Ever since Apple used Feist’s ‘1-2-3-4’ for the Ipod Nano I’ve been calling this horrific genre “Mobile Phone advert lifestyle music”.
Jesus, it’s a bad impression of Bjork!
This is what happens when the greatest wish of your pushy parents is for you to make music for crappy Mobile phone commercials.
Specifically, Apple commercials. (ETA: Ah, I see you mentioned that in the previous comment. It’s not so much the mobile phone angle, but the Apple angle for me.) But, yeah, I don’t know why I didn’t mention it earlier in the thread. This type of music always makes me think of the shitty music on Apple commercials. (And I say this as an Apple user.)
The following song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlJGgbMKTzQ is the one that originally triggered my hatred for this genre, and it’s not even by a woman. It was used on a hipster-ish commercial for the mobile phone network ‘Orange’ in the UK around 2007:
[aside]So, hitchslap, do I know you from another board?[/aside]
Doubt it dude.
Good article on the subject:
I too have just come to this discussion after Googling “annoying female indie singers.” It’s now 2017 now and we’re still dealing with this BS. When will it stop?
Has anyone been to a movie recently where they showed the Power Rangers trailer? I was, and my ears were violated by this utter abomination of a Johnny Cash cover. I’m not sure if Johnny is rolling over in his grave, but if not, he should be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qjl4lysi_s
Can we please return to female singers like Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, Joan Jett, Shirley Manson, etc, instead of these whiny waifs? Oh, and to whoever knocked the great Suzanne Vega above, she is on a completely different planet than these chicks.
New member here as well! Googled “why does everyone sing with a stupid accent now?” and arrived here - among my fellow brethren. 
I have ALWAYS hated breathy, kum-ba-yah singers - but it’s this nasally, open-vowel tone that really puts me over the edge. I can’t recall where it all started - Blink 182 has that sound to them which always irritated the hell out of me…but now it’s EVERYWHERE.
I thought it would have gone away by now but no! We’re cursed!
And it’s not just the sound - it’s the entire STYLE that goes with it. The long, long hippy hair (or sometimes extremely short pixie cut), the pigeon-toed stance, the semi-forlorn yet somehow narcissistically satisfied air of these singers that drives me batty. It’s infantile, but there’s also a level of conceit and self-aware sexuality that goes with it. It’s not true naivety that you might find in someone wet behind the ears. No, instead everything, every sound, look, every movement, each nuance, has been carefully crafted. There’s nothing that comes spontaneously - from the heart so to speak. It’s all just this shitty veneer of people trying to appear genuine. Well you can’t try to be genuine - you either are or you aren’t. And you can’t try to be innocent - you either are or you aren’t. And yet when you’re trying to appear that you are, or sound like you are, well - we can see or in this case, hear, through it. And I think that’s the dissonance we’re all detecting - that’s what’s especially grating - it’s all just…phony.
Ugh.
It’s like there isn’t one honest bone in any of this sh*t. And I guess what especially irks me is when grown adults act or try to sound like children. It drives me bonkers. What is it about this generation that doesn’t want to grow up?
Vomit material.
Preach it, Truth333!
And welcome to the boards!
Yes, welcome. But…Blink 182? Really? 
It’s called ‘affect’, or "affection. When a singer/songwriter has a certain style of vocals that apply affection, then they can sing in falsetto, take for example Joanna Newsome. One could also link the breathes taken right after a word is sung on virtually all Michael Jackson and Trent Reznor singing. It’s not the same as “affection”, but it is still a subtle trick to get people to hear something that doesn’t exactly register consciously, but that they are effected by.
I believe you are referring to “affectation” and, yes, that would apply to most of these singers.
i call it little kid/baby voice
(or)
Connor Oberst
As in, “that dude brought some serious Oberst to that track.”
Or channeled, rather
Although as much as it bothers me to say it, you can trace it back to Bjork
That vocal style isn’t just from being Icelandic
I mean, people have been “affecting” their voices forever I’m sure, but that the quintessential “I’ just learned ma words/baby voice” that I’m referring to
Will Oldham used to sing like he was going through puberty for years
Thanks for letting me know why I’ve always hated Bjork.
Here is a video of Pharrell Williams reacting to someone with this exact singing style.
He actually almost cries and says that it's so original that it's comparable to Wu Tang changing the rap game. Are you fucking kidding me?