At first glance, Selena Gomez and Lorde don’t seem to have much in common, at least as far as pop singers go. Whereas Gomez’s songs lean towards the dance-pop and EDM sides of the pop music spectrum, Lorde’s fall closer to the indie-pop and R&B section. Yet both artists have a tendency to pronounce their vowels in rather unconventional ways.
Take, for example, “Good for You,” one of the songs off Gomez’s second studio album, "Revival." The single has gained notoriety for the curious way in which the songstress articulates the word “good.”
As countless fans have pointed out on Twitter, it sounds as though Gomez is saying “guoid” instead of “good.” In fact, what she is doing here is breaking the vowel sound “oo,” transforming a simple vowel into a complex one.
Lorde employs a similar vocal affectation in her 2013 hit “Royals” when she sings the word “care,” dropping the final “r” and pronouncing it more like “cyeeaare.”
This vocal style, colloquially referred to as “Indie Pop Voice” for its widespread use among indie artists, is called “diphthongization” by linguists.
“They’re turning monophthongs, or pure vowels that are associated with only one sound, into diphthongs, which are two vowel sounds that are kind of smushed together,” says Gretchen McCulloch, a linguist and writer. “The ‘uh’ sound in ‘good’ as you or I would probably say it, is a monophthong. Whereas ‘oi’ in ‘boy’ or Selena Gomez’s ‘guoid’ is a diphthong.”
These singers will also pronounce the vowel slightly further forward in the mouth. When Gomez says “guoid,” the diphthong “oi” begins in the back of the mouth and ends up in the front.
“Like how if you say the word ‘boy’ really slowly, you can feel your tongue moving forward a little bit,” McCulloch adds.
Additionally, the “r” sound in words such as “care” or Purity Ring’s “stare” which follows the broken vowels tends to falls victim to this phenomenon, often partially "elided" or neglected.
“R’s can cut a vowel short, so often singers will soften or omit the ‘r’ in the middle of a word to get a longer vowel and give it more of a singing quality,” explains Siu-Lan Tan, a psychologist and music researcher at Kalamazoo College. “That’s one reason why some U.S. bands sound British when they sing.” (In most British accents, the r’s that follow vowels are eliminated.)
There are various reasons why an artist may choose to adopt Indie Pop Voice -- from the aesthetic to the practical. Indeed, by singing in this style, artists ensure that listeners can actually hear what they’re saying.
“Just try and sing the word ‘good’ — it’s low and closed,” says Bonnie Hayes, a former rock singer and current chair of the songwriting department at Berklee College of Music. “You can’t get any resonance on a vowel like that. But if you make it ‘guoid’ or ‘geeed’ there’s a lot more there. It’s right up in the front of your face...Singers are always trying to find ways like that to get more resonance on a closed vowel. I remember when I was learning to sing ‘Blue Moon’ we had to sing it like ‘bleeeww’ because it pushes the vowel up closer to your nose where it can travel further.”
Another explanation behind the popularity of this trend lies in the nature of the entertainment industry. Rachel Lawrence, a Los Angeles-based vocal coach whose clients have included the cast of "Glee," notes that in order to stand out amidst increasing competition and fickle audiences, artists have to create an individual sound for themselves.
“The industry has created an environment where it’s not enough to just be good, you have to be memorable,” she says.
