I’m just going to put it right out there – I have always hated Mariah Carey. As one who has taken voice lessons since a tender age and came close to studying opera, I take offense to anyone calling the vocal calisthenics in which she indulged as actual singing. Funny thing is, now that she is getting, ahem, older, she can’t do it anymore anyway. I digress.

An article in today’s New York Times explores the recent musical trend which is, essentially, a return to regular (if somewhat – according to them – anemic) singing, thankfully lacking in melisma (which I didn’t even realize was a word; I only knew I hated it’s exercise). “The female pop stars who have dominated the charts this year rarely opt for that approach. Their ascent makes it clear that melisma has retreated, while pop, which has just wrapped up one of its best years in at least a decade, has benefited from a return to less frilly, less bombastic vocal showcases.”

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