Cheers :) Yes I know it did well in the charts, but I thought I should include a song that was extremely popular to forestall the 'but "pop" means "popular"' argument.

Fleet Floxes at 2 minutes sounds like America.

I don't think those examples are so fantastic - no offense. That one Goyte song is just plan annoying. I think the style singing Of Monsters and Men use is just plain horrible - I can't listen to it. It's just certain things in music get overdone till ad nauseam. That's not a "now versus then" thing.

What has happen to post-Whitney R&B, Blues, Bluegrass etc has quite often happen to indie folk, the singing sounds derivative and pretentious. It doesn't mean I don't like those genres, I'm just a very finicky listener. I would rather someone who others would not be considered to have a strong voice to sing in their own natural way than for them to try to sound like someone else, whether they are expected to because it's the new standard or told to sing that way have a hit.

Them too.

you noticed too, good ear.

Driveyourcar you're probably right, CSNY is the frame of reference I had when I thought of showing it to my parents or grandma. Maybe it just seems distinct from folk to me as I said before, but CSN/Y is a better comparison for the folk rock element.

Also America don't course because they were like CSNY's little brother.

Don't think so, one was the super group from various 60's Rock bands who turned hippy in time for Woodstock. Another were a legit band in their own right. I don't see that just because a band is formed later automatically makes them the little brother. If you follow that logic that CSNY "don't course because they" were the Everly Brothers' little hippy brother.

I think FF's music sounds more like CSN but their vocals and harmonies are a bit more like America. America is/was less folk-y than CSN.

America started with a folk-y harmonies and used mainly acoustic folk guitars with plenty of Jazzy chords. America started folk-y (plus other music styles) shifted direction and became more Rock than Folk. CSN added Neil Young to the mix. I thought they came from a very similar place and they both evolved - not judging one over the other.

CSN could be very Simon and Garfunkelish too - check out "Marrakesh Express." That begs the question does CSN "court" even though they formed after S&G? So America is the little brother of CSN who were little brother of Simon and Garfunkel who were the little brother of the Everly Brothers. If America "doesn't court" isn't saying that siding the opinion that things get worse or don't compare? Even though it's on a micro scale from say from '68 to '70, compared to the macro scale of 1960 to 1980 vs 1990 to 2013.

I don't think one is better over the other even if you factor in who is influenced by who came first doesn't rate a band. I have other criteria than that which is kinda hard to explain. In most cases there is enough personal elements in a band to give them their own individual credit. When you have different bands (even though they formed at different time) at some point they come together regardless of seniority to define an era like Folk Rock etc.

Personally, I infinitely prefer early Folk Rock of the 60's and 70s over the "Unplug" stuff MTV pooped out in the 90s.

I think the Gotye song has been massively over-played on radio and stuff, however, that's the case with any song that's an actual hit. Lyrically, I think it's intelligent and memorable.

I suppose it's subjective as to whether you enjoy a particular style of singing - personally I think that it goes well with the style of the music, just as singing in a bluesy fashion would go well with singing a blues song.

I see what you mean about Whitney though - there are far too many pop/ rn'b singers who over-egg stuff [I call it doing a Mariah]. Whilst it may be very technically impressive to hit 10 notes in 4 different octaves in one line, in terms of song structure, I think it's actually detrimental to a piece of music, as adding constant flourishes/ embellishment rather saps the expression from a song. Roughly, I think that a song should follow an arc a bit like a novel - set up scene with the start, gradually build to a climax about 3/4 the way through, then let the consumer back down gently. If you do absolutely everything of which you're capable throughout the entire thing, then where do you go? You've nothing to build up to, because you're already at the top of the mountain. And if you remain at the same altitude for the whole climb, that's not a climb at all... it's just a walk.

Ok, might have overextended my metaphor there slightly lol but you see what I mean.

Oops I meant count but I call them little brother because neil young couldn't even distinguish "horse with no name" from his own catalog, likely due to it sounding exactly like his or CSNY's music later down the line