cursive singing: who do we blame?
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
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Today we're talking cursive singing: a (mainly) pop trend that has in some people's opinions plagued music for well over a decade now. We'll talk about potential roots of cursive singing, such as grunge bands of the 90s. We'll also talk about other influences like blues, jazz, and folk singers of decades past. Also, we'll talk about artists like Halsey, Tate McRae, SZA, Lorde, Billie Eilish and Khalid, who have all been accused of singing in cursive, among many others.
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I feel like cursive singing also got popularized by the televised singing shows like The Voice, AGT, American Idol etc. in those shows, if you weren’t a powerhouse vocalist, a nice cheat code to do well was to have a “unique” voice and that led a lot of people to make the stylistic choice of cursive singing. Sometimes it worked/seemed authentic but over time it’s become distracting and obviously a strange choice when someone is clearly laying it on thick
@@afuantics175 so true it was so popular there- can’t believe I didn’t put Grace VWs early stuff bc it’s such a clear example
I think Indie pop getting popular in the later half of the 00’s also contributed to the spread of this style. It was a very popular vocal technique and many people adopted it to sound “credible”. It reminds me of a lot of people doing a sexy whisper style like Janet or Britney around the late 90’s.
Wow yes. I was watching this US programs compilations. One title was "covers better then the original?" They were mostly powefull contrasting songs like "eye of the tiger" turned in minimal melody contrast with too much texture / whipping / upsetting /melancolic interpertration.
That's a good point. I remember watching The Voice back before Melanie became "Felony" Martinez. She was definitely a cursive singer then!
All I see rn is Katy Perry yelling at that one girl “SAY ALL THE WORDS. Don’t cut the words off. ENUNCIATE THE WORDS.”
For years I've described Billie's voice as "a person on Public Transport, or in Public, listening to a song they love and cant help but sing, but don't really want to be heard by anyone around them."
😭😭😭😭😭
😂 Perfect analogy
Her microphones volume and gain are both set to 11
Actually me when I'm on the bus 😭
Everyone adores her and I don't understand why. I don't like anything about that style of music. She would probably sing nicely if covering the old standards.
"yarling" feels like the perfect word for it after hearing them sing
Apparently that word was first used to describe Eddie Vedder, and every male singer-songwriter in the 90s tried to copy his vocals. The cringiest example I can think of is "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling.
@@rdrrrthe song bangs though LOL
@@01neveroddoreven10 I want to hate it but I can't
Yesss truee
I never would've thought of a word for this style of singing.
I remember Kesha experienced quite a bit of backlash in the 2010’s for her drawn out enunciations. It was often described as “trying to sound drunk.” Its definitely a more common sound now though.
It's interesting that you say that, because I have always kinda mentally labelled this vocal style as 'slurred singing' (or 'slurnging') - because I just assumed it was an affectation to make the singers sound drunk?
And because I could never understand the lyrics, I just assumed the songs were always about partying or bad breakups, or other situations where being in an altered mental state was, y'know, thematically appropriate?
For funsies, if anyone wants to hear the drunken slurring singing style in a VASTLY different musical genre, give 'I've Become A Cliché' by NOFX a listen. I'm not sure it really qualifies as cursive singing, but it definitely hits the vibe of being trapped at a bar with an old drunk dude talking at you at 2am. XD
I will never forget when you said SZA saying anything about Rihanna’s vocals was crazy considering she sang in wing dings 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@theivoryleague3847haaaa! sometimes I google the lyrics and am like “huh, never would’ve guessed that’s what she was saying but purrr” 😭
@@naomi.cannibal her and Ariana both make me do that sometimes lol. It makes so much sense after 😂
@@naomi.cannibal Literally me searching for the lyrics of Good Days and I never would've guesses those are the actual lyrics compared to what I heard
I found that hilarious as well!
☠️☠️☠️
Why does no one bring up Shakira? She’s been singing in cursive for decades, she just does it with a Colombian accent.
I would say if you listen to her English music yes but not when she sings in Spanish, her primary language.
To my ear, Shakira does the yarling thing. Not all the time.. but sometimes mixed with yodeling, maybe 🤔
Omg yes
Only in English. Her Spanish singing is crisp and clear as a bell. This is most prominent on "Laundry Service" or the song "Ojos Asi" which is off "Ladrones"
@@jessl406definitely yodeling.
I don't know whether to feel bad or relieved for Ellie Goulding that she's being erased from this conversation. Ellie was 100% the new millennium ground zero for the indie pop cursive singing epidemic, but no one seems to notice lol.
Probably because she’s irrelevant when it comes to main pop culture
She's the first person I think of!
I was a HUGE Ellie stan during Bright Lights/Halcyon and I've never thought of her when the idea of cursive singing was brought up. I guess I just never noticed beyond her singing with her accent
I LOVE Her! I have most of her albums. And I understand her lyrics. 💖😊
@@jimbob2427 If Halsey and Tate are relevant, then so was Ellie at her peak.
The cursive girlies grew up on Amy Winehouse, and Amy was trying to emulate Billie Holiday
Yes! Billie holiday for sure.
Amy was never a fan of Billie Holiday. She said Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan were her biggest vocal inspirations. Most people just assume it's Billie Holiday since she's the more popular singer and she has that husky delivery.
@@TheDreamingJune I heard her say she loved Billie Holiday before, idk what you mean, I'm sure she loved the others too
@@synesthesia.aesthetic I don't doubt she may have respected Billie but there were times she made flippant comments whenever anyone made that comparison in interviews. Amy always stated that Dinah and Sarah were her biggest vocal influences. Go listen to either of them and it's apparent how much Amy tried to emulate their tones. Watch the bts of her recording Tony Bennett and see her face light up immediately when he mentions that she sounds like Dinah.
What about B’jork?
Before i knew it had a name, i called it baby singing. It sounds to me like a child before their speech is totally developed.
Same. Sounds like baby talk to me as well
it's the singing equivalent of the egirl uwu voice
But it's not Melanie Martinez baby singing level
@@micheller3251yesss it’s so attention seeking
Oh my gosh, I literally thought of Melanie Martinez when I read this comment. I feel like especially in her first album, that’s the style that she was going for. The album is called Cry Baby after all.
When I hear cursive singing I get the feeling the singer feels like they are being so unique and different. It drives me to madness
Same here lol
😂😂😂😂😂😂
You described my feelings exactly. It’s infuriating.
Same!!😂
@@VitaminsiobhanThat’s so wrong when people can’t understand the actual words you’re supposed be singing.
I think part of the dislike for curisve singing also has to do with the late 2010s obession with "unique" voices. I remember there used to be a whole fasination with voices that were distinct & easy to recognize, which sorta led to a rise in indie pop girls with nasally voices. However, I also remember seeing videos talking about the "authenticity" of these voices & whether or not this style was bad for vocal health. Because of that, I can understand why people got tired & annoyed of the curisve singing style. However, I also feel like some people used it as a way to degrade the artistry of some of these (mostly female) singers but that's a conversation for another time.
I'll just end this of by saying that many pop singers have weird ways of prouncining things (i.e "baby" as "baybay" or ariana garnde's "deadlay sea lion").
This.
Plenty of current male pop singers have a whiny, nasal drawl. Not a fan. If you're going to angst, bring some energy. Who wants a 3-minute pop song to feel like a trauma dump session?
They didn't have the guts to go gutural
@@rdrrr Literally millions of people, apparently. These trends popularized a _lot_ of weak bands over the last 20 years.
@@Trepanation21 I'm cynical enough to believe a substantial swathe of the population will like _whatever's_ on the radio regardless of quality.
Ariana isn’t cursive singing, her words were just unintelligible. There’s no indie accent or anything. I think that recently with her being in Wicked and getting theatre training is what helped her to annunciate her words properly. She definitely did so much better for the Eternal Sunshine album. I didn’t have to look up a single lyric to figure out what she was saying. That was a very pleasant surprise for me!
I don't disagree with the part about her annunciation, but she did actually have theater training already. She was on Broadway in a musical in her mid-teens (it was called 13). It's actually where her career started, even before Victorious.
Ariana could always annunciate, she just didn't for stylistic purposes. I don't know why people always think it wasn't on purpose. It's a lot harder to hit certain notes when singing unless you smooth out a word too.
She's also worked with Max Martin (aka the man that made Britney Spears do her stylistic baby voice) and has said that he would tell her to pronounce words a certain way she thought was stupid, till the final product showed it was perfect...
What? "I dont wanna argue and i dont wanna bite my tongue Yeahh i think i father die" i had to look for the tongue part lyric and then verse in "yes and" before the choir, like what?
As someone who’s also from Aotearoa, that’s not Lorde’s accent, that’s just her cursive singing. Since her debut, I interpreted her vocals as emulating an American accent.
I think the reason she gets classified as cursive singing, along with Halsey, is because of how they round out the words they’re singing. Along with other cursive singer vocal techniques!
@@gracied.3599 thanks- this is so interesting bc she sounds so clearly not American to me! I guess at the least we can just lump her in the “distinct voice” category
Yes. I feel like most Kiwi bands enunciate very well.
How does anyone use the accent excuse when so many diff singers from diff countries use the same annoying indie girl voice?
AOTEAROA MENTIONED ‼️‼️‼️ LONG LIVE THE MĀORI 🗿🗿🗿
The Chrish clip seems to be a parody of Royals. But yes, cursive singing is only tolerable when the song is uptempo which is why I can still enjoy Green Light but cringe whenever I hear Royals.
I wish people would sing in their actual voices again. The unique voices are a part of the beauty of the singing too. It can’t easily be replicated and some voices just carry their own power and soul behind it like no other. Also no one ever talks about this but Adam Levine, Gavin Degraw, Andy Grammer, Kris Allen, even John Mayer all have at least one song where you don’t know which one of them are singing unless you already know the song because they all sound so alike. I think they were all a lil popular around the same time but I’m not sure
Americans, look up ELLIE GOULDING she is literally patient zero for the classic 2010s cursive voice 😭 (still is amazing btw) Also I feel like Bjork is a great early example of early proto-cursive. Her vowel sounds and Icelandic accent I feel like I can hear influencing some 2010s indie girl voices
I like her song "lights".
Ellie's actually mentioned Bjork as an influence so that might explain how Ellie got her cursiveness.
She was on our radio back in the day lol we know who she is. Well, maybe not younger gen z.
Hun, we know who Ellie is lol she played on our radios a lot back then
Bjork and Regina Spektor
15:15 I’m glad you brought up Khalid as one of the male cursive singers. I never became of fan of his music because of hearing gibberish in his songs.
😂
I never really paid much attention to Khalid's cursiveness, because I just didn't like his voice. To me (and this is how I've always described his voice to people) his voice is like a brick; heavy and abrasive.
I haven’t watched this video fully yet but this type of singing, to me, always felt like a caricature of jazz/blues singing
I can definitely see that. i grew up loving jazz and blues singers so when I hear cursive singing it does sound very gimmicky to me.
Definitely
IT ISSS!!!!! Lol I just left a comment saying it’s their way of mimicking soul…
Yeah, that's what I just commented too. It's clearly just blues singing.
I call it “drunk little girl”, and I can’t wait for that style to disappear.
You mean Janis Joplin? :P
@@jezefelto333HEY! Settle Down
@@jezefelto333Janis could howl with the best of them. The complete opposite of what this video talks about lol
@@GregOrtiz absolutely! Was a joke. I myself am a great Janis fan :D
There’s so many lazy AI generates RUclips videos about pop and pop culture these days, your stuff is always so well researched and you always have the most interesting and nuanced takes!! Thank you 🙏
@@fiachra4623 I really appreciate this thank you!!
yeah, this is a quality deep dive.
I don't mind cursive singing. I mind whispering all your lyrics with no oomph at all
Whisper singing is the worst
Yea I'm on the same boat
Yes! There's not even a chorus to look forward to!
Both are shite
I still feel like people tried copying the way original legends had uniqueness. Elvis was singing in gibberish sometimes, Michael Jackson was singing in onomatopoeias with a lot of energy and Tina Turner was literally just yelling on key sometimes but they weren't trying to be unique they just were, And they sounded incredible doing it. They were authentically unique.
Those are almost all examples of people who had their music career literally beaten into them. "They weren't trying they just were" is messed up to say about MJ and Tina
@@kevinbissinger With respect to their individual childhoods and personal relationships, I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to say..… that would discredit their incomparable abilities.
@@kevinbissinger
I really don't understand what this comment is supposed to mean.
@@Thismeekpotato none of them were ever able to do anything authentically themselves. It was always what someone else forced them into doing. They not only had to try, but their lives depended on how hard they had to try
Shum on
Eddie Vedder was so incredible when he started out. His voice from the first album is amazing
SZA’s Kiss Me More verse ☠️
OMG thank you!!! I am 55, and I just described to my college friends how the kids are singing so annoyingly these days, and I used Tate McRae ‘ you broke me first’ as an example!! They were not understanding me. I feel so vindicated now-thanks for giving a name to this new awful , affected singing style that I hope dies quickly! Also, yarling 😂😂
So lazy and anyone can sing like that 😂
I think the ultimate example of cursive singing is Dance Monkey. Although I think the peak of cursive singing’s popularity was around 2015-2017 due to singers like Halsey and Grace VanderWaal
Omggg yes so accurate!!! I always lose the plot after 🎶Dance Monkey, Dance Monkey, Dance Monkey oh ohhhhh🎶 and just mumble my way through the rest😂lol
I was thinking of this too. I have no idea what the lyrics are besides the chorus.
That song is the cursive singing final boss 😬
@@Kimmy_Beeehaha me doing this exact thing as i read your comment
Cursive singing was probably most popular in the very early 2020’s. I feel like Billie eillish is the one who popularized it the most.
I think what you meant by hard consonants is what linguists call "stops"/"plosives" (p, b, t, d, k, g in English), which is when the air flow completely stops (hence the name lol) and then is released. In English, the stops that don't involve vibration of the vocal cords (p, t, k) are strongly aspirated, which is to say they are pronounced with a lot of extra air. This can make it so that when you're speaking/singing into a microphone, these sounds can stick out in a distracting way if the mic picks up on the extra air, especially when you're trying to sing softly. P's in particular are vulnerable to this because they're pronounced with your lips at the very front of the mouth. I'm not sure this is a great explanation but I hope it helps 😂
Also, I think it's worth nothing that In other languages like Spanish, this extra aspiration doesn't happen at all, so I wonder if this cursive singing style is less common in them overall...food for thought!
@@kevinm7517 ahhhh thank you for explaining this to me! This makes perfect sense, also esp for artists like Billie who’s a pretty quiet singer
@@naomi.cannibal of course! I'm a linguist so I can't help but jump on the opportunity to talk about it lol
@@kevinm7517Fellow linguist here and I'm glad to see another one! Good stuff.
From reading the comments I think everyone has a different view of what cursive singing is lol
It seems to me, a different way to say legato, lol.
Like fr, I'm reading these comments and it feels like they're just saying ANYONE that sings ANY song they don't know the words to or not singing like 90s RnB.
I think it truly stems all the way back to like Billy Holiday. Young girls (mostly) getting into old female jazz singers from way back in the day and taking that style to the extreme.
Good point. I think that’s definitely what Neo Soul singers like Erykah Badu started out doing. Then came all the copy cats.
I remember listening to Tate McRae years ago and I really hate how her nasal voice is paired with the overdone cursive singing. It's like Tones & I but for Gen Z, though tbh her recent era with pop production masks her vocal style. Szanese makes sense to me because she has a soulful touch to her music. Selena Gomez used to have hints of cursive singing in her Revival era (especially Good For You) which is very much of its time.
@@Greybell for a while I didn’t even realize she was the you broke me first/ uhoh girl- and idk how I didn’t bc her voice is very distinct
@@naomi.cannibalyeah seems like 2 different artist nowadays. I enjoy her new pop dance sound way better
Tate appealed to teens, her early voice was perfect for sad/breakup kind of themes. I remember most of us jamming to ybmf,r u ok? etc back when we were teens. imo her best quality is lyricism not the vocals.
@@vismayavijoy4818 I think her vocals are really good and she can indeed sing. It's just that I can't stand her stylistic choice.
Of Monsters and Men “Little Talk” always comes to mind first for me. Also, any Milky Chance song
The first cursive singer that i knew was none any other than Corinne Bailey Rae.
For me was that girl who sings M to the b
and let's be fair, most of her "cursive" technique can be blamed on her strong Yorkshire accent.
Regina Spektor pioneered the bananis and avocadis vocals, imo.
not the gworl pueeett ya reckwardsss awnnn
YOU RIGHT!
The litmus test I use to determine the cursiveness of a given vocal part is to listen for the words “I” and “just”.
At its most exaggerated, “I” becomes “ahh-ee” and “just” becomes “jyuh-ist”. Once I heard it I could never unhear it lol.
aa-ee is literally just how you pronounce "I", it's a diphthong, blended vowel. You either pronounce it completely by using "ah-ee" or you don't say the word completely and it's just "ah".
@@kylezo bro "i" is one syllable, "ahh-ee" is two.
OMG the way they sing "just" is exactly what I listen for too 😂😂😂
Another one is "haighht" for heart
You dont know what phonetics is, right? @@meepinandmorpin
I’m embarrassed to admit how many times I’ve rewatched that Camila Cabello I’ll Be Home for Christmas clip last year 😬
I probably replayed it as much as Dua Lipa's One Kiss video 😂
It’s just bad pronunciation.
Not cursive singing.
2:05 🎵 _I'll be home for _*_Kwis-moist_* 🎶 😂😅
😂😂😂
*hoime
Billie Holiday kind of did that but was really good at it
Yes ❤
Oh yeah, Billie Holiday is a great example.
Billie Holliday was my immediate first thought too. Honestly, I think all of this stems originally from an attempt to have a soulful/expressive voice like in classic jazz and blues and it’s just morphed into this strange beast over time.
@@schweisy That actually makes a lot of sense what you just said.
A lot of singers did this back then. I used to love going over my auntie's house just to listen to her play her "dusties". I think this is why I like SZA so much.
Cursive singing to me sounds like it has an underlying "baby voice" much like the yarl has an underlying "r" sound.
Jewel in the 1990s and then Sia from the 2000s are who I would blame, haha.
I agree about Jewel & it’s funny bc if I remember correctly, her claim to fame early in her career was yodeling, and it made her sound like a country artist at times. So then there’s a new question, is country music partially to blame?
Don't leave ma keys in the door-er enahnevah leaflet dows on the floor anymore cause!
Sia has some powerful belting and vocals to go along though, she has a very distinctive world that she crafts with her music. I’d argue that many of these other artists don’t have it do that.
Taking Halsey for example, she doesn’t have impressive vocals at all, this is known. She’s literally just distorting her pronunciation *for no reason*
Same, but I’d add Mumford and Sons and The Lumineers to this list too.
You are so right with Sia. Yes, she’s better at it, but just listen to “Destiny” from Zero 7 and you can hear a better, much more controlled version of it.
Billie Holiday, Rikki Lee Jones, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits…it’s called affect…I think the difference in modern times is that the hyper connectivity of the world has made trends more widespread and therefore more homogenous. Artists used to be limited to a much smaller sphere of influence.
Great comment. I agree
I think someone that's not mentioned enough for their cursive singing is Sofia Carson
She was also in Descendants, it was always so evident to me 😂
I think Björk is an inspiration for early adopters of cursive singing
Yes definitely! I don't remember really hearing that style before Bjork.
Don't drag her into it 😂
I hear it, though Bjork gets the excuse because her accent sounds similar to her singing. The same goes with Jessie Reyez.
Macy Gray has one of my favorite type of voices. I love raspy voices!
oooooo
But she talks like that
@alfie6441 Yeah, her voice never sounded like a put on affectionate, it's just an extension of her speaking voice.
A Fine Frenzy, and Fiest are the earliest examples i can think of.
The godmother of what you kids call Cursive singing is Alanis Morissette that weird vocalization she was doing in the mid '90s is definitely a influence on these female singers
@@BklynZu Omgg yesss how did I not see it you can def hear it in someone like Olivia Rodrigo. That weird pronunciation Is very prominent in her songs and she is also a fan of alanis lol.
@Mtv20O1 as soon as I heard these modern female singers Alanis came too mind 😆
I was waiting for someone to bring her up
I disagree. Alanis enunciates well even though her voice is quite distinctive. In Jagged, her voice changes quite a bit between songs. As another comment has mentioned, it seems like many singers are trying to emulate Amy Winehouse.
@terencejulius5352 you noticed that too 😆 it's very clear to see she is a major influence on this style of singing
I never had a word for this but I’ve been thinking about this for like 10+ years. Thank you
I think the genesis of this trend in modern western music probably traces straight back to Bob Dylan. That sort of slurred/spoken style became a shorthand for authenticity in the folk/rock scene with a bunch of copycat artists trying to pull it off in the 60’s. so it makes sense that it would eventually trickle down to new generations (albeit in strange variants).
And in Hollywood, the opposite of what you mentioned actually happened. People RESISTED dropping the accent. It was a New England accent and it was popular in Hollywood bc in the 30’s high society movies were all the rage. When different accents started popping up in the 50’s people associated those accents with poor/beatnik/untrained performers. So there was like a 20 year tug of war over this.
@@rickG913 omggg your second tidbit w the accents is interesting! I know they say it was done so everyone in the country could understand them, but it was def also associated with sounding “wealthier and classier”- never thought that might make Hollywood even more attached to it, esp in the glamorous Old Hollywood days, but makes perfect sense
@@naomi.cannibal people associated dropping the accent with method acting (which was a threat to the livelihood of traditionally trained actors).
I only recently learned the accent was real. I always assumed it was an affectation but apparently its how rich people in New England spoke in the early 20th century.
@@rickG913 yeah news to me thanks for sharing! I had learned it was like a Hollywood version of “news voice” lol
vocal historian! ty!
It began in the 1930's
I can understand Billie perfectly, the others I can hardly pick out any words and definitely not two words in a row. I think that’s why I stopped listening to new pop music about 10 years ago.
Same
“Who do we blame” 😭😭💀💀 finally someone hears me
I’d even like to think that Lacey from Flyleaf is one of the first people I’ve heard do the cursive singing when I was younger. Have a listen to their first self-titled album and you’ll hear it heavily
True!!! You’re the only one I saw make that connection. I love her voice though and the scream goes along with it well ~duality~
Naomi looks amazing, her hair is always gorgeous. Thanks also for the videos, we see that you put a lot of work and effort in every vídeo, with great ideas.
@@dinasilva9263 thank you 🫶🏾
The section on Seattle Grunge singers jogged a memory in my brain.
Alongside the genre influences you mentioned, there were specific artists that inspired the Grunge sound. Neil Young, of course, is a well-known precursor, but in-between was R.E.M.
Michael Stipe's vocals, especially on their earlier albums, were nearly indecipherable. He was tagged as a mumbler, but I think he was bending vowels & playing with pronunciation to fit with the mood & vibe of the music + the lyrics held up under scrutiny.
I actually think that Halsey's tone is a mix of cursive and Lana Del Rey's kind of baby voice, especially given how big Lana was around the time Halsey debuted.
Same for Lorde, perhaps...
Brooooo. I never knew what this was called. It’s always driven me up a wall.
Thank you!
Hot take: Toni Braxton is an originator of cursive singing. Of course Babyface made her emphasize it more (act like you have water in your mouth), but yeah
True
You're right.
Scrolled thru too many comments b4 someone mentioned Toni Braxton. 1st person I thought of
I always called it baby-talk singing.
I've been looking for the word for what Eddie Vedder is doing ever since the 90s! Yarling, amazing.
I heard it's all about the wovels - in pop music "ee" sound is melodic and cute, while "eh", "oo" and "ah" sound dull, so inserting "ee" in front of them instantly makes the voice softer and more interesting to listen to, especially coupled with soft "ch" and "sh". Yarling is the same - "arrr" sounds rough and manly, so you just add those "arrrs" to every syllable and your song is instantly more tough and rock-y. :)
Halsey definitelyyyyyy is who comes to my mind with the term cursive singing 😂
Thank you. I've always loved yarling and cursive singing, but never knew what they were called.
I think people get tired of it because it sounds inauthentic and lazy. It's one thing if an artist actually has an accent like that but when they don't it just seems forced and like they're not using their full voice. P.S. Patrick Stump does not get brought up enough in the cursive singer convo
I think there’s a difference between lack of enunciation and cursive singing…lack of enunciation is one of the characteristics of cursive singing but it doesn’t mean everyone who doesn’t enunciate is by default cursive singing. That’s where I’d put Patrick Stump (and his enunciation has definitely improved over the years too!) Same thing with Ariana Grande, her enunciation is trash, but she’s not a cursive singer.
Blondie does this in her singing, especially in Heart of Glass. I just realized this! But how is it that I love her singing as opposed to most current pop stars? The only ones I can really tolerate are artists like Billy Ellish and Khalid. Weird!
Heart of Glass - glad I’m not the only one to think of this!! I haven’t thought about it in this context much yet, but I think part of what makes that vocal performance more “tolerable” (and, imo, interesting) is that a lot of it is done crisply on-the-beat. This “rigidity” contrasts with the legato vowels and the changes in volume. She also nimbly transitions between multiple registers, so it’s not ALL breathy baby falsetto.
…I first became obsessed with this song in 2008 and I guess it’s lived rent free in my head ever since lol
@@latestar77 Yes, that's exactly it!! That's why I love it so much. You put it into words perfectly.
I've even heard cursive singing becoming a thing in Kpop, with voices like Rosé from Blackpink, Minnie from (G)I-DLE, Swan from Purple Kiss, Harvey from XG, and BOL4 to name a few.
Bae from NMIXX as well
I loveeee Minnie voice it is so satisfying
Soloist Seori
keeho from p1harmony too
bts jimin is definitely the male version of cursive singing..
Thanks for this! I'm very disconnected from most music made after the 90s and I learned a ton - subscribed!
Chappell Roan’s first album before she was dropped by Atlantic is like 75% this heavy cursive singing
Yeah, you can also kind of hear it in Naked In Manhattan. Honestly, I'm kind of glad she dropped it lol
yes !!! i actually rediscovered “bitter” recently because it popped up on my daylist and when i heard it again and recognised it, i checked the artist after having it stuck in my head for like 5 years, it was chappell !!! i was so surprised. i got into chappell recently now that she’s blown up and wqs upset that it took me so long to know about her cos she’s my favourite artist at the moment, but honestly upon reflection, i don’t think i would’ve been a fan despite coming across her around 2018 probably.
@@mahyuhhhYes! I never heard Bitter before a month ago when I listened to that whole album but I literally thought “ugh, I hope one day she re-records this (or even just records a live version) in her normal singing voice without the cursive!!”
I subscribed because you're video finally explained what I've been trying to tell people about the newer singing style. Cursive singing finally have a word for it. Funny how you brought up the Creed singer. I instantly thought of him when the video started. That style was so 90's male rock band. Nobody really does it anymore and its been replaced with cursive singing. I guess every era has a style. Like tne 80's had a lot of male singers that sound like vampires to me. I call it vampire singing. David Bowie as an example. I love vampire singing. Ok. I went off. I just love this topic.
This video had me weak 😂
Ultimate male cursive singer: Robert Pattinson. Never forget Never Think. 😭
I like how the clip after saying that Eddie Vedder's sound wasn't as exaggerated as others was him literally overdoing it. Classic.
Halsey may be credited for popularizing this type of singing, but she still has her own sound to her voice. The person I think about the most of this way of singing is Jessie Reyez and from there we get Camila Cabello and then now Tate McRae and they all sound the literal same irritating.
Jessie Reyes is the worst offender, I cannot stand it one bit.
It began in the 1930's
Loveeeeee your high quality and approachable research!!!!!
Shocked she didn’t mention Regina Spektor
I feel.like her sound is a little.... sharper? Than the singers mentioned here. Maybe more calligraphy than cursive?
this is the reason I overlook soo many new artists
I always feel like cursive singing predates someone like a SZA. I could be wrong.
@@nicolesherman8974 oh for sure!! And girllll I didn’t even recognize u for a second cause u changed ur pfp!! Gorgeous!
I trace it back to Jewel 🤷🏽♀️
It began in the 1930's
Ray Charles! Big influence on pop singing for decades, generations of singers emulate his style or derivatives of his style. Great video!
I always learn something new from you vids! The tie back to 90s rock singing styles was so interesting
*your
Go way back, it's always been around. I had an album I loved as a kid from an album from Ricki Lee Jones "The Flying Cowboys" "Rodeo Girl" was the one I remember most, and she's been around since all the others you mentioned.
Just coming to say my regular "Hi, Naomi" love you and thank you for enriching me 🇧🇷🐝
@@raphaelcruzx heyyyy! Have a good weekend 💕
Wow, this super insightful. Thank you so much. As a longtime musician (but someone who skipped 2000s pop) who’s stepping into music production, this fills a big gap in my knowledge of vocal style.
I appreciate that you point at the possible through line from blues and jazz to certain popular singers and grunge of the 90s to indie pop.
Cursive as “A trans-Atlantic accent of pop.” Nice :)
I hear Lorde’s vocals a combo of cursive-ish stylization and her natural voice (accent).
Looking forward to checking out more of your videos 🙏🏽
i don’t think Billie is very associated with cursive singing really?? her voice, especially in her debut, was just airy and quiet so i can understand ppl having a hard time making out her lyrics. but i wouldn’t say she’s a cursive singer, she doesn’t have that distinctive style, she kinda does her own thing.
Cope
This video didnt touch on it more specifically, but the airy vocals _is_ intrinsic to the cursive style. Billie's excellent, so I give her much more of a pass due to her obvious powerful talent, but the airy indie girl voice is _extremely_ prevalent. It's absolutely closely related and overlapped with the uninspired cursive style.
Hi patdon me but listening to your deeply multifaceted and nuanced discourse gives me hope and joy.
If done well, cursive singing helps the whole song just flow and adds personality in a way. Halsey and SZA do it the best, in my opinion.
Halsey, especially. They really do have such a distinct way of doing it!
In Shoegaze and Dreampop music from the 90's most of the female vocals are buried in the mix and the lyrics are hard to understand, so nothing new here. Awesome video!
omg the singer of the Decemberists does this extra vowel thing and it's bugged me for YEARS not having a way to describe it.
I actually thought he had a speech impediment the first time I heard it.
Tears = Tee-yars I love his style.
The first time I became aware of this phenomenon was when Liz Gillies parodied cursive singing on her instagram… I wonder if anyone remembers this as well. 😂 Definitely was around the rise of Halsey because I instantly thought of her when I watched Liz’s posts.
You nailed this and I haaaaaaaate cursive singing. I can get over it for a very talented singer or a particularly catchy song - SZA is an artist I’ll make exceptions for, but I feel like most of her songs sound like she’s singing in cursive - but I don’t like it, especially when it’s how they sing all the time. Ariana Grande definitely does it, but I’d say less often than others known for it, and more so on her newer stuff.
Ariana doesn't really mispronounce words. She just cannot be understood. These are 2 different things lmao
Not really, Ariana’s enunciation is the best on her newer stuff bc of the wicked movie
@@star0nyxidk why people keep saying this. I understand her perfectly fine 🤷🏽♀️
since 2016 ive been telling my sister about singers singing the same, im glad you made this video im glad to not be the only one!
We can also go back to the 80's acts like Cyndi Lauper. When I was younger, I didn't know what she was saying, but I still enjoyed every second of it.
Ex. ".... in the midle of night.... they wanna have fun. " 😂 (This is all I could decipher)
Lyric videos changed the game 😅
God remember the days of having to look the lyrics up in the little booklet that came along with the CD
Do bands still even do this...?
So true, I loved this song when I was little when it came out, yes I'm that old, but it's like, "wah n di woah king day is done oh girls they wanna have fun" - I do think this is a result of her East coast accent, but yeah, aside from the song titular lyric, I couldn't understand anything she was saying in that song. @@saiyamoru
Very informative video. Yes, there are some disgusting, insincere, over the top copycats, but for the most part, I just call it tone color. One of my favorite examples? Isaac Slade, original lead vocalist for The Fray. I'm a singer, and that man taught me a new way to extract emotion from words.
Summer Walker is definitely a mainstream r&b cursive singer
True
Honestly, with Billie Eilish, it kinda feels like she's riffing on her namesake. Like a modernized imitation of Billie Holiday. Reminds me a bit of her rendition of "I'll Be Seeing You." It's definitely not 1:1 mapping, but to me it sounds like Billie inspired Billie.
My whole reason for looking up the rapper Wynne was because we have the same name, so I find it plausible at least, especially given how beloved Holiday still is.
I feel like erykah badu paved the way for a very particular kind of cursive singing to dominate rnb, i hear it a lot in artists like doja cat, kali uchis and ravyn lenae. Nasally, a lot of head voice and exaggerating vowels
Kali??? Nah that girl got a VOICE on her. Maybe in her earlier works but from her second album onwards she's leaned more into that soulful side of her voice
@MotherOxen I never said kali can't sing ❤ she is hands down one of the best vocalists out of the pop girls. But she definitely has a quirky way of pronouncing things, it's just a stylistic choice
Agreed
I have no idea why this video popped up in my feed, but I'm glad it did, as heretofore I'd never even _remotely_ heard of the concept of "cursive singing"--but now that you've called my attention to it...yeah, I _finally_ have a word to describe that specific style of vocal delivery! Thanks! And, yeah, this is not a recent development: it goes all the way back to jazz standards in the 1950s.
Yall remember that guy singing bout bananas and avocados on Vine? Let's blame him. ---AHHH SHE REFERENCED IT!
I think that guy was imitating Alt J.
Good video! I never knew this was called "cursive singing" but noticed it a while back. It used to be something that distinguished a few artists until many others started overdoing it.
If you want to know where cursive singing heavily evolved from it’s called Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries.
Only, it was her Irish accent not an intentional singing style. Im not saying she sang in cursive; I’m saying thats where it evolved from. Those indie bands picked it up and,
probably with a few other influences, it has metastasized into “cursive singing.”
Everytime I hear one of these light, airy mumble singers? like Billy Eyelash, that have a light upward inflection on certain vowels all i can hear is Dolores.
She’s the best.
It actually comes from an old style of Irish singing but it was definitely very noticeable in Delores’ voice. It seems to be a natural thing for most Irish vocalists.
I believe it is called scrying.
Eddie Vedder is the King of "Yarling".
Love Pearl Jam.
Layne was up there too
@@x85gilreathI’m struggling to think of any song where that type of affect is prevalent. Especially on their self titled album
@@kooliusmobile1945 maybe you're right. Maybe it's people doing bad imitations of Layne singing (Godsmack comes to mind) where they start yarling
Check out Cocteau Twins and CocoRosie. Distinct voices that sound genuine. I love Tori Amos too and yeah sometimes she doesn’t annunciate her lyrics especially her earlier work
Coctaeu twins and their singer are Scottish so thats a huge reason why she says things different. Tori is in a similar high whisper tone, she sings in. Due to the amount of much more air it takes to sing in this register, which make you under annunciate a lot of things as a result. But i know Tori is also jazz influenced as well.
@@ang3lica2k Tori was often called pretentious in that 90’s due to the way she’d sing. She over annunciates a lot as if she’s trying to stretch and twist words to go along with her musical arrangements. I love her music but certain lyrics did annoy me at times
I SAW HALSEY AND CLICKED
same here. The only artist i'll stan
Facts 😂😂
The only artist I actively stan and look forward to updates from them!
I don't pay attention to modern artists but as a grunge fan this is FASCINATING to learn. Great work, Naomi!
and fuck the trans-Atlantic accent!!!
Lacy Sturm from Flyleaf comes to my mind too❤ love this topic and😮 thanks for the term "yarling" yes that is totally the sound that fits those grunge singers that lurking "r" !!
She always had such an... _odd_ pronunciation to her words. Always felt like she was adding extra vowels into her words.
@@TheLockdownKidNYC true! Had no clue what I was supposed to be singing until I looked up lyrics 😂
@@Suspiracy
It's exemplified in how she says "spoken" in "Fully Alive." But I definitely wouldn't call it cursive singing. Just...marble mouth.
I've been trying to put my finger on this for yeeeeears! Drives me mental!
I think everyone has a different opinion on who cursive sings and what it sounds like. Some people say Ariana from the lack of pronunciation, and some say it’s a strictly Halsey accent thing. Idk if I agree with some of these comments, but ik a lot of people wouldn’t agree/don’t say that Tate McRae does it. I think she’s the biggest example. I don’t hear it with Olivia, I just think she doesn’t swallow while she’s singing so you can hear something there. Also I love Halseys voice 😭
Olivia obv has a teeth/jaw problem (kinda like a lisp) that you can see even when she's talking in interviews. It wasn’t as noticeable during her first album interviews, but it became more apparent in her GUTS interviews, like in Pitchfork and Capital One
Edited:
I initially thought she was chewing gum in every interview lol bc it sounded that way. But then, I don’t see her as someone who would do that, given that it could be considered rude