Thursday Things: Songs of Oz Edition
14 November 2024. Vol 6 No 46. By Dan McGirt. #275
Thursday Things is here! This week we sing in cursive, show up unannounced, and swim to Oz.
If you enjoy this edition, please click the heart icon in the header or at the end of the post to let me know.
“Swim little munchkins, I hope you can float. She brought you a house, when you needed a boat.” Photo by Khuong Nguyen on Unsplash
Oz beneath the waves?
Where exactly is the Land of Oz located?
Somewhere within tornado range of Kansas, obviously. In author Frank Baum’s original conception, Oz was surrounded by an impenetrable desert. While the geographic location of Oz was never stated definitively, it seems to have been somewhere in the American West. Remember, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900, so that there was a hidden land somewhere beyond the unexplored bits of desert was somewhat plausible — with a little bit of make-believe and a splash of suspension of disbelief.
However, as Baum wrote more and more sequels — 13 in all, with the series extended to 40 volumes by other authors — he added more fantastical lands on the other side of the desert. Eventually it was evident that Oz existed on its own previously uncharted continent.
So whatever happened to the Land of Oz?
I have some bad news.
Scientists Found a 'Yellow Brick Road' at The Bottom of The Pacific Ocean
An expedition to a deep-sea ridge, just north of the Hawaiian Islands, revealed a surprise discovery back in 2022: an ancient dried-out lake bed paved with what looks like a yellow brick road.
The eerie scene was chanced upon by the exploration vessel Nautilus, while surveying the Liliʻuokalani ridge within Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM).
The Yellow Brick Road is underwater!
Researchers at the Ocean Exploration Trust are pushing the frontiers of this wilderness, which lies more than 3,000 meters below the waves, and the best part is, anyone can watch the exploration.
A highlight reel of the expedition's footage published on YouTube in April 2022 captured the moment researchers operating the deep-sea vehicle stumbled upon the road to Oz.
It certainly looks that way. Who wants to tell Dorothy?
No knocks
Do you drop on in people — friends, family, neighbors — unannounced? As in, you were just in the neighborhood and decided to stop by? Do you get unexpected visitors like that?
Apparently this is becoming a rarer occurrence, especially in urban areas.
Individualism, cell phones and social fatigue: Why unexpected visitors are in danger of extinction
Welcoming neighbors and friends without prior warning has become nearly non-existent in the social fabric of big cities. Urban layout and technological advancement have resulted in such interactions being seen as annoying and a disturbance of one’s rest time
The ring of the doorbell when you’re not expecting anyone is, at the least, odd. Above all in big cities, where distances between homes can be long and the act of going to see someone implies a certain amount of preparation to traverse the town. In far-flung neighborhoods, the chance that someone was merely in the area is low and the sound of someone at the door is more commonly tied to the arrival of a delivery person or a letter carrier. Unexpected visits are getting less common, be they from friends, family members or neighbors who show up unannounced with the aim of having a little chat.
In smaller cities or towns, it’s still more common for people to drop by:
Such encounters happen often in small urban centers and rural areas where neighbors don’t just share walls, but also, in a certain way, their free time. A lack of new residents can lead to deeper personal relationships with one’s existing neighbors that aren’t limited to a simple “hello” and “goodbye,” as they are in larger-sized cities.
Part of the explanation for this change of social customs is, of course, technology:
Without a doubt, technology has caused radical changes to social relationships. Communication has become immediate, thanks to cell phones and computers. There’s no need to be in physical contact with someone to show interest in how they’re doing. As a result, ethical codes have shifted, and not warning someone that you’d like to come by — whether you do so by text or phone call — is seen by many as intrusive behavior that shows disrespect for their time and space.
But there is also the fact that, especially in big cities, people can get socially exhausted from interacting with so many other people all day and enjoy the refuge of being at home without unexpected intrusions.
When was the last time you dropped in on someone without calling or texting first? When was the last time it happened to you? What are your thoughts? Discuss in the comments!
Singing in cursive
Have you ever noticed the strange way many pop singers — especially female vocalists — distort their vowels and have that annoying vocal fry? There’s a name for that!
Some call it “indie girl voice” but a more recent descriptor for the style is “cursive singing” which derived from an online convention of typing lyrics sung indie voice in cursive — i.e. singing in cursive.
Cute.
This blog post tells you more than you ever wanted to know about this phenomenon: Dialect Dissection: Indie Voice/Cursive Singing - The Definitive Post
Language in music does not just reflect spoken speech, but actually creates new forms that exist mostly in music. One of the most well-known examples of a music-locked language variety is "Indie Voice," also called "Cursive Singing," "Indie (Girl) Voice" or "hip singing." The style has disparate roots, but began to crystallize and gain media attention in the 2010s. It has proven to have staying power, both as a musical tool for singers to draw on, and as a distinct entity that lay people can point out and imitate.
If you’re still not sure what I’m talking about, this might help:
Cursive singing is a name for a style of singing that has also been called "indie girl/boy voice," "indie pop voice," and "hip singing." It is associated with a breathy voice, vocal fry, distinct vowel choices, and a thin, delicate style of singing.
The article traces the origins of “indie pop voice” back to as early as 2009 review of a 2005 album, though certainly roots of the style date even earlier.
It attempts to answer not only the question what is indie voice? but also why is indie voice?:
One of the most popular explanations for why cursive singing exists is that it's a way for singers to 'distinguish themselves.' But this explanation doesn't line up with the aforementioned facts. If you want to distinguish yourself, why try to sound like every other indie singer? Why use the same features they use? Why stick to sounds we're already somewhat more familiar with instead of coming up with something actually unexpected? If instead of adding an 'ih' after vowels, they turned every vowel into an 'er' sound, I would probably remember that more just because it's so unprecedented.
Instead of an attention-based explanation of indie-voice, I propose that indie voice behaves as other registers do - as a way to communicate something to the audience and to signal group membership. Contrary to sticking out, adopting indie voice means a singer is attempting to fit in to the existing crop of singers. This is neither bad nor good - it is simply the way registers work.
It’s a nice long post with lots of audio clips to illustrate various aspects of the style under discussion. So it that interests you either as a linguist, vocalist, or person interested in random things, I recommend clicking over to read, and hear, it all.
The post concludes:
Indie voice is valuable, not least because it allows us to witness an example of a register developing and spreading. It shows how complex language change is - we used concepts from language contact, articulatory acoustics, and sociolinguistics to explain the origin of indie voice.
And now you know!
Wait, are ripped jeans back too? Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash
Thank you for reading!
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