McGrath--

"I think it's pervasive enough to be considered, again, mainly a regional and generational thing now"

That would imply it is characteristic of young men as well as young women in the relevant demographic? Is it? The rising intonation would be I imagine - in England as well.

[Disclaimer: I am speaking only from my casual observations (though those observation are reasonably extensive).]

I didn't mean to imply that it was characteristic of young men as well, sorry. It's mostly "girls". Here, "girls" is meant as a nebulous category.... not any well-defined age range, rather a social category. Put in a crude way, it's a category of girls and women (say, up to 40 yrs old!) largely defined by cultural ideas of desirability and "youthfulness." (I am not trying to be rude here, just making an observation of how I understand the use of "girls" in at least an American context.) In fact, my "theory" is that (at least for some people), this vocal effect is an (unconscious) indicator of one being or seeing oneself as a "girl."

I'll spare you hearing it for now, but I have a musical track I made that includes a woman (California native) who was 37-ish at the time. In it, she speaks a line in a "fry" voice that I think my audience (when I auditioned the track live) widely heard as "sexy"--judging from the audience's audible reaction when they heard it. (This, by the way, was the woman's natural, unconscious voice.) One might normally think a "breathy" voice (customary in the past) would be "sexy," however, my interpretation is that this creaky voice indicates the woman belongs to the category of a youngish, probably "available" group...possibly even that she is "Californian," etc. -- all categories that potentially suggest sexiness.

More likely, the voice only sounds "sexy" for certain people conditioned to it; it only functions in those cultural conditioned contexts. I think I have been acculturated to hear it as a potentially sexy voice, i.e. indicating a "girl." At the same time, in more "professional" contexts, I find it personally irritating and indicative of things like "lack of confidence" and "lack of qualification" -- i.e. equally prejudiced yet different perceptions.

I know that may sound like a lot of over-interpretation, but it really rings true, to me, at least!

The rising intonation, BTW, is something widely associated -- in America -- with Southern California ("Los Angeles"). However, it has spread with young people all over the US and Canada, presumably through media. Here (Los Angeles County) it is maybe just as common with men as with women.