All New Lyrics Mixed too Low now

[ManFromGlass]

It might not just be me -
I try to keep up on what the kids are listening to on the radio. Almost all of it drives me crazy now as I am finding except for a vocal hook which is usually doubled and/or harmonized, that all vocals of late are mixed too low to be intelligible.
Wasn’t there a time when a large number of lyrics could be understood and sung along to?

[Drew Stephenson]

I will be the first to admit that I don't listen to a lot of popular music these days, but it's not something I've noticed. Have you had your ears tested recently (or checked for wax build up)?
It would seem to be a strange mixing decision from a commercial perspective.

[Wonks]

Listen to a different radio station where they play tracks you can hear the lyrics on.

[ManFromGlass]

No need to test them, I can see them when I look in the mirror -
Sorry my sense of humour is deteriorating with my spelling, memory and hearing. I know my ears are down to about 9k. But older songs, even ones that I don’t have the lyrics memorised I can follow with the odd word or phrase exception.
So perhaps selective hearing is setting in even though there is occasionally a well done tune on the radio. I will even admit to checking out country music and the same noise/vocal ratio is there. Don’t get me started on French pop and club music!!

Mr Wonks - I like to scan the radio bands looking for happy surprises.

[sonics]

Things have changed, yes. A vocal performance is so often more of an amplified whisper than a sung one. Clarity of pronunciation seems to be at an all-time low. Melodies are much less composed, and tend to sit in with the harmony, rather than move around it. The backing is generally much louder than it used to be. Modern mastering further pushes the instruments up to the voices.

Overall, it's a yes from me... (to modern vocals being less intelligible).

[Sam Spoons]

Not unlike the dialogue in most modern TV shows and films.

[MarkOne]

Melodies are much less composed, and tend to sit in with the harmony,

I watched an Andrew Haung YouTube that shows a lot of modern melodies sit more or less on the II of the scale because that note harmonises reasonably well with nearly all chords in the scale.

Hooray for mediocrity!

[jimjazzdad]

As a cranky old geezer, one of the things that drives me crazy is how many of the current generation of vocalists swallow vowels, don't enunciate, and generally don't understand emphasis. These deficiencies are at least partially responsible for poor intelligibility in addition to low vocal mix levels.