A friend of mine would do very noticeable vocal fry at the ends of some sentences, when laughingly speaking light-heartedly and enthusiastically about something.<p>She's also an MIT PhD, and I don't recall any vocal fry when speaking seriously about science or some other topic.<p>Before I learned that vocal fry was a thing, I thought she might be code-switching to a regional or socioeconomic group accent from where she grew up in the US, or a mannerism that a particular friend group evolved in a more carefree time.<p>Her voice sounded nice, and a little unique. And you don't want to ask, and risk making someone self-conscious about how they sound or look when they're happy or laughing. Whatever is natural is best.
I accidentally discovered vocal fry screams (in the context of metal vocals) a decade or so ago. Now that I sing lead in a cover band that does slightly more aggressive music I get to leverage them on a weekly basis; the diaphragm control and breath awareness that I've learned doing heavy vocals has improved my regular singing. I had no idea that talking in this register was so divisive.
Worst part is once you learn what the Vocal Fry sounds like, you will start hear it literally everywhere. At best, it was interesting to recognize in the real world; at worst, it ruined some podcast hosts for me.
Is this how throat singing works? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8hrhBZJ98">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8hrhBZJ98</a>
The hatred of vocal fry is just class-oriented bigotry. It's a variation on anti-AAVE.<p>Previously, uptick speech filled the need for hatred. But then it turned out in studies that uptick was perceived as <i>more</i> intelligent by later Gen Y and all of Gen Z.