Neo-Crooner

Neo-crooner describes the revival of classic male pop crooning that emerged in the late 1980s, when *Harry Connick Jr.* and a generation of younger singers returned to the Great American Songbook with modern production values. Where the original crooners had competed with rock and roll, their successors positioned the style as timeless sophistication: tuxedoed performers fronting big bands or studio orchestras, singing standards by Gershwin, Porter and Berlin alongside carefully chosen contemporary material. *Michael Bublé* carried the revival to arena scale in the 2000s, and its singers share an emphasis on phrasing, diction and romantic repertoire rather than vocal display.