From Kishore Kumar to Neeti Mohan: The Use of Yodelling in Bollywood Music

Since the 1950s, it was nearly impossible to turn on the radio and not hear a male artist yodelling. Likely they were classically trained singers, and more often than not they would yodel in every other song. Think Kishore Kumar, Neeti Mohan, Shanmukha Priya…the list goes on and on and on. This isn’t a trend— it has been the status quo for decades.

Kishore Kumar's signature yodelling style. Image source: Filmfare

One could listen to any pop song from the 1950s to the 1980s sung by a male artist and the chances are they would find the singers yodelling. Yodelling is a style of singing that alternates between the low-pitch chest register, often referred to as the chest voice, and the high-pitch head register, also known as the falsetto. It occurs when vocalists do a succession of abrupt vocal changes. For instance, Kishore Kumar's performance of Zindagi Ek Safar in the film Andaz is almost entirely in yodelling, which was the singer's distinctive vocal range.  However, in pop music, many singers rarely use falsetto or yodel in their songs. They occasionally do that at crucial points in their songs, which is unusual. There is significant evidence that singers, particularly male singers singing in falsetto, have been around for a long time, even though many music analysts like Raymond Ammand deemed this a trend.

Yodelling is a frequent vocal style that is often used in classical music. Yodelling was first adopted into classical music in the seventeenth century when composers recorded the endearing yodels they heard in the Alps. Lyrics were later added, and this is how it was incorporated into song structures for popular music. Singers like Kishore Kumar and Shanmukha Priya use fast pitch changes rather than the typical singing transition from chest voice to head voice to elicit the most emotion and enthusiasm.

The 1950 film Muqaddar's song Aati Hai Yaad Humko January February is one of the earliest instances of yodelling by Kishore Kumar. For emphasis in this song, Kumar moves from his natural range to a falsetto. Mohammed Rafi also yodelled in the song Unse Rippi Tippi Ho Gayi, which was included in the 1957 edition of Agra Road. Rafi is not well known for yodelling in most of his songs, but in this song, he uses his head voice to add emotion and interest. In the year 2022, Neeti Mohan yodelled in her well-known song Meri Jaan and showed diversity in her falsetto voice. Last but not least, one of the most recent singers to appear on Indian Idol, Shanmukha Priya, performs a version of Dum Maro that includes yodelling. This shows that yodelling in songs by singers is a growing trend rather than merely a fad.

Neeti Mohan singing. Image source: Vistara Magzine

What is the cause of this increase, and why do music fans enjoy it so much? It is based on science. Yodelling and falsetto in particular are tuned to cause varied responses in our brains. Humans' emotional responses to varied pitch noises vary. Yodelling activates the brain regions responsible for the emotional response to music, the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala. Imagine the range of emotions that could be elicited by a tiny shift in pitch in speech, as opposed to the larger range of feelings that would result from a similar change in pitch in music. Yodelling is amplified in the music of modern pop performers like Mohan and Priya since they are aware of this.