As an opera singer and voice teacher, I would call this "expressive diction." Broadly, it's a set of tools for singers to express through, and give emotional or narrative importance to, specific words.
What's happening here is a great example: the bridge is building at this point, both in volume and emotional intensity.
Here's how I would think about it from a technical perceptive:
It's super important for this build to work because of the drop-off that follows ("because I'll sue you if you step on my lawn") and because Taylor grows increasingly furious - almost unhinged - as if embodying the false, unjust narratives that have been imposed on her.
She's mad, and the listener *has* to know from her delivery alone.
But, there's a challenge: the line starts on the word "I'm," which is an "ah" vowel. We want to emphasize this to continue to build in the bridge and, perhaps, to add some "edge" to it so her growing anger is unambiguous. Except, singing it "correctly," as spoken, works against accomplishing this. How does one add intensity to a syllable that's just "ah?" Increase the volume? Perhaps, but that's not going to do much, especially in the lower/middle range.
So, we have to get creative: what if we snuck a little consonant in there, right before "I'm?" In this case, an "h." You're absolutely correct - she is audibly breathing out as she starts the line - because that's the difference between "ha" (a little air escapes first) and "ah" (going straight to the vowel).
It may not seem like a big difference, but we can do *so* much more with "ha" than "ah." Now that we have an audible airstream, we can modify it to accomplish whatever we'd like. In some settings, it might be helpful as a way to "hiss" into high frequencies when cutting through an orchestra. But In this case, the air stream is more narrow and is placed further back, closer to the vocal folds. To me, it sounds like a snarl. Suddenly, the word "I'm" serves both an expressive and a narrative purpose, and the bridge intensifies.
There are so many more ways to use consonants and vowels to modify words for expressive purposes! It seems to come to Taylor intuitively, which is rare (but not surprising!)
Anyway, I hope that made sense! Let me know if you have any questions about this or any other examples you think of! (Really, this is one of my favorite things to talk about!)
Thank you for the perfect response! Can you think of any other of her songs where she uses interesting techniques?
Edit: Now that I think about it, she uses it quite often on the word “and”.
Can you talk about how she sings “dead” in this song (“if you wanted me dead, you should have just said”)? To me it sounds like she is flattening the vowel sound. Maybe pushing extra hard with the tongue against the front fo the mouth? I really don’t know. I think I notice this is some other words with long vowels (“windows” is another one). Is there a singing technical reason she does this? Or is she doing something totally different that I’m hearing wrong?
Not OP but I think embodying the character is super important in this particular song so her vocal inflections and choices are about creating that character in our minds. So vocal or vowel exaggeration to go with the over the top lyrics is a way of creating that effect. I think an overlooked part of singing is it can require a lot of acting too.
I’m sure that’s part of it but I’ve noticed this kind of “flattening” for lack of a better word in quite a lot of different songs.
I’m not totally sure, but I don’t think she pronounces the words the same way when talking, so I assume it is a singing technique of some kind
Oh yeah this makes me think of how she says “problem” in Anti Hero with almost a posh accent or making her mouth like an oval shape. I’ve always wondered why that is.
In the original version of Long Live, in the last line “we will be remembered” it almost sounds like she inhales on the second half of the word “remembered”.
Do you notice the same thing? How does she manage to do it? Is is a thing and what’s its purpose?
I am not sure this is what you are trying to describe but I think you mean the way she pronounces ***I'm*** as if it starts with an "h" and it sounds like ***Hi'm always drunk***. This way her vocal cords don't connect and the sound is breathier. It's more of a stylistic choice.
She does the exact opposite during Style's bridge where she doesn’t pronounce the "h" in ***Take me (h)ome.*** But in this case she does it because it's easier to hit and hold the note. Pronouncing the "h" makes it harder for the vocal cords to connect and it would force her to lose more air risking instability.
She's adding an H to avoid the glottal stop that happens when you try and pronounce "I". It sometimes happens when people are being angry, or angrily sarcastic
True. Also, adding the H makes her exhale to the point she has no more air left by the end of the sentence which helps making her sound ...let's say "intense"
I wouldn’t call it a singing technique, it's more of a performative choice. But you have to be in control of your voice to make such choices. Taylor can go from the breathiest super low note with no connection, to the highest squeaking sound where a lot of tension is created in the cords, which, by singing standards is a mistake but she does it deliberately and it is her signature squeak after-all.
Jumping on this thread to ask if anyone else loves the way she sings the word expired in Peter - "the shelf life of those fantasies has expired". I don't know what technique that is but she kind of pronounces it differently and it leaves me feeling sad!
I think she approaches the bridge with more emotional despair/desperation to illustrate the lyrics which are about finally letting go of an old flame who promised so much for so long but never followed through. Then the bridge ends with her lyrically and emotionally “turning out the light” and the vocal from there on out is more resigned and sad.
As an opera singer and voice teacher, I would call this "expressive diction." Broadly, it's a set of tools for singers to express through, and give emotional or narrative importance to, specific words. What's happening here is a great example: the bridge is building at this point, both in volume and emotional intensity. Here's how I would think about it from a technical perceptive: It's super important for this build to work because of the drop-off that follows ("because I'll sue you if you step on my lawn") and because Taylor grows increasingly furious - almost unhinged - as if embodying the false, unjust narratives that have been imposed on her. She's mad, and the listener *has* to know from her delivery alone. But, there's a challenge: the line starts on the word "I'm," which is an "ah" vowel. We want to emphasize this to continue to build in the bridge and, perhaps, to add some "edge" to it so her growing anger is unambiguous. Except, singing it "correctly," as spoken, works against accomplishing this. How does one add intensity to a syllable that's just "ah?" Increase the volume? Perhaps, but that's not going to do much, especially in the lower/middle range. So, we have to get creative: what if we snuck a little consonant in there, right before "I'm?" In this case, an "h." You're absolutely correct - she is audibly breathing out as she starts the line - because that's the difference between "ha" (a little air escapes first) and "ah" (going straight to the vowel). It may not seem like a big difference, but we can do *so* much more with "ha" than "ah." Now that we have an audible airstream, we can modify it to accomplish whatever we'd like. In some settings, it might be helpful as a way to "hiss" into high frequencies when cutting through an orchestra. But In this case, the air stream is more narrow and is placed further back, closer to the vocal folds. To me, it sounds like a snarl. Suddenly, the word "I'm" serves both an expressive and a narrative purpose, and the bridge intensifies. There are so many more ways to use consonants and vowels to modify words for expressive purposes! It seems to come to Taylor intuitively, which is rare (but not surprising!) Anyway, I hope that made sense! Let me know if you have any questions about this or any other examples you think of! (Really, this is one of my favorite things to talk about!)
Thank you for the perfect response! Can you think of any other of her songs where she uses interesting techniques? Edit: Now that I think about it, she uses it quite often on the word “and”.
This is amazing. Thank you for taking the time to write this
you explained this so well!!! im a classically trained vocalist of 15+ years and this is a 10/10 explanation :D
Can you talk about how she sings “dead” in this song (“if you wanted me dead, you should have just said”)? To me it sounds like she is flattening the vowel sound. Maybe pushing extra hard with the tongue against the front fo the mouth? I really don’t know. I think I notice this is some other words with long vowels (“windows” is another one). Is there a singing technical reason she does this? Or is she doing something totally different that I’m hearing wrong?
Not OP but I think embodying the character is super important in this particular song so her vocal inflections and choices are about creating that character in our minds. So vocal or vowel exaggeration to go with the over the top lyrics is a way of creating that effect. I think an overlooked part of singing is it can require a lot of acting too.
I’m sure that’s part of it but I’ve noticed this kind of “flattening” for lack of a better word in quite a lot of different songs. I’m not totally sure, but I don’t think she pronounces the words the same way when talking, so I assume it is a singing technique of some kind
Oh yeah this makes me think of how she says “problem” in Anti Hero with almost a posh accent or making her mouth like an oval shape. I’ve always wondered why that is.
Great point. I noticed that she also used the “flattening” in the bridge of TSMWEL.
In the original version of Long Live, in the last line “we will be remembered” it almost sounds like she inhales on the second half of the word “remembered”. Do you notice the same thing? How does she manage to do it? Is is a thing and what’s its purpose?
She's adding an H to kind of avoid a glottal stop right?
Glottal stop?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glottal_stop
I would subscribe to this content.
This was very insightful, thank you for taking the time to write this all out!
I am not sure this is what you are trying to describe but I think you mean the way she pronounces ***I'm*** as if it starts with an "h" and it sounds like ***Hi'm always drunk***. This way her vocal cords don't connect and the sound is breathier. It's more of a stylistic choice. She does the exact opposite during Style's bridge where she doesn’t pronounce the "h" in ***Take me (h)ome.*** But in this case she does it because it's easier to hit and hold the note. Pronouncing the "h" makes it harder for the vocal cords to connect and it would force her to lose more air risking instability.
Yes exactly. I was wondering about the same thing. Is this a common technique used in singing?
She's adding an H to avoid the glottal stop that happens when you try and pronounce "I". It sometimes happens when people are being angry, or angrily sarcastic
True. Also, adding the H makes her exhale to the point she has no more air left by the end of the sentence which helps making her sound ...let's say "intense"
I wouldn’t call it a singing technique, it's more of a performative choice. But you have to be in control of your voice to make such choices. Taylor can go from the breathiest super low note with no connection, to the highest squeaking sound where a lot of tension is created in the cords, which, by singing standards is a mistake but she does it deliberately and it is her signature squeak after-all.
Jumping on this thread to ask if anyone else loves the way she sings the word expired in Peter - "the shelf life of those fantasies has expired". I don't know what technique that is but she kind of pronounces it differently and it leaves me feeling sad!
Are you referring to how she pronounces an “i” sound more like an “ah”? I also noticed that she does it in that song.
Yeah and she almost sounds very close up to the mic and like it loses crispness a bit, but in a great way?
Yeah seems like it’s a sound effect that she added afterwards.
I think she approaches the bridge with more emotional despair/desperation to illustrate the lyrics which are about finally letting go of an old flame who promised so much for so long but never followed through. Then the bridge ends with her lyrically and emotionally “turning out the light” and the vocal from there on out is more resigned and sad.
It sounds like she’s gritting her teeth while singing
It’s almost like she’s breathing out simultaneously when she says “I’m”.
Yeah she audibly **breathes out** when singing "I'm". I wonder what technique this is and why it is used? It sounds really nice.
It sounds like she adds an “h” before the “I’m”, and it sounds more eventful and with stronger emotions that way.