We measured pop music’s falsetto obsession

[@Vox]

Thanks so much for watching the video! It was a challenging task figuring out the songs I wanted to feature in the story - there were thousands to choose from. So, I made.... a Spotify playlist (sorry Pandora). It's called "Give Me a Falsetto," and you can find it in the link in the description box above or by searching for it in the Spotify app. What's you favorite falsetto heavy song? Clarification: Pandora's library is comparable to other music streaming services. 2 million refers to the number of songs that have been analyzed through their Music Genome Project

[@themroc8231]

My favorites might be Curtis Mayfield's "Right on to the Darkness", Smokey Robinson and the Miracle's (Come round here) I'm the one you need, and also a lot of Brian Wilson songs.

[@DoDo.444]

guys what is the name of the type this video

[@DoDo.444]

no bro i mean the editting of the video not the animation but the type of video name not the title or the animation

[@TheJayWay]

The ones I thought of as I watched this video were Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - A Fork in The Road/ Ooh Baby Baby and Prince - Baby.

[@fajarsetiawan8665]

Anything from EWF!!!!

[@paritoshsingh588]

Snoop Dogg also sings high

[@TrumanStalls18]

Paritosh Singh ha-ha

[@hdihiiehei]

always

[@dinglemccringleberry6258]

aha ha

[@jaga9394]

Perhaps higher than everybody else.

[@lalakuma9]

Ayyy

[@jaymendoza4616]

I didn't know a streaming platform would readily give their data for this kind of study. Kudos to Pandora for democratizing data and allowing this to be possible!

[@andrewpridmore1803]

Jeremy Mendoza Most of them are actually very open about their data; they benefit a lot from people doing their own studies and finding trends

[@JoshHoPersonal]

you can get these data from their API

[@amanatee27]

+

[@MrTheSmoon]

i guess the tags are exposed anyway and they just avoided having to crawl all the tags

[@damsapollo]

should I switch to Pandora though? I am currently using Spotify.

[@DannySullivanMusic]

Falsetto males dominating the charts: Adele: Hello, it's me

[@cedrickvidal1362]

LoL

[@namjesus1998]

two words- zayn malik

[@namjesus1998]

@Anonymous User 3 octaves vocal range with bad singing technique zayn's vocal range is 3 octaves too

[@kitsothemotifvideos4702]

😂😂😂

[@makiyahadams2892]

the amount of work that went into this video>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[@gqh007]

Record companies with copyright claims: I’m gonna end this guy’s whole career

[@buttonpusher3786]

And yet it seemed to prove nothing. Only that men have been singing with high voices for a while.

[@frien_d]

Only that it's the 1600s all over again.

[@MysteryMii]

SansPeppaShrekterGrifpig _ 1. This falls under fair use. 2. Even then, I’m pretty sure they licensed these songs.

[@gqh007]

MysteryMii word

[@icydeadcrusher]

As a data scientist this was a refreshing piece, seeing as very rarely things are properly quantified in the media. It also gives a pretty good peek into the everyday challenges of data analysis, complete from starting at a naiive question to having to qualify your data to defining sometimes somewhat arbitrary thresholds that can be the pitfall of any study. More like this please!

[@MultiWilliam15]

I'm a data analyst as well and though I think they could've made a better job at cleaning data/reducing "noise", I appreciated the use of a database to justify the perceived trends.

[@aleksandarkatic2621]

What are your opinions about becoming a data scientist? Are you happy with your job? Thinking about becoming one, so i'm looking for someone else's view on it.

[@papimew2672]

@@aleksandarkatic2621 date scientist is the shittest job ever 😆😆

[@aazdu03]

Also unrelated but i also would want to talk with you about the data scientist job , i'm also considering working in that field and i would really like to know more about that before choosing something related to this in my studies (engineering school)

[@RoofBeamsCarpenter]

Asap y GitHub links!!

[@rosemfall6717]

now the next question is do people really love falsetto this much or do mainstream artists just have a tendency to stick with something they've seen work

[@99temporal]

Man(i mean, woman), i f**ing hate falsetos... it makes my head hurts a lot this trend is terrible in my opinion

[@nagbo13]

Great question. I think people naturally are drawn to the falsetto because they intuitively understand that they are observing a feat of vocal athleticism. So it would have been interesting for this study to also point out the exceptions to the falsetto trend, i.e. identify the outlier songs which were also unusually popular (assuming there were any) but which didn't use falsetto at all or very much, and then determine what musical elements made those outlying songs relatively successful anyway.

[@absoluteanarchyproductions8432]

I don't know about you, but I love it!

[@closedacc5321]

Im ok with falsetto if it’s done right. If the notes align to be high it’s better then sudden bursts of high notes. I also love it if it’s to convey an emotion that goes along with the story of the song. If the main character (the singer for instance) is supposed to feel emotional suffering then they scream to let it all out.

[@stefannita3439]

Well if people didn't like it, it would stop selling, and then we wouldn't see it on the charts lol

[@aileincortez94]

THAT'S A LOT OF RESEARCH FOR A 16 MINUTE VIDEO. AMAZING.

[@bluefirexde]

Now imagine, there also went work into producing the video. So even more work on top of the research.

[@CVerse]

Now imagine if this is what they did for their political videos

[@BeastlyAnteater]

Imagine that they did all that research and added all that production value but actually made an interesting video

[@JorgeGeorgeD]

They also get a lot of money and brand recognition for a 16 minute video.

[@johnames6430]

@@bluefirexde now imagine if this video went somewhere and actually had a point

[@MichaelGraybill]

So impressed with Pandora for data generosity. Great work on this one Vox.

[@Samuraiwavy]

Michael Graybill get a Pandora account for one month. Music choice isn’t as high as Spotify’s but their shuffle is amazing. When you mix two are more artist with one station they zero in on the sound and vibe you want to the t

[@carlitoxb110]

I'm using pandora once again just because of that

[@dyslexicstoner2408]

@@carlitoxb110 But you can access any music company's data through their API or by asking. Spotify even has public tags for every song

[@GuyDandy]

Ain't no love for my basses & baritones. Shout out to the David Bowie ranged singers out there.

[@andriusgailiunas3307]

Who, at least in recordings, has a tenor range, actually. No mortal baritone I know can hit a B♭ like the one in Life one Mars. Though live, it seems he sang it at least two semitones lower.

[@autumnhomer9786]

GuyDandy And Prince for having a great vocal range.

[@Iyashikei-t4u]

David Bowie? How about Elvis?

[@Zoronii]

My manz Frank Sinatra

[@multiwebinc]

They did mention a Guns N Roses song and Axl Rose's range is more than an octave wider than Bowie's was.

[@fomalhaut_the_great]

me, a baritone, wanting to sing along to catchy radio songs: *silent crying*

[@andrewstaley7672]

me too man, me too

[@noname-es4cy]

buddy I'm a bass......big cri.....

[@juanpablo_san]

Lets make a new trend 😎

[@DuckReconMajor]

@@juanpablo_san yesssssss

[@juniorlove5804]

I'm a baritone and I sing pop music, not famous yet or made too much progress but it's possible. Come on out there and let's sing!

[@winfieldmozlington1546]

These guys really f***ing love data

[@-ivan]

not when it comes to politics

[@joshuawheeler3255]

And they are really bad at interpreting it objectively

[@eckhart5443]

@@joshuawheeler3255 Data like this is just really hard to interpret. What do you base your opinion on, if there is little to no actual data on how it is perceived, no studies on the matter, no experts to talk to?

[@larahill82]

because...... algorithm, right?

[@ROBOMAN9110]

It's pronounced data And data it just makes my brain go "yes, this is good"

[@TheBirdThatWhistles]

I thought this video was gonna attempt explaining why falsetto's are so popular

[@Lucas-DX]

Yeah... Never expect too much from Vox

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

I feel like this happens a lot which is why it took me so long to watch this. They start out with an interesting question, do all this groundwork to answer it, then say "it really do be like it is" and end the video there.

[@BedroomPianist]

How could they? It's way harder to measure sentiment and cultural shifts than just data sets with a programming language. What, they gonna go deep into the history of the castrati and try to explain why humans have been fascinated with people (especially men) singing high notes?

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

@@BedroomPianist ask them not us. They're the ones who chose the title and why they were looking for the data.

[@JadetheGoober]

“We measured” that’s what the title said

[@yashvadapalli7658]

Pandora: How much data do you want? Vox: yeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeSSSSSSsssssSSSS

[@MrTomaat23]

Vox: All your data are belong to us.

[@npip99]

I laughed so hard when Adele's "Hello" was far more deep and masculine than any of the male's.

[@ChrisPollitt]

+

[@troliskimosko]

+

[@GVike]

You should hear "Goodbye Horses" by Lazarus Q or "Automatic" by The Pointer Sisters...

[@acharich]

Same.. 😂😂😂

[@tylerhackner9731]

IKR? 😂

[@villainoir]

I really appreciate that you put the research into an understandable video instead of publishing it in an academic journal

[@joel-cx7hm]

also smh how can they exclude the choir dude with a helium balloon

[@mushi251]

Joel Lim yoo for real. Mad disrespect 😤

[@fonsineknshr]

'cause he essentially only did a cover of the choir song AND did not chart. But it would be nice if they mentioned him, or even better show the video of him whipping out the helium baloon.

[@xoxy-_-3401]

Wht does smh mean

[@456bulgogi]

oooOOOOOOoooooooooh

[@brianwong7347]

Oooh 1k

[@Louis-zy4xp]

Good guys over at Pandora, Thank you.

[@triggahappyyt5420]

Michael Jackson "don't stop till u get enough" is a classic and the track with Barry gibb and MJ is a great track showing there vocals.

[@cocopops4974]

They should have put I wanna be your lover by Prince

[@WoWMalazar]

The Bee Gees discovered their distinctive falsetto by accident while warming up their voices in studio. The rest is history :)

[@FlowerBoyWorld]

pretty sure they copied black artists like everything else they did lol

[@Pantano63]

@@FlowerBoyWorld blacks copied English from whites like everything else they did lol

[@3spi227]

leonardo h this is the most white privileged comment ive ever seen, pure disgust

[@Pantano63]

@@3spi227 I'm not white, though. Just wanted to show how ridiculous that "stealing" statement was.

[@DrP225]

leonardo h except in no way did you actually show that 😂 how would ambiguities surrounding the origin of singing techniques compare to long term colonization/assimilation/enslavement etc. weak at best

[@mlandry052209]

For a while Black Artists were not allowed to chart on the Billboard Top 100. So you may be missing data on one of the Greatest Falsetto Voices ever Russell Thompkins Jr., from the Stylistics.

[@sharstarg2414]

Love how they went from a yodeling to RADIOHEAD? A lot of missing data🤦🏾‍♀️

[@jsamc]

Dude caucasians are behind this video and the Stylistics did not really cross over.

[@iheartsanman]

I would just like to thank you. This comment just got me into the stylistics :)

[@sayhiku]

This would be interesting as part of the 1619 project!

[@colonelpharoahsanders9128]

The first black artist to TOP the Hot 100 was in the '50s. I'm sure the Stylistics, from a few decades later, are in there.

[@AP-sm2uq]

whoever engineered the audio for this video is amazing.

[@dolphinoegglet7263]

This could've been a PhD thesis

[@Nadia1989]

@@Ryan-ee5lp Music students, physicists, sound engineers, singers...

[@a0nima]

@@Nadia1989 don't forget musicologists!!!! :)

[@gerdforster883]

More like the (really good) groundwork from which to develop one. You need a research angle for a good thesis. Something along the lines of why the use of falsetto in pop music has the spikes shown in this video.

[@Atomrofl42]

Not really

[@Dan_d00d]

its enough to start a phd level of work for a thesis. but not an entire one . it would generate enough data to make figures for maybe 1 of 3 or chapters of a full 3-5 yr study. youtube is small bites. phd is like an anaconda eating a hippo

[@KungFuPanda1223]

"this is a chart that has never been seen before" *replays video* liar

[@Sheshe661972]

🤣🤣🤣

[@sharstarg2414]

In 2019 she says this...🙄

[@321123Nelly]

U genius

[@JJ-zn3vt]

Kssse music

[@alvarohernani6645]

But my lord, is that, legal?

[@whitelightsheddinweedsmokin]

Everyone involved in filming this video was such a good teacher, man I don't think I've ever learned so much about vocals in my life!

[@CuriosityCulture]

I came here for those sweet smooth animations

[@renzpaoloogena1900]

Same here!

[@ShartinScorsese]

Estelle is the OG!!!

[@LeoneBeats]

Whoever worked on editing this video is a madman! Definetly deserves a raise :). Very well done if you're reading this just know that I have huge respect for you!

[@Emily-ce7hd]

Thank you so much for explaining your reasoning behind your stats interpretations! It makes a much more complete story as opposed to just saying "These are the stats, trust me"

[@BarelyNoticeable]

6:24 “Prove it” “EEEEEEOOoooooOOOEEEEEEEEOOooooOO” “Perfect.” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@aclavero2181]

Anne Tan he got that vibrato though

[@danieleckert5008]

6:24 "prove it" - "uuuoooouuuu" - "perfect"

[@Nova_the_starcatcher]

I always did think it funny how there are so many low voiced women compared to all the high voiced men

[@speakshh.1302]

Katelyn Stewart that’s true. Almost like men try to sing like women and women try to sing like men😂

[@Aggarius]

I wish more women had lower areas in their songs

[@connorwilde1471]

There’s a certain “money spot” in the vocal range where the vocals cut the hardest. Both men and women aim for this same range.

[@elineverstraeten1872]

I'm not an expert, but I think if a woman sung a lot of these songs with the same pitch, it would be considered 'low' (and same in reverse)

[@Loufi303]

​It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple: one must be a woman manly, or a man womanly Virginia Woolf

[@annibobonnie]

Ladies love falsetto because we can sing along easier

[@kotosqoposrly]

That is how falsetto is regarded as. Lazy.

[@mjtubeme]

Ohhhhhhhhhh...............

[@EpicStuffMan1000]

and in males high falsetto range is easier to come by than high chest range

[@acharich]

😂😂😂

[@tylerhackner9731]

Yeah with males falsetto is better for them to use than straight up chest belting.

[@THRASHattack66]

There’s something very pleasing about high frequencies. High playing trumpet players like Doc Severinsen and Maynard Ferguson are considered legendary. Heavy metal was also built on the falsetto likings of singers like Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson.

[@poggergamer3919]

Men with falsetto: exists Roger Taylor: hold my car

[@zigguratjones6458]

I don't know who that is

[@poggergamer3919]

He’s the drummer for queen

[@thiccwalrus5602]

Ziggurat Jones listen ‘in the lap of gods’ by queen

[@swarnalidutta887]

Galileo galileo...

[@meinherzbrennt9007]

Also Roger Taylor: If I go higher, only dogs will hear it!

[@penguin5096]

How does vox escape from their videos being claimed with all these song clips.

[@davidpaulnormanmusic]

Some animals are more equal than others.

[@acharich]

Actually, this video currently has 7 songs claimed, so I wonder if they'd get any ad revenue from it in the end.. 💭💭💭

[@crepperwlp]

If i'm not wrong there's a limit of some seconds for songs to be used in YT videos. Without being striked I mean.

[@kylie2461]

Because it's used under fair use for educational purposes

[@jorgeeduardodussanvillanue46]

They can use song clips of up to 8 seconds. Also as a growing media company you'd expect they contact the labels and companies that own the songs and probably ask for permission or provide royalties from the videos to the companies when they use songs for longer than 8 seconds.

[@williejr71williams22]

Michael Jackson " Don't stop to you get enough " that's a 10 for sure!

[@a.block.of.tofu.]

I've personally always been a big fan of lower voices in music and gravitate more towards that. From someone who has always wondered why so much music was sung so high this video was very interesting to me.

[@LimeyLassen]

I wonder if country music focuses on bass to distinguish themselves from other genres.

[@ezzong]

@@LimeyLassen country music were always identical with baritone/bass vocal long time before high register obsession of modern pop music started. In the topic of distinguishing country music from pop music, these days the popular country music scene do the exact opposite of that, worst offender: Florida Georgia Line, Sam Hunt etc.

[@a.block.of.tofu.]

@@LimeyLassen I'm not sure, I dont listen to country personally but my family does and I'd say like the person above that modern country isnt really focusing in differentiating itself from pop music much at all these days. But vocalists like Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode, Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears, Ruki from the Gazette all have vocals that tends to be quite deep and I really enjoy it. That's not to say I dont enjoy high vocals at all, even the examples I just mentioned show range and maybe that's why low vocals are interesting to me because it's a range not often shown these days.

[@rosacastellanos3071]

But the video doesn't explain the reason. It's expositive

[@leetorry]

I havent finished the video but metal is a genre that is dominated by high falsettos and low growls.

[@JulienNeel]

This was a fantastic video. The quality and amount of work put into this project is worthy of a scientific paper publication.

[@driziiD]

I need a 1970s falsetto playlist for my health!

[@crappymoodstuff3922]

Roger Taylor-

[@areguapiri]

For true falsetto greatness, one must listen to....Philip Bailey, Smokey Robinson, Barry Gibb, Prince, Bobby Debarge (not El Debarge), Michael Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Russell Thompkins Jr. (The Stylistics), Elton John's "Benny and the Jets"....

[@Kamala_b]

@@areguapiri Add the Moments, Dells, Tavares and the Deele.

[@akinmytua4680]

Thank you Pandora for letting this happen

[@raspas99]

And then they created a Spotify playlist and wrote sorry Pandora in the comment below.

[@niacortes]

I'm tone-deaf so music has never been my thing, but I like your videos because I can understand a whole side of music I would have never known and now I enjoy listening to different genres, it's not background noise anymore, thank you so much!

[@SianaGearz]

I love how much effort Estelle put into this!

[@MarvinNeumannOfficial]

These kinds of videos are just absolutely amazing! So well done. So restive. So good looking. I love the graphics, the playfulness and above all the information presented!

[@WickedPlaysChannel]

This is amazing! Earworm is the best series ever

[@azouachili]

I think BORDERS is the best. This one is great, too.

[@AaronPeggStudio]

Y’all missing out on alllllll the black artists in the 1960s and 1970s!

[@caramelkisses8857]

Aaron Pegg exactly they had SERIOUS FALSETTO! 🤷🏽‍♀️

[@elsongs]

All of the Vox videos are just whitesplaining.

[@theendofnge9583]

elsongs tbh they showed a lot of black artist on this vid but yeah i agree with the statement pf not showing them from the 60s and 70s

[@AfferbeckBeats]

Apart from all those times in the video they show black artists from that time?

[@coffeewentcold]

They literally put Marvin Gaye on the thumbnail of the video, but no song of his is featured even once :/

[@stephen_l1474]

This video is freaking amazing. Hoping to see more of these plzzz

[@HighPriestessAngelique]

By far my favorite study by Vox, much appreciation 🙏🏻

[@carolinebaker6807]

I wish this video had talked about the widespread shift to FM radio over AM in the 80 and 90s. AM radio had much worse broadcasting and so singing high made it easier for artists to be heard among the interference and lower audio fidelity of AM broadcasting systems. I'm not surprised that the 90s saw falsetto falling, as that was the time when most radio stations that broadcast popular music switched to FM. I was pretty surprised that this video didn't mention it at all. Would love to see a follow up to this video that talks about that!

[@gbrading]

The Bee Gees complete reinvention of their sound in the 1970s is I think something that isn't often examined. Before the Disco era they were a well regarded but kind of middle of the road group. Disco catapulted them into the stratosphere, and their distinctive falsetto sound definitely formulated into their success.

[@dr.lyleevans6915]

I’m a huge music buff. I’ve loved “to love somebody” for years and wondered how they pulled off that style during the disco era (I falsely assumed that they were a disco band that only lasted with the genre). Years later found out it was from the late 60’s not late 70’ when stayin alive, Saturday night fever etc came out.

[@JaredJTan]

What's even crazier is that the Gibbs wrote the songs for Saturday Night Fever "virtually in a single weekend", having never released a disco song before that.

[@lucasm4299]

@@dr.lyleevans6915 How can you be a music buff and assume that The Bee Gees were only around in the late 70’s?? 😢

[@dr.lyleevans6915]

@@lucasm4299 That was my entire point: it’s hard to believe I didn’t know that. To be fair I was probably still a teenager when I realized this (To love somebody was one of my favorite songs growing up, and it always made me wonder where the large difference in genre came from. I assumed it was an earlier period in the bands history, but not to the point where they were big in the 1960’s, which was a completely different era in music). This stuff was all way before my time. Grunge was actually before my time if that helps

[@Xan1120]

I absolutely love how insightful this was. I’m a huge nerd for music history and I loved every minute of this!

[@Yo_Bentley]

Was waiting to hear a mention of Prince & Frank Oceans Falsetto in Bad Religion

[@giancarlo_rc]

*KZbin'S COPYRIGHT ALGORITHM:* Am I a joke to you?

[@arunsooknarine4738]

"That's illegal people can't do that" 🤣🤣🤣💀💀

[@boogieg8763]

im sure they paid for all the songs

[@jacobcoughs101]

@@boogieg8763 i think since they use it for education they can use it for free

[@mjtubeme]

Yes

[@wellesradio]

Giancarlo RC You really don't know how this works, do you? An established media outlet like Vox is going to take the proper steps and isn't going to get takedown notices on a piece of journalism, unlike that random guy in his living room with a single computer and webcam you're used to watching.

[@Quick_and_Dirty]

This is stunningly well researched and fantastically represented. Statisticians and Visual Communicators--UNITE!

[@justignoreme]

Okay i just love the fact that the graphics in this video use the same font and color scheme as the cover art of the musical falsettos. Someone really knew what they were doing:D

[@mattiafioravanti8475]

As an Italian, everytime I hear the word "falsetto" uttered here, this video instantly becomes more fun.

[@gearoiddom]

Ciao! Che vuole dire en Italiano?

[@mattiafioravanti8475]

@@gearoiddom La parola stessa è italiana. L'etimologia viene da "Falso" - The word itself is italian. Its etimology comes from the word "false". It's the way it's pronounced that's it's funny (at least to me)

[@superduperjoi6800]

Lol

[@actually4660]

@@mattiafioravanti8475 what is it?? Tell me tell me🤭 Don't enjoy alone.

[@themaknaeli]

@@actually4660 Fellow Italian here, I think what makes the word sound funny when uttered by native English speakers is that they tend to make the hard "T" sound of FalseTTo (it's a doubled consonant so it's quite prominent in the original pronunciation) into a softer D sound. This one difference makes the word sound super foreign and sort of funny to me.

[@crazyoung007]

Honestly, Vox, I give you a round of applause for making this video and put on it so much effort and data! Well done! Out of the channels that I'm subscribed, this is the best one! Cheers from Portugal!

[@petrajetra4614]

The fact that they used the Falsettos Broadway font in this video makes it that much better

[@Simba______]

Next, do a study on "Autotune".

[@TomoyoYumemi]

They already cover that

[@Simba______]

@@TomoyoYumemi - Oh...ok.

[@esterhammerfic]

1930: 0 hits with auto-tune 1931: 0 hits with auto-tune 1932: 0 hits with auto-tune 1933: ...... ......

[@rumpleforeskin1226]

*Cher has joined the chat*

[@acharich]

T-Pain: How do I leave the chat..? Jay-Z: Hold my vodka..

[@marknc9616]

06:13 The audacity to tell an expert witness to "Prove It!". :)

[@erden02]

Mark NC the audacity to believe all experts all the time no questions asked

[@hcb0218]

Expert opinion is not good evidence. I may be an expert in cognitive neuroscience, but unless I can demonstrate through some type of rational argument or empirical data that my opinion is correct, it is considered the lowest form of evidence. Basically, in science, we don't want to hear the opinions of other experts. We want to see those experts' data. Also, too often scientific progress is slowed because of old men who refuse to accept data over their own opinion. This is why Max Planck said something like science progresses one funeral at a time.

[@bleensteen9331]

They didn't actually tell him that, they just edited it with the voiceover to make it seem that way...

[@nnnnnn496]

That annoyed me too.

[@acharich]

@@hcb0218 💀📝💀📝💀

[@joyeholiday4789]

isn't there an opposite trend for women to have lower voices in their singing? just a thesis

[@nagbo13]

This would explain why Toni Braxton, Sade, and Adele were/are so popular.

[@wayfaringspacepoet]

@@nagbo13 contralto is their natural range so they're not doing anything special with their vocals to achieve that tone, unlike falsetto requires

[@nagbo13]

@@wayfaringspacepoet, good point. I think it's still (almost) as shocking as men's falsettos because it's "unexpected." In other words, we don't expect women to have low voices, just like we don't expect men to have such high voices.

[@ADeeSHUPA]

Joye Holiday uP

[@Nonyah123]

High voices are praised across the board. People love high belts and whistle tones

[@eltiochusma]

Needed more "Kiss" by Prince. But I really appreciated this. Thanks!

[@tea397]

eltiochusma - no doubt! ☔️

[@itsmanew5994]

They most likely wanted to but couldn't... Prince's Estate is notorious for having comedically harsh policies when it comes to copyright infringement of Prince's work. For a while it was only available on Tidal, and it was made available on KZbin only after he died. That's too bad they took so long bc many younger people are unaware of his music bc it wasn't on the internet... Matter of fact I only discovered his music this year and I freaking love it !

[@gabriels1869]

@@itsmanew5994 Glad I'm not the only one who recently discovered Prince. I always knew he was talented but I feel bad I never sat down and listened to his albums until last year. Now I've fallen down the rabbit hole and have started purchasing his albums and I can't stop listening to his stuff now

[@jessicazhang8075]

Vox's work is as precise and amazing as always. Keep up the good work! I always learn something from these videos ^^

[@mrspelljammer1591]

The data analytics that went into making this episode is truly mind blowing. Well done on a brilliant piece of work.

[@EmilyCanSwim]

Absolutely INCREDIBLE journalism. These are the videos we need more of on the internet! Great work, super interesting.

[@simonmekonen5853]

It's great how they showed the ENTIRE process! Also shows that data can be skewed if someone doesn't take different factors and biases into account. Great video, really love earworm:)

[@christhedemocrat]

Al Green (I'm Still in Love) , El D'barge (I like) and Prince (Adore and many others) the later two songs blew my mind

[@calebdouglas7622]

Philip Bailey (Reasons)

[@keithpereira3739]

If I was your girlfriend... Prince

[@SBreviews-g3b]

Vox always brings quality content and so much work on one video Vox>>>>>>buzzfeed Edit : close to 13 subs

[@raykin8633]

Jai nepal sarkar

[@youngjlennon]

Jai Nepal Sarkaar

[@factsverse9957]

@@raykin8633 Lol what does that even mean

[@mat_v]

Its an insult to compare them.

[@SBreviews-g3b]

@@raykin8633 JAI NEPAL

[@zoenash1447]

is nobody going to talk about how they used the iconic font from "falsettos"???

[@charliecocroft4764]

right, that’s what got me. someone probably knows what they’re doing haha

[@mouthofgabriel]

all the dot graphics and arrows remind me of the poster too...

[@yvngchildsupport9523]

WHAT DO THEY DO FOR LOVE???

[@dottyContrarian]

@@yvngchildsupport9523 OOOH

[@MANNYISTHERE]

How did you not mention Michael Jackson from the beginning

[@misapon.9184]

Manny heehee

[@triggahappyyt5420]

Michael Jackson and Barry Gibb where best friends because of falsetto lol.

[@cocopops4974]

They should have mentioned prince in the beginning.... He sings the highest falsetto

[@jakegargiulo5101]

I know right!

[@lisacox3750]

Michael rarely sung Falsetto that’s why. He is just a high tenor

[@corinnedejong]

I was kind of surprised you never mentioned the most popular singers from the world of early opera were all castrati with their artificially heightened voices

[@gerdforster883]

The whole point about castrati was that they did not sing falsetto.

[@Lettuceiscool]

They chose top 100 songs

[@mssha1980]

This is about non classical music

[@xgrumx]

neo soul and motown, what delicious genres 😭💓

[@Hibbs4Prez]

Motown wasn't a genre.

[@johnrodriguez5872]

Hibbs4Prez basically is with the way that label influenced its artists

[@chantalbellmont6937]

Found so many amazing old songs and artists through this video. Whoever clears all the copyright at Vox so you can use all this incredible music, is an angel and we're all in your debt!

[@laurenm908_]

hearing freddie singing without music almost made me cry, wow, what talent

[@crappymoodstuff3922]

Roger-

[@Samuraiwavy]

Pandora’s shuffle is HIGHLY slept on

[@nica2411]

I don't like their library much. Spotify has a better one, and a better UI in my opinion. But even then, they're missing a huge catalogue of great music, and the state of the music industry is frustrating today.

[@notnormalyet]

@@nica2411 Pandora has less of a library, but they are way better at recommending music imo.

[@nica2411]

@@notnormalyet I don't doubt it. I gave up on them because of skip limits without premium though lol. Can't stand only being able to skip like 5 songs.

[@notnormalyet]

@@nica2411 Yeah, I had the same problem. Even with premium they limit the number of skips you get and only half of the songs let you listen on demand.

[@nica2411]

@@notnormalyet wow yeah, that's a huge deal breaker for me lol. I always joke that I have musical ADHD because I can hardly get through one song without feeling the urge to hear another

[@heatheralfano1871]

Anthony!!! Saw him in the opera video and he is just the internet’s newest sweetheart. Bravo!

[@ramsesabundiz]

Because of the vid's banner I was waiting for Mavin Gaye's "Heard it Throught the Grapevine" or "Mercy, Mercy Me".

[@pangpangpangpangs]

Just want to say that this video is amazing. Thanks Vox.

[@ElectraJade74]

Omg the work that was put into this, I will forever be in awe of. I love this series.

[@haitileblanc3075]

The falsetto in Earth Wind and Fire 🌍 🌬 🔥 is my favorite

[@AM-hk9wl]

Nobody tops Phillip Bailey.

[@cuterpooter]

YES. I was thinking that through the whole vid. "Man, if they don't mention 'Reasons', I'm gonna..." 🤯💥 NOTHING beats Phillip hitting that "Reeee-sons!" like a woodwind instrument. 💖

[@shinykafkaesque13]

Mighty mighty he hits the clouds!

[@Jacnix1535]

That song Rocket 2 U by The Jets is actually really good 😭. Great video Vox!

[@keithsimpson2685]

King Diamond in Merciful Fate is my favorite falsetto to show people.

[@pandishpandie]

How about Prince?! I can't belive you haven't mentioned him.

[@yeru737]

11:24

[@cocopops4974]

Thank you... From 1978 this guy's falsetto is so popular

[@MeeYeeWeeWee]

Yesssss omg my mom used to listen to Prince's second album all the time when I was a kid. That album is 100% falsetto. When I first listened to When Doves Cry I was like whaaaat his lower range is sickening!!!

[@alice3468]

Yeru he shows up for not even half a second, and they never mentioned his name or his music specifically

[@ehercj]

@@acepaloma3887 Thank you!

[@lakshyachaudhary6986]

Michael Jackson's Fallseto was the best, he could pull out the entire song in Falsetto.

[@deecabrera7768]

And Eddie Kendricks from the Temptations!

[@meylie2465]

Lakshya Chaudhary dont stop till you GET enough

[@badmonkey222]

Butterfly is a prime case

[@donaldthompson6808]

Is earth wind fire a joke to you?

[@Angelina-xj5zd]

Michael was chemically castrated by his father and a doctor.

[@therealarien]

Thanks for all the hard work you've obviously poured into this. It's fascinating!

[@migueldoliveiracomposer]

I now want nothing more, than to find out who is in the charts with a vocal range / register of zero.

[@skullandmelodiesd.c.3137]

Migos

[@ronaldlopez9373]

Selena Gomez

[@reillywalker195]

Liam Gallagher is the only singer I can think of who's still relevant and has a low and limited vocal range. He sings within only about two octaves these days with his vices and illness having taken some his range away, and he often sings in lower keys than he did when he was in Oasis.

[@reillywalker195]

If you go back to 1991, "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. is a good example of a chart hit with hardly any vocal range. The vocal melody Michael Stipe sings in that song has a range of only a perfect fourth with no chromatic notes.

[@huangec]

@@reillywalker195 interesting. I didn't even notice!

[@kansasgoldilocks]

"I'm surprised you didn't mention {insert name of favorite musician who sings in falsetto}." Sorry, just wanted to fit in on this comment board.

[@dissonantdreams]

I know, how dare they not mention every single artist who’s ever sung in falsetto including the non-famous ones?!? 😂

[@ricardosiahaan5287]

Coldplay & Daniel Cesar

[@JuanData]

Prince seems left out on purpose. He has to have more number one hits in falsetto than nearly any contemporary.

[@alessiacara4101]

Ricardo Siahaan they mentioned Chris Martin when listing the pop stars

[@acharich]

💀💀💀💀💀

[@rigormortis6509]

I saw Marvin Gaye on the cover and clicked real quick

[@cedricfundi240]

You are right. Marvin Gaye to me has the sweetest falsetto in the whole world.

[@joshevans1176]

Micheal Jackson’s butterflies.goes super falsetto at points

[@shanettequao9043]

Josh Evans oh yes. Great example

[@thespiritualartofwar]

Yep and Debarge - I like it....case closed

[@2law2be]

Sadly they mentioned Michael only ones in the whole video

[@yingyang2838]

his falsetto in that is impeccable

[@kenzamadhi8835]

heehee -Michael Jackson

[@vanphamthesequel]

I really like how thorough you guys were on this research. I'm surprised of how Pandora and Spotify volunteered some of those data. Great job! Really enjoyed this piece. This explains why certain songs from certain decades are harder to karaoke to for men, like the 80s.

[@bjornolson6527]

Van Pham 🙏👍 A THOUSAND times, YES!! I’ve been singing on Smule for the past few years. I’m 45yo, and your comment is right on!

[@blackandblack7]

I’d like to thank the person who listed the songs with time stamps in the description

[@usernotfound413]

Gambino said his inspiration for Redbone and that entire album was his fathers rock albums from the 60s and 70s so go figure that there would be no falsetto but high vocal range. Super interesting !!

[@charliehelmijr]

How does one make a 16-minute video about the rise/popularity of falsetto in pop songs and not mention Prince? 💜

[@seanswinton6242]

I'm looking for some El DeBarge/DeBarge.

[@barbarian-furu]

and Mika with not only falsetto but extremely wide range too. and until the end i was waiting for ma boys Mars Volta

[@gamemak0r]

Because they know nothing about music

Well - I'm 4 years late hahah - she didn't say it out loud, but Prince is right here: 11:24

[@charliehelmijr]

@ Sharp! Four years or not, now I'm happy haha. 🤴🏾

[@jocodabest]

Four seasons and bee gees are who I grew up listening and got me into falsetto

[@erice1763]

This is top tier content, keep up the great work!

[@michael_caz_nyc]

Wow . . . the amount of Research and Data Collection was " Off the Charts " = much Respect for this Tremendous Effort. Very Interesting to see this. One Love from NYC.

[@gracel7840]

Loved how u explained d reasoning of each sample selection.. making it a credible research sample..

[@katesterling6443]

I live in Hawaii and here, falsetto singing, both men and women, is an art. There is an amazing moment in a song when the singer 'switches' into it. There is an actual 'movement' of some kind in the vocal cords. It is very different from singing in high register.

[@shanettequao9043]

I’ve been waiting for vox ear worm 😭 to be honest the falsetto is really impressive

[@MarkLagunas]

I’ve been saying for YEARS the men just haven’t been doing it since the 70s/80s. I wish men in mainstream music would play around with their ranges more so than they do today.

[@jhngrc_]

"We need to match the songs and the names of the artists to whatever Pandora has." "Wait, so you have to do that manually?" Gurl, VLOOKUP.

[@humblefool]

John Garcia Depends you have the same value in both coloumns

[@jhngrc_]

@@humblefool ever heard of preparing the raw files when they come from different sources?

[@Gunth0r]

alright, yea, after preprocessing and importing into your spreadsheet software of choice

[@420fedoras]

@@Gunth0r *laughs in R and Python*