All The Tropes

Perishing Alt Rock Voice: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Perishing Alt Rock Voice (view source)

Revision as of 02:26, 8 April 2014

105 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (categories and general cleanup)
m (Mass update links)
Line 1:
{{trope}}
Or Perishing Indie Voice [[Separated Byby a Common Language|for British (and European) audiences]].
 
Big thing in [[The Nineties]], though with a few precursors in the late Eighties, and still more in the Sixties and onwards, this is singing in the voice of somebody who 1) sounds as if they're wasting away and can hardly find the energy to vocalize, with 2) attendant flattening of the emotional tone <ref>In bad cases, it ''can'' be the musical equivalent of [[Dull Surprise]]</ref>. Comes in a number of flavours, from ennui and [[Deadpan Snarker|snark]] to sexed-out bliss to severe burnout. Sonically ranges from wispy to droney, though a fair number of Perishing Singers occupy less easily defined in-between territory, e.g. Lou Reed, Jarvis Cocker, and (depending [even] more on the song) Thom Yorke.
 
The [[Perishing Alt Rock Voice]] may be interspersed with [[Metal Scream|Metal Screams]] and Stuttering Wailing; it also frequently leads to [[Mondegreen|Mondegreens]] and [[Indecipherable Lyrics]], as well as [[Something Something Leonard Bernstein]]. A staple of [[Grunge]] and [[Shoegazing]], as well as the bread and butter of [[Dream Pop]], with a tendency to make surprise appearances in [[Industrial]]. May overlap in use with Emo Whispering and [[Nose Yodeling]]: while it's easy to sound perishing if you're singing nasally (engage pedant mode: because you're actually blocking the nose and thereby getting less air — /pedant mode off), a lot of perishing singers (like [[My Bloody Valentine (Musicband)|My Bloody Valentine]], or Thom from [[Radiohead]]) aren't nasal at all, and (as per above) they're usually far from emoting overtly. Not infrequently crosses over into [[Creepy Monotone]] or [[Dissonant Serenity]]. Related to [[Three Chords and Thethe Truth]], in that the more fanatical ones regard polished, full-bodied singing as fake and scratchy singing as authentic.
 
Basically, this trope is the difference between e.g.[[Sonic Youth|Ciccone Youth's]] version [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIbsS8rEdFI "Into the groove"] and [[Madonna]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne3wtH9aym0 original].
Line 12:
{{examples}}
 
* Probably the most perished example of this trope is Mark Kozelek from [[Red House Painters (Music)|Red House Painters]] and [[Sun Kil Moon (Music)|Sun Kil Moon]]. The complete lifelessness in his voice in every song he sings just makes the music all the more depressing.
* [[Beck (Musicmusician)|Beck]]
* Most of the indie/AlternativeRock side of [[Britpop]] sounded like this at times.
* John Mcrea of [[CAKE (Musicband)|CAKE]], cf. "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__PU5CVSegg The Distance]"
** "The Distance" is actually not typical of John McCrea's vocal style. He doesn't normally deliver the lyrics like a robot. Normally he sounds more like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf8AiX-ELVY this], using a vocal style called ''sprechgesang''.
* For [[Can (Music)|Can]], both their first vocalists sound like this at times, with a tendency to Stuttering Wailing on the part of both, and (primarily) to Emo Whispering on the part of Damo.
* Courtney Taylor-Taylor from The Dandy Warhols.
* Chino Moreno of [[Deftones]] alternates between this style and [[Metal Scream]].
Line 25:
* Ed Kowalczyk of [[wikipedia:Live (band)|Live]]
* David Usher from [[wikipedia:Moist (Canadian band)|Moist]]. They even have a song called "Pleasing Falsetto" which is sung in this style.
* [[My Bloody Valentine (Musicband)|My Bloody Valentine]], collectively.
* [[New Order]], especially through [[The Eighties]].
* [[Nine Inch Nails|Trent Reznor]] sounds like this a lot of the time.
* Stephen Malkmus from [[Pavement]]
* [[The Pixies|Black Francis]], some of the time (mostly when he's not [[Careful Withwith That Axe|screaming]]. [[The Pixies|Kim]] [[The Breeders|Deal]], most of the time.
* Thom Yorke from [[Radiohead]].
* Chris Martin from [[Coldplay]].
* Jarvis Cocker of [[Pulp (Musicband)|Pulp]].
* Michael Stipe from [[REM|R.E.M.]]
* Brian Aubert from the [[wikipedia:Silversun Pickups|Silversun Pickups]].
* Billy Corgan of [[The Smashing Pumpkins (Music)|The Smashing Pumpkins]].
* Oh, and both Kim and Thurston from [[Sonic Youth]].
* Jason Pierce from [[Spiritualized]].
Line 49:
* [[Lisa Germano]].
* ''[[Gorillaz|Windmill, windmill, for the land, turn forever hand-in-hand.]]''
* Lena Kowski of Jabberwock, when she's not busy inducing [[Careful Withwith That Axe]].
* Julie Christmas, when she's not screaming.
* Used to great effect by current indie darlings [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPqr7v8hSG4 Warpaint]
Line 55:
* The Wygal sisters of [[Splendora]] were queens of the alt-rock monotone, which is almost certainly why they got to do the theme song for ''[[Daria]]''.
** Speaking of ''Daria'', love interest [[Dreadful Musician|Trent Lane]] ''tries'' to pull this sound off, but ends up sounding totally stoned (and probably is).
* [[OK Go]] tends towards this, but the level of "perishing" varies between songs. The most evident example is probably their cover of [[The Cure]]'s "The Lovecats," which is [[Intercourse Withwith You|fairly obviously]] of the "sexed-out bliss" variety.
* Black Moth Super Rainbow later became known for running all of their lead vocals through vocoder, but their first album, ''Falling Through A Field'', more often featured vocalist Tobacco singing in a hoarse, monotone whisper through some light distortion instead. Arguably, he sounded more like he was from the [[Uncanny Valley]] ''before'' he started using a vocoder.
* Alice Glass of [[Crystal Castles]] does this on "Celestica" and "Tell Me What To Swallow", the latter used to [[Tear Jerker]] effect once the [[Abusive Parents|meaning of the lyrics]] becomes clear.
* Jonas Renske from Katatonia sings like he's permanently on the verge of having an emotional breakdown after being traumatized for years.
* [[Nick Drake]] may not be the [[Trope Maker]] (Lou Reed and John Cale probably have a heavier claim) but he could certainly qualify as one of the [[Trope Codifier|Trope Codifiers]].
* A recurring but not chronic habit of Natalie Merchant's during her tenure with [[Ten Thousand10,000 Maniacs (Music)|Ten Thousand Maniacs]].
* Remarkably early example in ''[[Bedazzled]]'' (1967) - Stanley (Dudley Moore) wishes to be a pop star and is instantly in a ''Ready, Steady, Go'' style show, passionately singing his heart out. His thunder is immediately stolen when the Devil (Peter Cook) does a droning number, dismissing his backup singers' praises in a robotic monotone[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1OHlLICfEk\].
 
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/879656"