Why do vocal harmonies of older songs sound have that rich, “airy” quality that doesn’t seem to appear in modern music? (Crosby Stills and Nash, Simon and Garfunkel, et Al)

Question

I’d like to hear a scientific explanation of this!

[Example song](https://youtu.be/C7HP9Xkim9o)

I have a few questions about this.
I was once told that it’s because multiple vocals of this era were done live through a single mic (rather than overdubbed one at a time), and the layers of harmonies disturb the hair in such a way that it causes this quality. Is this the case? If it is, what exactly is the “disturbance”? Are there other factors, such as the equipment used, the mix of the recording, added reverb, etc?

EDIT: uhhhh well I didn’t expect this to blow up like it did. Thanks for everyone who commented, and thanks for the gold!

In: Physics

Answer 1

There’s a lot of comments here that are technically true, but aren’t really related to the issue OP is asking about. Yes, there’s the loudness war and digital effects and autotune and all that. Those have definitely changed things.

But the main thing is just the style of music. It’s just not as popular as it was 40 years ago. That’s why it doesn’t appear as often in modern music. It’s the same reason you don’t hear a lot of disco on the radio anymore.

There is plenty of music coming out today that still sounds like this that was recorded and mixed digitally on modern equipment.