Why you love the sound of falsetto

• Super-high male singing dominates today's pop charts. But the infatuation with falsetto isn't a recent development in music — it goes back centuries.
• In many ways humans are hard-wired to love falsetto singing in music.
• We break down the science behind the universal appeal of falsetto voices.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Following is a transcipt of the video.

♪ 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 ♪

Narrator: "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 ♪

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