possibly the worst example, and I hesitate to inflict this on you all, is [this](http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/nov/08/renault-zoe-thats-entertainment-advert) fucking travesty. Oh for fucks sake, thats just awful, I’d rather not have known about that. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/135 "2015-09-30T11:41:40Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Oh for fucks sake, thats just awful, I’d rather not have known about that. :mad: I am truly sorry, but it is better that you know such things exist, sunlight is the best disinfectant and all that. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/136 "2015-09-30T12:34:44Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > But possibly the worst example, and I hesitate to inflict this on you all, is [this](http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/nov/08/renault-zoe-thats-entertainment-advert) fucking travesty. That one really needs the word “not” added before entertainment. Or maybe after a la Wayne’s World. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2015, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/137 "2015-09-30T13:08:32Z")
This thread has got to be in the lead for ‘Most times resurrected by someone who joined SDMB just to post in this thread.’ Will that fit on a trophy? ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/138 "2015-10-13T20:02:26Z")
This popped up recently in my Facebook timeline: > **[Selena Gomez's "Good For You" And The Rise Of "Indie Pop Voice"](https://www.buzzfeed.com/reggieugwu/what-is-indie-pop-voice#.kiNvNYwRg)** > > How a phenomenon called "vowel breaking" became an epidemic in pop music. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/139 "2015-10-13T20:25:39Z")
Great article, **amanset** –thanks. Interesting to me that those examples seem more “pop” than “indie” to me, whereas most of those offered earlier in this thread are more toward the other end of the spectrum. Wouldn’t be the first time a trend has worked its way in that direction. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/140 "2015-10-13T20:36:12Z")
I sympathize but it’s not like affected singing styles is something new to the world of pop. The first trend to get on my nerves (about 45 years ago if you’re curious) was the ersatz-countrified pronunciations by rock and pop artists. Sexxeh for sexy, singin’ for singing, sugaah for sugar, that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Lex1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b3f665/32.png) [@Lex1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lex1)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/141 "2015-12-02T02:40:45Z")
Yet another person who found this thread by Googling. In my case I used “annoying little girl voice.” Bingo. Thank God I am not alone in despising this hellborn affected style. I draw strength and consolation from my fellow haters. I have no clever rationale to explain its popularity. I can only share more examples. First, a song I thought I liked. The Cowboy Junkies cover of Lou Reed’s Sweet Jane. My excuse for liking it is that it was years ago and I'd never heard the style before. The CJ's were virtually alone at the time in using it. Then about a year ago I watched an iPhone ad entitled Parenthood. The combination of cloying video and a little girl voice singing in the background nauseated me. My first thought was that Steve Jobs was going to rise from his grave and rip off the head of Tim Cook. And finally, at the start of this Christmas season Dick's Sporting Goods started running an ad featuring a cover of the Beatles From Me to You. > **[Dick's Sporting Goods Commercial - Pop Culture Cross-References and...](https://www.popisms.com/TelevisionCommercial/116836/Dicks-Sporting-Goods-Commercial-2015-pres.aspx)** > > What are the pop culture references for Dick's Sporting Goods Commercial? What Song is referred to by Dick's Sporting Goods Commercial? What Song is played in Dick's Sporting Goods Commercial? Effing awful. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704/142 "2015-12-02T23:55:15Z")
The second and third links are perfectly serviceable examples of the style (although I don’t hate them since I am one of the only dissenters on this thread). I am at a loss to understand, however, where you are getting the idea that the Cowboy Junkies cover fits. 😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-hyper-annoying-singing-style/677704.md?page=8)