What’s Going On?
There is a particular kind of vocal delivery that you may have noticed (but probably didn’t) increase in popularity by almost 100% in 2024 from the year before. Currently, the most popular styles of vocal delivery are Singing, Rapping and Rap Singing (also called Melodic Rap). All three are very familiar to the audience of popular music and they tend to dominate the charts in terms of presence and performance. But in 2024 the less common style of Talk-Singing increased in popularity in the Hot100 charts from 2023 by 99%. It went from being present in 2.5% of songs to 5%. While this is not a tsunami in terms of the entirety of popular music, any time a prominent vocal technique doubles in usage, it’s worth noting. If you’re new, you can find details about me and this data project here.
What Even Is Talk-Singing?
Talk-Singing lives in an interesting place in the spectrum of vocal deliveries. It’s not Singing, as there is no melody. It isn’t rapping since the tone of voice being used is essentially the performers normal speaking voice. It’s also not proper Talking either, as there is clear rhythmic cadence in the delivery that aligns with the rhythm in the track. A perfect example of Talk-Singing from 2024 would be “Guess” by Charli xcx and Billie Eilish.
While it’s typically used in combination with other delivery styles, “Guess” offers a rare example of Talk-Singing being used almost exclusively from top to bottom. Other examples of it used in mixed fashion in 2024 include “River” by Miley Cyrus where she uses it only for the second verse of the song. And “Bad Idea Right?” by Olivia Rodrigo where she uses it in various sections throughout.
Who Did It Best?
There were several top performing songs that had significant usage of this technique. “Hot To Go!” might have been the most surprising instance with the meteoric rise of Chappell Roan. It peaked in the Hot100 at 15. Another notable success was Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” which used it more sparingly but managed to hit the number 1 position.
But when I asked ChatGPT to devise a scoring system that would balance time-weighted average chart performance, peak position and a weighting for songs that had higher amounts of Talk-Singing usage, the best performing song in 2024 was APT. by ROSE & Bruno Mars.
Who Cares?
Well, I suppose I do. This style of vocal delivery has long been a fascination of mine. It’s a very specific style and typically always conveys the same kind of attitude whenever it’s used. And yet sometimes it really really works, and sometimes it just doesn’t. I think of it like the musical equivalent of the runway walk done by fashion models: it’s always the same kind of performance, but the slight variations and the clothing/music in which it’s adorned can cause it to either be exceptionally cool or kind of corny.
In addition, some years ago I was convinced it was due for another cycle in the general pop sphere where it could potentially help define and possibly launch new artists. It had certainly helped Kesha this way almost a decade earlier. I was able to get it working well on one song with the artist DYLYN, whom I was developing at the time.
But perhaps in 2018 it was still a bit early for it to thrive in pop music again, or maybe we just didn’t do it “poppy” enough to really catch on. Still, I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before other artists were using Talk-Singing to top the charts. It’s been great to see that happening in more recent years and 2024 in particular.
Hope you found this interesting! Subscribe for more insights and feel free to message me with any questions about popular music you think this unique set of data could help answer!