Nose Yodeling

""Ee-een-0ah; Thosa-roah lai bah-ah-flai-eyes...""

- Pearl Jam, "Even Flow"

""Eddie Vedder threw me for a loop when he came out, vocally; it sounded like he was singing backwards"."

- Dee Snider, VH-1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs on Evenflow (#30)

Nose Yodeling is a singing style popularized in The Nineties, in particular in Grunge and Post-Grunge bands, and has featured in a lot of indie music since. It dates back much further, however, having been popular with folk singers since at least the early twentieth century.

It is characterised by a nasal baritone drone, with many of the words being slurred or unenunciated, thus making singers who choose this style prone to becoming The Unintelligible and their audience prone to Mondegreens. This type of singing is controversial among music fans. It tends to add a rough edge to a song, which may or may not be desirable, depending on the genre.

And while it was commonly used in Grunge, it didn't become seen as a defining trope of the genre until many of the Post-Grunge bands that Flanderized it made this the main trait of the music by exaggerating this vocal style.

See also: Perishing Alt Rock Voice, which frequently overlaps with this trope. Both can be seen as vocal equivalents of Three Chords and the Truth.


 * Aaron Lewis of Staind
 * Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.
 * Layne Staley, when he's not Metal Screaming.
 * In the same vein, Sully Erna of Godsmack.
 * Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots.
 * Scott Stapp of Creed.
 * Chad Kroeger of Nickelback.
 * Chris Daughtry.
 * Dallas Smith of Default.
 * Shaun Morgan of Seether.
 * Tyler Connolly of Theory of a Deadman.
 * Dave Matthews.
 * Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down.
 * Pasi Koskinen of Amorphis (often alternated with Tomi Koivusari's death growls)- A rare non-Alternative Rock example
 * John Fogerty of CCR.
 * Exaggerated / Parodied here