Member Since: 12/10/2011
Posts: 12,699
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Quote:
When Mariah arrived on the scene, she decided to make the melisma more pronounced or just downright extended. It was the first time we heard a pop hit where one syllable was stretched out for over ten seconds.This, of course, was a profound musical move that probably slipped under musical analysis radar in the beginning.
What wasn't noticed was this was the time when future "American Idol" contestants were assimilating everything on the radio. Hearing Mariah's harder melismas was just too powerful to not absorb and imitate when you're a little kid with aspirations to be a pop star someday. Yes, even guys worked on all those Mariah-influenced melismas. (For the record, I didn't.)
Once the "American Idol" era hit--you had a whole series of Mariah-influenced singers who think that the more melisma used...the better. Now when you watch "AI", you can't see any audition horrible to quite good without hearing someone take one word in a song and make it last for an exaggerated five minutes.
Of course, what would our National Anthem be without hearing most Mariah-influenced singers taking "O say can you see" and turning it into a melismatic frenzy?
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