♪ You're the sunflower ♪
Narrator: This was the biggest song
on 2019's biggest album.
"Sunflower" is technically a Post Malone song,
but it gets some of its hookiest parts
from featured artist Swae Lee.
Specifically his trademark falsetto.
♪ Some things you just can't refuse ♪
"Sunflower" had a historically long stay
on the top 10 of the hip-hop/R&B charts,
outlasting the record set by
The Weeknd's 2015 single "The Hills."
If you look at these two songs,
you start to notice a trend.
Men singing super,
super high.
Here's the thing, though.
This isn't a trend at all.
Falsetto's been sought after in music
since the Byzantine Empire,
when the church would castrate choirboys
to preserve the high pitch of their voices.
While the castration practice
luckily ended in the 1800s,
falsetto is still a mainstay in music today.
Turns out, there's a good reason
we love those high notes.
It's in our DNA.
We're hardwired to have a strong response
to falsetto in music
because of the way our brains process pitch
and because of the unique relationship
between falsetto and emotion.
Justin Stoney: Falsetto is very equivalent
to the female headvoice.
It's all about controlling teeny, tiny muscles
that are all inside your larynx.
When we're in chest voice,
vocal chords are making a thick
and muscular kind of contact.
That's a [sings low-pitched note]
kind of vibration.
Narrator: When you go into falsetto, though,
the vocal chords stretch out
and move apart from each other
so that only their edges are vibrating.
Justin: So, we move from this kind of
[sings low-pitched note] vibration
to a [sings high-pitched note]
lighter, thinner aspect of their vibration.
Narrator: In this stretched-out position,
your vocal chords are like
the thin strings on a guitar.
They can vibrate faster
and therefore produce higher notes.
So when you shift from your chest voice
into falsetto,
you can have this huge leap in pitch.
That kind of dramatic pitch change
has a big effect on us listeners.
As humans, we primarily identify each pitch,
or musical note, that we hear
through its relation to other pitches,
like the ones that came before it.
This ability is called relative pitch.
Since relative pitch is intrinsic
to how we perceive not just music
but dialogue and complex surroundings,
it makes sense that large leaps in frequency
really command our attention.
Bach, the famous composer,
used this to his advantage.
He included rapid pitch fluctuations
in key moments of his compositions
to make certain flute notes
pop out to the audience.
Pop singers do the same thing,
but with their vocal melodies.
Notice that you rarely hear
an entire pop song done in falsetto.
Artists usually reserve their highest registers
for the big moments of the track.
Like the hook:
♪ You just want attention ♪
♪ You don't want my heart ♪
Narrator: Or an emotionally climactic line:
♪ Cause I give you all ♪
♪ of me ♪
Narrator: In this, and so many other hits...
♪ 'Cause I been thinking 'bout forever ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
Narrator: Falsetto is used to shine a spotlight
on a particular moment or verse,
basically telling the listener, "This is important."
This works thanks in part to
a little adrenaline rush in the listener.
According to the music cognitive psychologist David Huron,
when you hear high-pitched, loud singing...
♪ Ahh ♪
Narrator: Your brain releases excitatory hormones
that increase your arousal state
and make you more attentive.
So falsetto gets your attention.
But that's not the only way it affects you.
It also ignites your emotion.
Take one of our most emotional times,
in the middle of a good ugly cry.
When you're sobbing, your voice tends to
shift up into a kind of unstable falsetto.
This association carries over into music.
It's no wonder, then, that falsetto speech
tends to be identified with
intense, raw, gut emotions.
Depending on the delivery,
falsetto can sound shaky or vulnerable:
♪ Don't leave me high ♪
Narrator: Paranoid:
♪ Before we see it ♪
♪ You take it ♪
Narrator: Or desperate and pleading:
♪ The nights are long ♪
♪ and lonely and ♪
Narrator: We're biologically primed
to identify it with real,
raw, gut emotion.
♪ Staying alive ♪
Narrator: At this point, you might be wondering:
Why are the most well-known falsettists all men?
After all, women can just as easily
sing in this register.
Justin: A big reason is because
we're used to hearing men in particular
speak in chest voice.
So if you hear a man sort of
speaking to you in this voice and then
[switches to high pitch] suddenly speaking in this voice,
it seems like quite a big contrast,
and contrast is so huge in pop music.
Narrator: So it's all about getting
that striking vocal contrast.
The more dramatic it is,
the more we pay attention,
and the more we might respond emotionally.
Makes sense that today's most popular music genre
is reinventing falsetto
by really pushing that contrast.
That genre, of course, is hip-hop.
♪ The truth ♪
♪ Cold like Minnesota, cold like Minnesota ♪
Justin: When you've got lyrics in rap going on
that are feeling really
tough and really grounded,
and then you have a chorus that's
really airy and light and sweet,
it's, again, that wonderful contrast.
Narrator: The prevalence of airy falsettos
in songs alongside hard-edge raps...
♪ Don't wait to jump in too long ♪
Narrator: Shows just how versatile
this vocal style really is.
It's impossible to predict
how falsetto might be reinvented
in the next decade of pop.
But one thing is clear:
It's probably not going anywhere.
♪ I'll be gone ♪
♪ In a day or ♪
♪ Two ♪