I am so happy I have found people who understand how terrible this genre is. It makes me so angry when I hear it. People often praise people who ‘sing’ like this by saying they’re voice are so wonderfully ‘unique’. It’s not! It’s all over the place!
I have a friend who does this and sings in dingy bars with her portable keyboard where we live. Everyone praises her. It sounds like a cat dying, slowly, painfully…
I found this board by googling “annoying twee girl singing.” I’ve developed an irrational hatred of this singing over the last few years. I can’t take it anymore! Combine this singing with a “ohh ohhhh ohhhhh” group singalong chorus, maybe throw in a glockenspiel or something, and you’ve stumbled upon the perfect formula for faceless commercial music. except some people actually listen to it on their own for enjoyment. these are dark times.
Yep - Regina Spektor is a prime example of an unusual artist who, after getting big, was pop-ified. I actually like most of her stuff, old or new, but I agree that her early stuff is far more sit-in-your-dark-bedroom-and-take-it-all-in than later pieces. Pavlov’s Daughter, Daniel Cowman, and, to a lesser extent, Us are all far more anti-folk than songs like Fidelity.
They’re clearly using some definition of “unique” that I’m unfamiliar with, because they insist on using this term while referring to something irritatingly ubiquitous. Maybe their definition means “every goddamn place and totally fucking stupid.”
I hate this crap!! It seems every advert on tv these days has some annoying girl murdering a classic tune in this super-twee-asthma-girly-pop style. Its like a female version of hunger-dunger-dang.
There are so many of them out there these days but Diana Vickers has to be the worst perpetrator of this style, she took it and turned it up to eleven
Don’t tell me she is still around? I remember her from the X factor but that was years ago now and I assumed she had fucked off back to obscurity. She was definitely the poster child for this, with bonus points for always holding a hand up by her face while trying to squeeze words out her nose.
Wait, no, I was misled by one of the OP’s links, and I thought this was the Duffy/Winehouse/MarkRonson axis of soul. Lot of sorta-soundalikes there, too.
This is the Regina Spektor wannabe brigade, and the not-actually-singing-because-we’re-folky part of it, and the bit of how you can take any composition and redo it in generic indie style and people might praise you for making it sound…generic and coffeehouse.
OK.
No, Suzanne Vega sang, kids. But I can see how you get from Vega to Spektor to this trend.
With some decent arrangements, you can make breathy work. Sóley does all right, I think, though she’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But that’s in doing more interesting instrumentation. - YouTube
I don’t mind a teensy bit of breathiness every 5 or 6 songs on your album, but I don’t want it to be 95% of your style. Same with vocal fry.
But I don’t know why so much of this stuff drives me freaking batty. Perhaps it’s cuz I’m in my mid-40’s and it’s generational, but every time my 22 year old niece posts a Pamplamouse video on Facebook, I find a rising irritation as I watch it. I’m not even sure why the style gets under my skin.
Now, I enjoy some of Ingrid Michaelson’s music (“Won’t Die Alone” is a catchy l’il earworm that I’ll turn up when it comes on Pandora), but her versionof “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” will make my usually-ice-cold blood boil, (she plays with a ukulele fer Chrissakes!)
I will say that there are plenty of singers mentioned that I enjoy (I’ve been known to go on a Cat Power trip), but there are others who get under my skin with that quirky stuff. And I’d put the breathy waifs at an even tie in irritation-inducing with the melisma-istas that are all over “The Voice”.
I think that was a joke, but just in case others take it seriously, she wasn’t shot. She shot and killed her boyfriend, Olympic Skier Frances “Spider” Sabich, and totally got away with it, paying a small fine and spending 30 days in jail. People love you and don’t think you’re a raging maniac when you’re adorable and sing adorably.
First, thanks for introducing me to Corinne Bailey Rae. She does the voice a bit, but it’s minor and only for a line or two a song, and she uses it as a technique among a huge range of technique. She is awesome in my opinion.
I think that cover of Help is the best example. It’s more the accent that these girls are singing with that bothers me so much. I don’t mind a little vocal fry. It’s the cutesy scary white girl version of a black jazz singer with an English accent teenage cat lady accent that bothers me so much. It’s just so overused. I go to open mic nights and its seems 90% of women sing like this, especially if they are pretty and not especially talented. It works on people who think “oh she sounds like the girl who is on the car commercial so that’s valid. also she’s hot.”
What is with the male version of this, that’s not so quiet but still has the accent and overused vocal style? Mumford and sons, Avett Brothers, Fleet foxes, M ward, Tallest man on earth (some of who are awesome, but fit in this example). I don’t mind the male version as much for some reason. Look both these guys are doing it Jim James & M. Ward at St. David's Church - YouTube