At the risk of sounding like a feminist musicologist, I’d like to muse a bit about the trend for childlike/disconnected women’s voices in Pop music. I’m just not comfortable with it. I agree that the effect of a light, breathy vocal can be fetching, and a straight, clear one very pretty, but except in rare cases, this is just not an adult woman’s voice. Sure, it’s charming to hear someone sing like a 16-year-old, when she really is 16. But as someone who thinks about the psychology of voices and representation, it perturbs me that women can’t act their age, be strong, be womanly, textured, throaty.  In my opinion, although I might be exaggerating, it’s a degree away from the musical equivalent of the schoolgirl fetish in Japan. This observation hit me the other day when I heard a track by indie breakout band, The Bird and the Bee . Let me add the caveat that I do like this track, and a few reliable music-loving sources recommended it to me.

Current female singers who go for it and get a thumbs up from me for doing so — Fiona Apple (of course)  Imogen Heap, Karen Matheson(of Capercailie) Cat Power… and Christina Aguilera. But of course, there’s no arguing with taste, or the creative choices which a performer makes. I just think singing is most interesting when it’s genuine.