How an Eau Claire Native Became the First Man in Modern American History to Popularize the Falsetto
Bon Iver released For Emma, Forever Ago in 2007.
The band’s tipping point was a review by Pitchfork which not only gave it an 8.1 and smacked their prized “Best New Music” sticker on it, but did so all under the label, “Self Released”.
That “Self Released” label underneath their album and, of equal importance, under a really positive review, blew the band up, by first, blowing up the phone of their manager Kyle Frenette, who got them signed to the Jagjaguwar record label and before long, had Bon Iver headlining theatre’s across the country.
Bon Iver came around in a small window of time when:
1) Pitchfork actually listened to unsolicited, self-released albums and
2) a positive Pitchfork review could break you as a band.
Nowadays, there’s so much traffic on the internet that sure, a good review on a trendy site is helpful, but it probably won’t catch the attention of the music industry the way it would have in 2007.
In other words, Bon Iver’s success is another example that proves the proverb: once you try to learn how someone else “made it”, that path to making it is probably out of date.
But I digress.
The Imposed and The Organic Influence
Outside of the band’s signature, acoustic guitar sound (at one moment minimalist, the next, a warm, thicc hug) the epiphany at the core of Bon Iver’s breakout success was the voice of Justin Vernon.
His falsetto brought about a generation of high pitched, ethereal, male, indie-rock singer songwriters.
When someone has an impact on culture the likes of Justin Vernon, everyone rushes to conclude what it means to the broader culture.
What does it mean that a falsetto soul-folk cabin dweller from Northwest Wisconsin got so popular so quickly?
The first consequence of an influential artist is that, like movies, msuic executives will start sourcing products similar to those that are currently succeeding.
This might be called the Imposed Influenced, a top-down reinforcement of a bands importance.
The Organic Influence could then be defined as: artists heavily influenced by the influential artists, create art that sounds heavily influenced by the influential artist.
The Organic can be reinforced by the Imposed and vice versa: A&R’s signing and promoting bands that sound like Bon Iver puts more of them on the cultural radar, creating a sub-genre that inspires more and more bands to create music in that mold.
At a non-commercial level, is there a reason this soft, emotional voice caught on when it did?
Is there something deeper going on here that propelled 10-years-worth of artists onto record labels in the wake of For Emma?
But first, a timeline.
A Timeline
Band’s directly influenced, or at least, band’s that sound directly influenced by Bon Iver, in the decade following the release of For Emma, Forever Ago.
Bon Iver
For Emma, Forever Ago, Jagjaguwar, Oct 2007
James Vincent Mcmorrow
Early In The Morning, Believe Digital, Feb 2010 (2011 in US)
S Carey
All We Grow, Jagjaguwar, 2010
Asgeir
Dýrð í dauðaþögn, Sena, 2012
Rhye
“Open”, Single, 2012. Woman, Loma Vista Recordings, 2013.
Ry X
Signed by Jive Records in 2010 as Ry Cuming and releasing a self-titled debut album, Berlin EP is his more popular, falsetto breakthrough in 2013.
Moby feat. Damien Jurado
Novo Amor & Ed Tullet
Multiple projects across multiple imprints that gets a little confusing, Wikipedia tells us Lacey (real name) rose to prominence after the release of his debut EP Woodgate, NY in March 2014.[1]
Why Falsetto? Why 2007?
Did young, white, suburban men the country over get tired of the war on terrorism after 6 straight years of rah rah USA USA, and find solace in a man who’s R&B inspired voice was pretty, high pitched, and soothing?
Were the shabby-chic Williamsburg hipsters in need of a leader?
In need of the authenticity they misguidedly imbued every flannel wearing Midwesterner (aka “real people”) with?
And did this generation of gentrifiers finally reach a critical mass right as Justin Vernon found his falsetto voice?
I like how all of that sounds.
I sure wrapped up the significance of a man’s lifework into a few tidy sentences.
But like all cultural criticism, take it more as a suggestion than an Absolute Truism.
Justin Vernon’s voice could have symbolized a rebuke of the war profiteering in the first half of the 2000’s. A powerful, whispered response to the policies of the Bush-Cheney administration.
The other artists who ended up sounding like him, may have found their, similar, voice for the same reasons Justin did, or, only after hearing his.
Or Vernon’s singing and songwriting was so good it would have propelled a voice we had never had in American pop music, to the forefront, regardless of whether or not Al Gore had kept fighting for the presidency he won in 2000.
For whatever reason it became popular, it remains true that America had never had, in living memory, a male falsetto voice before Justin Vernon’s.
I’ll say that again, because I almost couldn’t believe it, and I didn’t I realize it until I was writing this: post-Beatles, no male singer had ever became popular singing solely in falsetto before Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.
And if you can find a pre-Beatles example please comment below.
I set out thinking I would write a whiny piece about how all these artists are ripping off Justin Vernon’s voice and how greedy, music industry money-makers cannibalize any and everything that’s good and original, but the truth of a thing is often not one thing but several things, pieced together from multiple viewpoints, patched together like so many harmonizing vocal tracks.