Find Station
 

Why Billie Eilish's 'bad guy' Sounds Different Than All the Other Pop Songs

One of the signature sounds in pop music right now is vocals drenched in reverb.

Reverb, if you don’t know, is an effect that makes it sound like somebody is singing in a huge hall or cave where the voice just trails off.

But one of the biggest hits of the year bucks that trend. Billie Eilish’s “bad guy," where her vocals are incredibly tight and crisp.

Her brother, Finneas, who produced and co-wrote it with her, explained that creative decision kind of came organically with how it was recorded.

He tells Billboard, "A lot of the time, in pop music especially, there's reverb. And the reason is that reverb makes vocals sound better 99% of the time. It makes the notes ring out. I have nothing against reverb...But one of our purposes was to make it feel like you were sitting right next to Billie. You know, we made this whole album in a bedroom. So, I think when you make an album in an environment, you kind of want it to sound like that environment and, obviously, my little bedroom at my parents' house had no reverb...So, we liked how the vocals felt, and we just started to embrace it."

"bad guy" is out now.

Photo: Getty Images