On the Popularity of the Whiny Emo Vocal Style

Today I was thinking about the whiny high pitched emo vocal style and how disproportionate the ratio of how much I hate is to how popular it became. I was trying to do some research into where it came from and why so many people just accepted it as the de facto way you're supposed to sing.... when luckily, I found this article that did most of the work for me.

http://www.spin.com/articles/whine-times

I've never been able to get into this vocal style. The farthest I can go is Cedric Bixler-Zavala from Mars Volta or Tom Delonge from Blink 182. I guess I can tolerate high, and I can tolerate nasally.. but I can't tolerate whiny. It's always stood out to me from the beginning as being a bit odd. I remember things slowly going downhill after blink 182 became popular in the early 2000's. Slowly, it seemed like every pop punk band that came out was a little bit more nasally, a little bit higher pitched, a little bit more whiny. It started to bother me at New Found Glory... but I knew something was wrong when I first heard A Simple Plan. "Ok", I thought. "This vocal style is just an extreme version of Tom Delonge, surely they will be relagated to the margins of this genre where they belong, this will just be a one off thing." Little did I know it was going to get worse. Much worse.

After I got to college in 2003 or so... whiny was in. Cartel, Yellowcard, Hawthorne Heights, All American Rejects, Story of the Year, the Used, Taking Back Sunday. At first I thought it was just trendy but it just kept going. What really didn't make sense to me was how little reaction there was against it. I pointed it out one day to some people... "hey, what's with all these whiny high pitch vocals lately?" and people would just stare at me funny. As if they couldn't hear it. As if that was the way it had always been. I knew it was really bad when I would see frat guys listening to it. That really blew my mind. Those are supposed to be the most macho douche guys right? And here they were listening to the cutest, innocent high pitched boy vocals on the planet, that was often pretty flamingly homosexual sounding as well. Weren't they supposed to be beating up kids that listened to this music? It made no sense. I still wonder why today it's not listed as part of the "gay agenda" that's out there to poison our youth.


The article linked above actually interviews many bands that have this style, and you get to see what their thoughts are on it, and attempts to summarize a bit of how it became a part of the cultural zeitgeist of the 2000's. Here are some highlights...

• rejection of overly masculine vocal styling of the 90 alt rock and metal (and although not mentioned probly nu metal as well)

• continuation of the punk DIY, where people who aren't classically trained should try to make their own music.

• high pitched = more emotional / more tense - which fits in well with the point of emo... taking emotions to the extreme

• appeals to teen girls/ teenage emotions
  

• is a natural range for many men, but has not been explored very often in the past

Deftones Diamond Eyes Album Review:

I've listened to the new Deftones album Diamond Eyes a few times now and I can honestly say I don't really like it very much. So far many reviews and comments are overwhelmingly positive, but I really don't feel that it is that well deserved and here's why.


MELODY:

The Deftones have always had two sides to them. On the one hand they appeal people who love heavy riffage and screaming vocals. And others who like the dream dream pop vocals and strange ambience. I've always been a fan of the songs that dream pop vocals and bizarre moods than just the ones that seem to be mostly just about heavy riffs. I'd rather have both at the same time though, but they don't seem to always combine them very well. My favorites are songs like Change In the House of Flies, My Own Summer, Minerva, Be Quiet and Drive, Back To School (Mini Maggit), Pink Maggit, Digital Bath, Hexagram, and Anniversary of An Uninteresting Event. This album certainly has lots of melody, and the screaming takes a back seat, which is fine by me. But this record Chino's melodies are all over the place. The melodies feel convoluted and unsure of what they want to do.

Chino loves to jump out of key and into strange areas which has worked very well on other albums. But on this album it seems like it's a crutch. It as if when he's just about onto to a good hook he goes and jumps off in a weird direction killing it. It reminds me a lot of George Harrison whom I felt had the same problem. An example of this would be his song "Beware of Darkness". While the jumps out of key are certainly interesting they just feel like they don't always serve the song. It kind of gives the impression he was trying to cram melodies over guitar parts, perhaps instead of changing the guitar parts to fit the vocals.

These odd melodic shifts are often typical of dream pop, but for an example of something that works better... listen to "Only Shallow" by My Bloody valentine (an influence of Chino's by the way). The verses keep popping out of key and have weird shifts, but it all works together and becomes part of why the song is interesting.

But when the Deftones do it on this record, it comes across forced and doesn't serve the song. It also comes across as half baked, like the ideas he came up for the melodies where still rough drafts and that he was going to go back and finish them later. I have read that the band will often come up with the music first and then Chino will come in separately to put vocals in over it once it's done. This always seemed like a silly idea to me to write an entire song without the vocals present at all to help shape the song, when they are such an important part of the songs. What if he can't think of anything good over the riffs? Are they just gonna keep it anyways? There's no checks and balances there for the Vocals and accompaniment. I wonder if this has happened here.


RHYTHM:

Drums

The drums on this album are fairly typical for Deftones songs, they usually play a supporting role and usually never jump out at me and make me say "wow that's a sick drum part". They do play a role in creating a sonic texture for the band, and the drummer definitely has a signature style. He has a more reggae / ska sounding kit, much like 311. On this record I feel like the drums are doing their job, but nothing much more beyond that, which usually isn't a problem in their better songs. On this record it's like if the guitars or the vocals aren't doing something interesting, the drums might as well be. It feels a lot more apparent that the drums aren't doing that much when everything else is less interesting on top of them.

Bass

The bass also plays the supportive role in the Deftones. Mainly just following the guitar, but having it's moments here and there on certain songs to stand out. But the same thing kind of goes for bass as I said about the drums. If the guitar is just gonna be boring, the bass might as well not follow it and do something more interesting.

Rhythm Guitar

As for rhythm guitar riffs, I have to set the bar at My Own Summer. If I set the bar for rhythm guitar at that, they fall well below it on this record. A riff like that is very unique and very catchy at the same time. But really most of their records don't live up to that so I won't make that big of a deal out of it.

The riffs are meaner than the last few records, but kinda stock for metal riffs in general and not really anything that unique that you'd want to write home about. And that's fine if they are in a supporting role, supporting something more catchy and important. But a lot of the songs give the impression that the guitars are supposed to be more of a central focus. I will give them props though for setting a more menacing atmosphere during many of the verses which I like. Really the verses are where the guitar shines through on this record. Things work well on the verses of songs like Diamond Eyes, and rocket skates. CMND / CNTRL has one of the best riffs in it's chorus on the record.


HARMONY:

Guitar

While the verses the guitar is doing it's job well, in the choruses either the vocals need to change to support the guitars more or the guitars need to support the vocals more. It often seems like they are each doing their own thing. The harmony definitely doesn't feel in the pocket enough on the choruses. A good example of this is CMND/CNTRL. That riff during the chorus is very interesting, but Chino throws a mediocre drifting melody over it and we're left with something where the melody doesn't help bring out the best in the riff and riff doesn't bring out the best in the guitar.

Keyboards

There are keyboards all over this record and they are actually pretty creative, when you can hear them. They aren't creative in an overt sense but more of a subtle sense. They pretty much totally support the guitar and fill out areas you don't realize are there till after you listen a few times. Then you suddenly realize
he's doing all this different stuff and using all these different sounds. I really don't understand how he's able to do so many different things yet also remain so subtle. It would be nicer if he was more in the forefront though.


TEXTURE:

The texture of this record remains fairly consistent throughout, only really breaking to do Prince and Sextape. Texture doesn't feel like an especially important element for this record. There's no real other textures beside the standard drum / bass / guitar / vocal setup. The keyboards are there but they sit inside the guitar and vocals so perfectly and the way they are mixed makes them feel as if they are barely
there. There are a few sparse electronic elements here and there but it's very subtle. It's not a very big issue for me, but it would be nice to have more variation to break things up and enhance the mood.


ALBUM COHESIVENESS:

The record feels very cohesive, but this works against it. Many of the songs seem like they are following a similar formula and feels too homogenized. There's no real stand out hits. There isn't much in the way of dynamics within the themselves and listening to the whole record it's one song after the other that sounds very similar. You don't get big shifts in the style of songs like how White Pony has Back to School, Teenager, Digital Bath, Change In the House of Flies. That record is able to remain diverse, yet the songs still feel like they belong together on a record. One thing that becomes very apparent is that there is a lack of "heavy" choruses, and here I will define heavy as sounding mean, aggressive, angry, and / or threatening. Many of the verses have a threatening vibe while all the choruses lift into a positive /spiritual / religiosy / dream pop vibe. This type of chorus is great for songs like Minerva, but here it doesn't often feel right, especially when almost every single song has this same formula. For some songs it
definitely kills the vibe, instead of taking you on an interesting detour. Many of the choruses don't really serve the song, and they seem like they were just thrown in there to take up space. Often they come across as watered down and half baked. It has been a trend for many bands of late, to write simple happy choruses with heavier verses (as apposed to the 90's lighter verse and heavy mean chorus) and I don't quite get why you wouldn't want a mean chorus. It's something I don't like about this record. I would like to give props for the cover artwork. I feel like it captures the mood of the title track in the image very well.

LYRICS:

The lyrics on this record are okay. Chino said he wanted to return to "painting pictures" and being more abstract than doing the typical nu metal thing where he's writing about how much he hates his abstract personal demons. But he hasn't really done the outward hatred thing very much since Around the Fur. In fact their last record kind of did the abstract painting pictures thing a lot more and it was more poetic.

On their first two records the lyrics were abstract and vague but they were much more about directing aggression outward at problems or people. During Around the Fur he started his trend combining sex with violence and murder subject matter on a few songs. On White Pony things became a little less cryptic line to line and the whole song would start revolving more around a central theme and told a bit of a story while keeping a certain level of vagueness. Examples include Feiticeira, Back to School, Knife Prty. White pony really started pushing the sex / violence thing to forefront which would be less important on the Self Titled album but make a large return on Saturday Night wrist.

On Diamond Eyes it's there but not as in the forefront as previous records. The lyrics do paint pictures but not as strong as past efforts. It avoids being cliche but there doesn't seem to be as many memorable lines and much of the language is very simple and straight forward, much like their first record actually. But the
subject matter is very different. Line to line and when viewed as a whole it can be very cryptic, but things aren't nearly as deep or poetic as they have been in the past. One thing I don't like is that when there needs to be a concrete line during a musically emphasized point it falls flat. Like on Rocket Skates, the music suddenly shifts from metal to some sort of dreamy thing, and he says "You're Red Soaking Wet" I think I see what he was trying to do there... by suddenly shifting gears and depicting a murder scene or something but feels like it falls flat and either the music or the lyric should change at that point. They don't seem like they support each other well enough.

One thing I found pretty creative was the song titles. I've always kind of liked that about the Deftones. Some songs can take on whole new meanings because of them and it can add a lot of depth. For instance on their self titled record it's unclear what Minerva might be about, but doing a bit of research you find that
Minerva was the Roman godess of music and poetry, and suddenly the whole song is cast in a different light and has a new depth. Similarly Knife Prty, from reading the lyrics you think it could be about heroin or something but it turns out to be actually about a fetish knife / sex party, which I thought was pretty creative. Sometimes their titles are often more creative and interesting sounding than the songs end up actually being lyrically. This is especially true for this record and Saturday Knight Wrist, which also had some of their wilder song titles.

I do enjoy the juxtaposition of say Sextape, which you'd think will be some sort of torture porn adventure like Feiticeira but you find it to be a positive dreamy song about what sounds like being in love, yet it's called Sextape. I kind of dig that combination.



PRODUCTION:

Overall is fine but it does sound on the cold side though. It could be warmer overall. I'm a big fan of huge distorted guitars. While this album has them, they feel a bit too tamed and pulled into the background. This could have something to do with Stephen Carpenter now using an 8 string guitar for much of the riffs, which reduces the fuzz and trebly-ness produced in a normal guitar distorted tone. The 8 string tone is kind of cool at times and reminds me of Meshuggah when he plays single note riffs. One other issue I have is that the keyboards and electronic elements were mixed so far into the background I didn't even realize most songs had keyboards on them till I watched a live version of the album, which is a shame because some of it is very interesting.

SUMMARY:

If the goal of this record was to create an emotionally deep engrossing work, I think it has failed. If it was to make a commercially viable homogeneous work that creates a nice fridge buzz in the background while you play video games they might have very well accomplished this. The Deftones have at the same time created a record that was heavier, but more mainstream and digestible while simultaneously not having any stand out hits. The chorus of the title track Diamond Eyes is a great example. The verses have heavy riffage, but the chorus has got a typical bland swaying 4 chord chorus that is very popular right now . It is very much like what Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown did. It's not in a similar genre at all, but overall the record is more neutral and less emotionally engrossing song to song, and more homogenous over all. It feels like it plays to and encourages their more average filler songs, than it does to their more emotionally unique hits.

A lot of reviews and comments say that this record is a "return to form" of their first two records and "just like white pony". It does bear a certain similarity to their first two records in a sense that the albums feel more cohesive and don't have as many stand out gems. It's definitely not like White Pony however,because there are no stand out hit tracks that make you really feel something deep, ala Change in the House of Flies. And it Defintiely does not have the dynamics or the variation. The main thing I feel they have in common is the dream pop vocals. But Saturday Night Wrist is almost all dream pop vocals throughout all parts of the songs. To me it sounds like they took some of the filler tracks of Around the Fur (while taking a
more modern Meshuggah like approach to the guitar riffs), and used that for the basis for the verses while adding in the melodic themes and positive upliftingness from Saturday Night wrist into the choruses.

All in all I give this Record a 4 out of 10 based on the below specifications.

1-Sad, hardly can be considered noise
2-Horrible, better off never recorded
3-Mind numbing, less than mediocre
4-Basic, mainstream machine
5- Alright, low expectations
6-Good, but has a few flaws
7-Well-done, deserves to be acknowledged
8-Excellent, stands well on its own
9-Amazing, always a great listen
10-Perfect, life changing work of art

It's not mainstream in the sense of what's popular right now, but mainstream also means closer to the average..and this record is very average, if not below average for the Deftones. Nobody on this record is doing anything special or surprising compared themselves or anyone else, with melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, production or otherwise. I'm not saying they have to be complicated, just interesting and emotional. None of them are very deep or make me feel anything special either. I'm very interested in hearing what their original record "Eros" sounded like before they scrapped it in favor of this one.

Miley Cyrus In A Nusthell

In this vid Miley Cyrus is being interviewed about her song Party in the USA. Not only does she readily admit she didn't write it and has no idea about what's going on with the music in it, but also that she doesn't even really like it and she doesn't even like or listen to "pop" music. Which is surprising....since her entire career involves being a part of the pop music industry.

On the one hand I am disturbed by her nonchalance about not knowing or caring about her own music and admitting that she pretty much does things just for the money... but on the other hand I'm kind of glad she admits to not liking it. It shows she has a certain level of sanity.

I think this says a lot about her and the people involved in the pop music world.