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From New York City, this is Lexicon Valley, a podcast about language.

I'm John McWhorter, and today I want to discuss an aspect of how language works and how language changes that you really don't hear about very much.

And yet, it's absolutely central to understanding this thing that we do,

which is talking. I want to use, at the start here, a certain analogy. Let's listen to what I truly

consider one of the best three minutes of recorded sound ever. Here goes, I Love the Nightlife.

Please don't talk about love tonight. If you remember how this marvelous song ends, if you remember something other than the very deft key change

near the end, you remember that it didn't actually end. It just faded out like this.

If you think about If you think about it, fade-outs are now a thing of the past.

It's like synthesizers in pop music.

We think of it as something fondly cute about pop music,

especially in the 70s. But you might ask, what happened to the fadeout?

You might ask, why did it only become so popular in the 70s? Recording technology would have

allowed it as early as the 20s, as far as I know, and yet somehow it became a big deal then.

Now, of course, we know why it was attractive.

The fade out was neat because it implied that the song was this little party that never stops.

The camera just pulls away.

There was a cinematic feel to it.

But after a while, it just stopped.

Why?

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