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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Bada bada bwi ba ba bada bo. Baba ba da bo. Bwi ba ba bada bo. Baba ba da bo."''|'''[[Scatman John]]''', ''"[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2wMsnE2cvI Scatman!]"''}}
|'''[[Scatman John]]''', ''"Scatman!"''}}
 
'''Scatting''' is vocalization that isn't lyrics. It is, for the most part, improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables, whistling, [[Careful Withwith That Axe|screaming]], or even humming without words at all. Scatting gives the singer a chance to improvise his own melody and rhythm, basically creating the vocal equivalent to an instrumental solo.
Compare [[Indecipherable Lyrics]] and [[Word Salad Lyrics]]. Many [[Lyrical Tic|Lyrical Tics]] are this.▼
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
 
▲Compare [[Indecipherable Lyrics]] and [[Word Salad Lyrics]]. Many [[Lyrical Tic|Lyrical Tics]]s are this.
 
▲{{examples|Examples:}}
== Music ==
* This is a major component in [[Jazz]] music.
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* [[Ella Fitzgerald]]'s facility with scatting is legendary.
* Benjamin "Scatman" Crothers got his nickname for his absolute skill at scatting, which he did in nearly every song he sang.
** Similarly, "[[NamesName's the Same|Scatman]]" John Larkin. What makes him particularly amazing is that he had a stutter... which incidentally [[Disability Superpower|gave him amazing scatting abilities.]]
* Just about every up-tempo song by [[Roger Miller]] is bound to have some of this.
** His song "[httphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3-EwMJDQekLg7DcCI39GY Dang Me]" may be his best example, as it ''opens'' with scatting, and has further scatting all through the rest of it.
* "Installation" from the soundtrack of ''[[Coraline (Filmanimation)|Coraline]]''.
* [[Goldfrapp]]'s songs ''Voicething'', ''Slippage'', ''Oompa Radar'' and ''Felt Mountain''- although—although the last two have lyrics that are basically 'Do do do do do', ''Slippage'' has her clearly saying, 'La la la la la la la' and 'Oh, yeah' before [[Careful Withwith That Axe|screaming.]]
* [[Orbital (Music)|Orbital]] had several songs like this: "Dŵr Budr", "Out There Somewhere?" (both featuring the aforementioned Alison Goldfrapp), and "Way Out".
* Ray Barretto's song ''Acid''.
* "The Great Gig In The Sky" by [[Pink Floyd]].
** "Pow R Toc H" is mostly instrumental aside from a section of really strange scatting.
** "A Saucerful of Secrets".
* [[Sigur RosRós]] have a name for their gibberish, ''Vonlenska'' (or ''Hopelandic'').
* [[The Police]] songs that do this include "Masoko Tanga", "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" (yes, it's the song name, and it gets a [[Title Drop]] in the chorus!), and "A Kind of Loving". Sting [[Lyrical Tic|likes to interject his popular "Eee-yooooh!"]] into a lot of songs as well.
* Some songs by Liv Kristine.
* [[Disturbed (Music)|Disturbed]] are an interesting case - when lead singer David Draiman is writing lyrics, he listens to the band's completed track until he can imagine a tune to follow, scat-sings until his voice satisfactorily gels to the song, and then applies actual lyrics as late as possible. Basically, every Disturbed song was Scatting at one point.
** And in some cases, Draiman decided that any lyrics he wrote didn't have quite as much punch as the Scatting, so he left it in. Examples include ''The Game'' (Ramidi ma ma ba di ma, ramidi ma ma din do) and ''This Moment'' (Bi-ya-ta! Bi-ya-ta![[hottip:*: <ref>Though Draiman claims [http://twitter.com/#!/DAVIDMDRAIMAN/status/77664430401404929 he was actually saying "Better Yet (ah!)"]</ref>).
* If vocal bridges qualify under this trope, then [[Korn (Music)|Korn]]'s "Freak on a Leash" definitely fits in.
{{quote| "''Boom na da mmm dum na ema / Da boom na da mmm dum na ema / Go!''."}}
** Seed, BBK, Twist and Ball Tongue are a few examples.
* [[Talking Heads]]' "I Zimbra", which is based on a dada poem full of nonsense words by Hugo Ball.
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* Ponytail do these kinds of songs exclusively: their vocals generally consist of "ooh", "whooo!", nonsense syllables and screaming - although "Sky Drool" starts with a very clear "mmm baby, mmm mmm".
* [[Lamb of God]]'s "Black Label". Even with the lyrics handy, you can hardly make out what Randy Blythe is singing there.
* Focus' song "Hocus Pocus" has a Dutch man yodeling as the only lyrics. And it's ''[[Crowning Music of Awesome|awesome]]''.
* It picked up real words by the time it appeared on an album, but the lyrics to [[Weezer]]'s "Burndt Jamb" were originally just "do" and "ah". The ''Maladroit'' version did still retain some scatting in the backing vocals ("doot do doo doo").
* Projects related to musician [[Mike Patton]] almost always feature at least a little bit of this. As the title might suggest, Mr Bungle's "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz". "Chemical Marriage" off of the same album is just scat singing. At one point in time you could have sent two dollars to a P.O. box listed in the Disco Volante liner notes to get some stickers and the "lyrics" to "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz" and "Chemical Marriage."
** Another Mike Patton project, Fantomas, plays this straight. Their self-titled debut features Patton singing on every track without ever uttering a single word. ''Suspended Animation,'' which came after, has him using his voice to emulate sound effects from [[The Golden Age of Animation]].
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* Most [[Dead Can Dance]] songs are like this. As are most songs by Lisa Gerrard since going solo.
** And "One Perfect Sunrise" by Orbital, which features her.
* The instrumental version of [[CAKE (Musicband)|CAKE]]'s ''Arco Arena''. No real lyrics, just John McCrea occasionally muttering something or interjecting with his usual [[Lyrical Tic|Lyrical Tics]]s ("Yah!").
* [[The Beatles (Musicband)|The Beatles]] instrumental "Flying" with no words aside from chanting "Lah, la-la, la-laaa" near the end.
** "Girl" has a rather amusing background harmonic vocal accompaniment of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|'tit tit tit tit']] appear before the chorus.
** "Hey Jude" has about four minutes of "nana na na".
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** Also from Brazil, Samuel Rosa of the band Skank loves scatting. It gets even worse during concerts.
** Brazil has arguably an entire genre for this: axé music! "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWsS2w3-h_c Aê aê aê aê!Ê ê ê ê! Ô ô ô ô ô ô ô ô!]"
*** So much that the question "[http://www.frazz.com.br/frase.html/Casseta_e_Planeta-O_que_seria_da_music-88134 What would Bahian music be without the vowels?]{{Dead link}}" already was asked.
* [[Fleet Foxes]]' "Heard Them Stirring", which has nothing but harmonized "whoa-oh"'s for vocals.
* "Mah Na Mah Na".
** Doo doo, doo-doo-doo!
* Chacarron Macarron, also known as the "Ualuealuealeuale" song, is a dance-esque song that's comprised entirely of...''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ85cZS0_jY something]''. The singer originally composed the song using the David Draiman method mentioned above -- heabove—he ''intended'' to write actual lyrics, but decided at some point that the mumbling sounded too funny to drop.
* The song "Davnesaur," by To Slay Zombie Newton, contains a few genuine lyrics, but mostly it's nonsense that the band members claim is an ancient Scandinavian language... but were actually written by a random syllable generator on a graphing calculator.
* The band [[Relient K]] has a song titled "Gibberish" that is comprised of [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|mostly gibberish]], outside of the chorus, which tells you to "Stop talking gibberish or just stop talking."
* Adriano Celentano's "[httphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BqNcXz-tsc_X_7iMHugXM Prisencolinensinainciusol]", gibberish specifically written to sound like English.
* The much-covered song "Land Of A Thousand Dances" consists of pretty much nothing but "na na na na na na". [[Dave Barry]] once commented on how easy it was to make song lyrics by quoting the chorus in its entirety.
* [[Simon and Garfunkel]]'s "[[The Graduate|Mrs. Robinson]]" starts with "doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo... dee dee dee dee de dee" (with some more "doos" and "dees" in there).
** From the same duo, ''The Boxer'''s choruses go "Lie la-lie, lie la-lie lie lie la-lie..."
* The plurality of Roxette's "The Look": "Na." I.e, "Na na na na na, na na na na na, na na na na na na na, na na na na na, na na na na na na na na, she's got the look."
* Robbie Williams' (formerly of [[Take That (Musicband)|Take That]] fame) song "Road To Mandalay" has a refrain consisting of him going "dah duh duh dum, da, duh, dum dum" a few times.
* Eiffel 65 has the song "Blue (Da Ba Dee)". The lyrics are [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]].
* Nadia Oh has a song called "Hot Like Wow". The final minute is nothing but chorus and la la la la.
* ''[[Lady Gaga|Rah rah ah-ah-ah / Ro mah ro-mah-mah / Gaga Ooh-la-la!'']]
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* [[Cab Calloway]] was famous for this. He admitted that he first began singing 'scat' it was because he'd forgotten the words to a song, but after it went over well with his audience he began to purposely write it into his songs.
* [[Ska]]-swing band Cherry Poppin' Daddies has some scatting in the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IqH3uliwJY Zoot Suit Riot] right before the coda (basically during the bridge).
* The [[Gorillaz]] song "Rockit" consists mostly of "blah blah blah".
* [[Frou Frou]] really liked this trope.
* Insects vs. Robots, ''Sacred Moose''.
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* Very nearly the complete works of Meredith Monk except for ''Do You Be''. The only actual lyrics in Monk's brilliant "Book of Days" are a humming "these things, these things, these things" and a rhythmic, rising-and-falling "come and go and go and come and come and go and go and come". I am ready to swear there is an entire stanza of "hop bdlyena hop bdlyena hop bdlyena hop pah, hop bdlyena hop bdlyena hop bdlyena hop pah ... "
* "Give It Up" by KC and the Sunshine Band. "Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na, baby, give it up..."
* [[REM|R.E.M.'s]]'s "Endgame" is mostly instrumental, aside from some wordless harmonizing and Michael Stipe singing variants on "ba ba ba" a few times.
* "Rubber Biscuit" by the Chips. If you don't know it, you might be more familiar with the Blues Brothers versions. [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20200122142820/https://www.phenix.bnl.gov/WWW/tracking/pc/rubber_biscuit.htm The original does have lyrics of sorts, though...]
* "Centerfold" by the [[J Geils Band|J. Geils Band]] has a Scatting part right after the second chorus and one near the end.
* "Godspeed" by BT, featuring Jan Johnston. "If, if, if, nyow nyow aah", and "uh hoooo, you you you". The vocables appear to be snippets from their earlier collaboration "Remember".
* Nightcrawlers - Push The Feeling On (Dub of Doom and its re-remixes): "Er/Their lives again/Er/Their li/To pull us/Er"([[Looped Lyrics]]). The rarely-heard original had full lyrics, which were chopped up into vocables in the remixes.
* [[Woven Hand]]'s "Slota Prow" has David Eugene Edwards [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia |speaking in tongues]], set to music.
* The refrain of Opus III's "It's a Fine Day": "Nanananana nee na nee nah". This part was [[Sampled Up]] ( [[Subliminal Seduction|backmasked]]) by Orbital in "Halcyon".
* [[Rise Against]] actually performed a [[Scatting|Simlish]] version of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAf5XTOrPM4 Savior (youtube link)] written for a Sims 3 advertising campaign. It is remarkably similar to the actual version ("it kills me not to know this" becomes "ta kil me naka no dis", for example), suggesting that either Simlish is closer to English than thought or that Rise Against is unimaginative.
** There are other Scatting song versions too, including Katy Perry's "Hot n Cold." Quite a number of the lyrics are also remarkably similar to the original.
* "Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot" by Caramba.
* Soul Coughing songs contain a little bit of scatting on occasion in general, but the most Scat-heavy song is "Paint", which ended up that way as sort of a [[Throw It In]] moment: Mike Doughty had written chorus lyrics, but not any verses, so he just started spouting rhythmic nonsense over the verse section, then decided it sounded cooler that way.
** Doughty's live album ''Smofe + Smang'' features an early version of "Grey Ghost" where he admits he didn't write any lyrics for the bridge yet, so he has to sing "fake words". The title of the album actually comes from part of that very same scat bridge.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGM0-G8x_pg Haru Mamburu] by the Russian band Nogu Svelo! has "lyrics" made of vaguely English-like gibberish.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ2lWyTi0oY Bla Bla Bla] by Gigi D'Agostino ([[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]), and the refrain of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjP1Z8ffrbc&feature=related Elisir(Your Love)].
* [[Nirvana]]'s "Tourette's" has no lyrics, just lots of screaming that sounds vauguely like it might be lyrics. Of course, given that some people think all Nirvana lyrics sound like "[[Indecipherable Lyrics|garbled, vaguely word-like gibberish]]", many are convinced that is also true of this song, and that there are real lyrics there if you listen hard enough. There aren't. It's just gibberish.
** To make it worse, Kurt Cobain had habits of decending into this anyway. If you listen to a lot of the unreleased stuff on the "With The Lights Out" box set you'll know what I mean.
* "Witch Doctor": "Ooh ee, ooh ah ah, ting, tang, walla walla bing bang..."
* [[Death Metal]] vocals are rarely if ever this. More likely [[Indecipherable Lyrics]].
* Cows' version of the ''[[Midnight Cowboy]]'' title theme substitutes the string part of the original with vocalist Shannon Selberg singing "ooh".
* A good part of the lyrics of [[Queen]]'s Under Pressure.
* The refrains of many Eurodance and Bubble Gum Dance songs used this, such as "oh la oh la eh"(La Bouche's "Sweet Dreams"), "iai iai iai"(Smile.dk's "Butterfly"), "na na na na way-oh"(Alice Deejay's "Will I Ever"), "li da di da di da di"(Amber's "Sexual"), etc.
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* Notably, the Tro Lo Lo song.
* [[My Chemical Romance]] has a new song ''called'' "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)". Guess how the chorus goes.
** There's also a version literally ''in'' [[The Sims|Simlish]].
** From the same album is "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back" which also has parts of the chorus that come with five na's.
* [[Hanson]] song "Mmmbop".
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* [[Aretha Franklin]] is well-known for scatting in pretty much all her songs. Especially since the 80's. Even on a cover of "Jumpin' Jack Flash".
* [[Yes]] could really make this work when they used it, e.g. on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UivtWeJgvMg "Leave It"] from ''90125''.
** Trevor Rabin's ''90124'', a collection of old demo versions of songs he'd later record with Yes, included an excerpt of an acoustic version of "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" recorded before he'd really written any verse lyrics. Needless to say, it's sort of amusing to hear the first few lines rendered as "move yourself, ya da da da da da, ya da dada da da dada".
* King Crimson weren't immune. "Easy Money" featured the repeated line "Ooooo da di dow dow, da diddy dow, da dow dow- da do doooo -"
* The Rhinemaidens from Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' cycle engage in this frequently. ''Weia! Waga! Wagala weia!''
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* Most vocals in spacesynth are vocodered scat-singing, although a few songs like Laserdance's "Digital Dream" have real, albeit [[Indecipherable Lyrics|hard to decipher]], lyrics.
* "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yAI5_YXNqI 13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110]" by [[Iamamiwhoami]] is [[Fan Nickname|nicknamed "papachoo"]] for its meaningless lyrics.
* [[Ministry]]'s "Jesus Built My Hotrod"; five minutes of [[Motor Mouth]] Scatting ("ding-a-ding-dang my dang-along-ling-long"?) to an equally energized background.
* [[The Crystalline Effect]]'s "Where The World Ends".
* [[Prince Buster]] does some semi-scatting in the song "[[Al Capone]]", by making "Chk-a-tk" noises to mimic a snare drum, along with "Hik" noises towards the end of the song. This scatting had an effect on later [[Ska]] songs.
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** and there's also Ole Le-La, another song whose chorus is mostly nonsense sounds
* Mashina's (another Israely band, this troper is busy tonight) רכבת לילה לקהיר (Night Train to Cairo) also has a chorus of Oh-oh oh oh-oh-oh oh...
* [[Aerosmith (Music)|Aerosmith]]: even when Steven Tyler isn't actually trying to sing the drum parts (Heart's Done Time, Livin' on the Edge) he's quite happy to go off the end of the lyric sheet (Rag Doll, Livin' on the Edge, many others).
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oavMtUWDBTM I am very glad, because I'm finally returning back home (Trololo)] by Eduard Khil, was performed with [[Scatting]] in place of the original lyrics, ostensibly for artistic reasons. Since then it's been embraced as the official [[Troll]] song of the Internet. Go figure.
* The fadeout of "What Can't Be Seen" by [[Everything Else]] features the melody scatted at a faster tempo.
* Many songs by [[Imogen Heap]].
* [[Jaga Jazzist (Music)|Jaga Jazzist]]: "Swedenborgske Rom" has an ''a cappella'' lyricless interlude. And "All I Know Is Tonight" has lyricless singing in unison with the main horn riff.
* Scott Walker starts doing this over the fade out of "The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated To The Neo-Stalnist Regime)".
* Towards the end of [[The Doors]]' "Cars Hiss By My Window", Jim Morrison takes a wordless vocal solo where he imitates a wah-wah guitar (or possibly a harmonica) with his voice: "whoooh, wha-wha-whaoo-ooh...".
* [[Jason Mraz]] does quite a bit of this, especially in his live performances. It features at least once in the majority of his songs.
* [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]] does this in "D'yer Mak'er" and "The Ocean".
 
 
== Anime ==
* In [[Macross Plus]], Some of Sharon Apple's songs are in a made-up "language" of nonsense words chosen only for their sound and the emotional tone they conveyed.
** Common in Yoko Kanno's soundtracks in general. She's done the same thing in ''[[Earth Maiden Arjuna]]'', ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' and ''[[Escaflowne]]''.
** In a similar vein, some of the pseudo-Latin song in the soundtrack of [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]] qualifies. The best-known example would be [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MaQ6m6mho8 Credens Justitiam].
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* Scatting is omnipresent in the soundtrack for ''[[.hack|.hack//Legend of the Twilight]]''.
* "Rose and Release" from ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' is a version of the Opening sung entirely in "la-s".
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcA2yXxbudY "Dogs and Angels"] from ''[[WolfsWolf's Rain]]''.
 
 
== Film ==
* Played with in ''[[The Simpsons]] Movie]]'': as [[Green Day]] perform the Simpsons theme, the 'lyrics' are shown on their prompter as a scrolling wall of "Da Da Da Da Da Da..."
* Some of the ''[[Coraline (Filmanimation)|Coraline]]'' songs fit. Try [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxs2vS2gJ-c&feature=player_embedded Exploration] and the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnIUVHtLC08&feature=player_embedded end credits song].
* [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s one and only speaking role as [[The Tramp]] in ''[[Modern Times]]'' features him singing a gibberish song that sounds vaguely French/Italian. Chaplin didn't want the character to be limited by language barriers.
* Most of the musical score of ''Winged Migration'' is Scat... sometimes it's even hard to distinguish from percussions. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc_qpk2d-ao&feature=PlayList&p=36636ACDD5863876&playnext=1&index=17 The trailer].
** The composer, Bruno Coulais, also did the ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'' soundtrack.
* "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" from ''[[High School Musical]] 2'' has the Hawaiian gibberish lines "maka hiki mala hini hu" and "waka waka waka niki pu pu".
 
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== Live Action TV ==
* Many of the musical cues in ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' are of Miley scat-singing whoa-ohs and yeah-yeahs for a line or two.
* The theme for ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' has an alien version of this trope.
* In ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'', music snob Howard mocks Vince for being confused and unsettled by the formless flow of jazz. He starts scatting, which causes Vince to panic and punch him.
* For what was believed to be one week only, the [[Theme Tune]] to the game show ''[[All -Star Blitz]]'' had some scatting mixed in. The results were… [[http://www.gameshowthemesongs.net/sounds/All<!-- 20Star20Blitz%20Star%20Blitz/ALLSTARBLITZ.mp3 surreal]]. -->
* HGTV's ''Divine Design'' has a noticeable scat solo over light jazz as its theme song.
{{quote| "Whee-dow, ba-bop-bop-bah-bwee..."}}
* The ''[[Clarissa Explains It All]]'' theme song. "Na na na-na-na na...na na na na na-na! Hey cool!"
* The ''[[Sam and Friends]]'' sketch "Visual Thinking" shows what happens when you combine scatting with [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]. It's not pretty.
* Vic and Bob use it in the theme tune for ''[[The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer]]''. Vic also uses it when "singing a song in the club style" in ''[[Shooting Stars]]''.
* Various [[Ultraman]] series, Mirrorman, and Fireman all feature a variation of the scat chant "Wandabadadbada, Wandabadadabada" featured for the Science patrol teams.
* A scene in ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' had Bertie wondering aloud about the lyrics to [[Cab Calloway]]'s "Minnie the Moocher".
{{quote| "All this 'ho dee ho dee ho' stuff is pretty clear, but what do you suppose is a ‘[[Jive Turkey|hoochie coocher]]’?"}}
 
 
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* Many [[Cirque Du Soleil]] songs have this.
* In the misleadingly cheerful opening number of [[Leonard Bernstein]]'s ''Trouble in Tahiti'', members of the [[Greek Chorus]] sing scat phrases like "skid a lit day" and "ratty boo, sofa so far so."
* In ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Theatretheatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', Judge Turpin hums "Ladies In Their Sensitivities" while waiting to be shaved by Sweeney Todd.
* The intro and outtro of "Setting Your Sights" from ''Vanities: A New Musical'', as well as the ending of "Looking Good", use "do do da da da" singing.
* "Alleluia" from [[Leonard Bernstein]]'s ''Mass'' is mostly scat syllables sung in canon.
* "Da Doo" from ''[[Little Shop of Horrors (theater)|Little Shop of Horrors]]''.
* In ''[[Fiddler Onon the Roof]]'', "If I Were A Rich Man" represents some sort of Yiddish version of this trope.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* The Grox Empire's anthem in ''[[Spore]]''.
* Much of the music in the ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' games features wordless [[Ominous Latin Chanting|chanting]] as a backing track. No words, just "Oooo-oooo-oooo-OOOOOO-ooo..."
** Even the regular ''[[Metroid]]'' games [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98RdRDaOsNg have it at times].
* ''[[Loco Roco]]'' used this for all its music in order to have a universally accepted soundtrack that wouldn't need translating. The nonsense sung by the Rocos sounds uncannily like real language due to the way it's structured, but it's just cute-sounding gibberish.
* The sound "Giant Egg" from ''[[Billy Hatcher and Thethe Giant Egg]]'' is mostly composed of children going "La la la la la la la lalala..." They do spell "G-I-A-N-T E-G-G" at one point, but that's it.
* A number of the playable songs in ''[[Magicians Quest Mysterious Times]]'' feature random vocals. "Cerulean" has a guy yelling "Yeaaah, behbeh!" at several points, and "Corusican Betrayal" has a wordless soprano wail in it, for example.
* ''[[Beyond Good and& Evil (Videovideo Gamegame)|Beyond Good and Evil]]''
* Venus's song in ''[[Earthbound (Video Game)|EarthboundEarthBound]]''.
* The background music to the "Secret of..." levels in ''[[Super Mario Bros|Super Mario Sunshine]]'' is "Do-do-do" sung to the tune of the classic Mario theme.
** The choir added into the [[Big Bad|Bowser]] battle themes from both ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' and ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'' whenever Bowser takes damage.
* The original ''Aria di Mezzo Carattere'' from ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]''.
** Technically it has lyrics - it is part of an opera, after all - but the SNES couldn't really handle extended voice recordings, so they're displayed as subtitles while the MIDI voice synth goes "ooo-OOOOO-ooo-OOOO".
* In ''[[Animal Crossing (Video Game)|Animal Crossing]]'', K.K. Slider's singing consists of "we" "oh" and other such sounds. His voice is even an instrument in ''Wii Music''.
* The Grand Fonic Hymn from ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'', made up of seven short verses, uses single-syllable words that don't come from any particular language, used to explain why only the first verse works like a magic spell. Each verse apparently has a "deeper meaning" that must be learned before its magic can manifest.
* As [[The Sims]] characters [[Speaking Simlish|speak Simlish]], the songs heard on the radio are also sung in gibberish, in all three installments and their respective expansions. The Sims: Unleashed hired a real band (Zydeco Flames) to perform their songs in Simlish, and The Sims 2: University started the now-famous series tradition of getting a whole selection of artists to re-record their songs in Simlish for each expansion.
* On ''[[Katamari Damacy]]'''s pre-game tutorial level, there's a version of the theme song that just has the "na na na na na na na" for vocals, on top of the backing beat from the NES version of ''[[Lode Runner]]''.
* ''[[Klonoa (Video Game)|Klonoa]] 2: Lunatea's Veil'' has a snowboarding level with a very catchy song. Sung by Klonoa. In Phantomilian. [http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/374317/20263 Check out the lyrics.]
* ''Awakening The Chaos'', [[SNK Boss|v-13's]] theme from [[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]], has lots of [[Ominous Latin Chanting|Ominous Wordless Chanting]].
* ''[[Yoshis Story (Video Game)|Yoshi's Story]]'' has the eponymous dinosaurs singing in an incomprehensible chatter that would become the establishing voice of Yoshi forever on.
* Many songs in the [[Dawn of War|Dawn of War II]] soundtrack feature a choir singing made-up lyrics. Some (Angels of Death, Khaine's Wrath, For The Craftworld) are presumably supposed to represent the fictional languages of the 40K universe, while in others (The Green Horde Rises, The Great Devourer) it's most likely just for effect.
* Rouge's levels in ''[[Sonic Adventure 2 (Video Game)|Sonic Adventure 2]]'' all have this. Her theme is about half Scat, half English.
** ''Sonic Mega Collection Plus'' includes a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xddu4wUWUhE video] with an early version of the ''[[Sonic Heroes (Video Game)|Sonic Heroes]]'' theme. The words "Sonic Heroes" are in place, but everything else is nonsense.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]]'' and ''[[The Legend of Zelda: MajorasMajora's Mask]]'' use this for the singing of Malon and Lulu, respectively. Use of this trope goes back to ''[[The Legend of Zelda: LinksLink's Awakening]]'', where Marin (of whom Malon is an [[Expy]]) sings [[Crowning Music of Awesome|"The Ballad of the Windfish"]].
* ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' has a really cool version of this. The Hymn of the Fayth ''sounds'' like Japanese, but it's actually nonsense syllables. However, when you ''rearrange'' the syllables into a square, and read them from top to bottom, it actually ''does'' spell out words in Japanese. They roughly translate into "Praise be to Yevon".
** Into a [[Square Enix|Square]], you say?
* Much of the music in ''[[Black and White]]'' and its sequel has wordless singing or chanting.
* In some entries in the ''[[My Sims]]'' series, some songs have Simlish vocals. There's a lovely example in ''My Sims Kingdom'', which plays on The Royal Academy island. Also, in ''My Sims'', a Sim can activate a karaoke machine, and sing the song in his or her particular voice.
* The soundtrack to [[Grandia II]] has a piece called [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPb8ZTfQb14&feature=related "DangerousZone"] that features a woman who sounds like she's trying to blow her voice out. There are no lyrics; this would be a true [[One -Woman Wail]], except that it's not sad at all. Given that this track is only played in dangerous areas, it works.
* The song "Rainy Rose" and its remix "Poison Queen" from the ''[[God Hand]]'' soundtrack (Shannon/Demon Shannon's boss themes, respectively) are entirely sung in "nya"/"nyo" sounds.
* In ''[[Machinarium (Video Game)|Machinarium]]'', the song "Clockwise Operetta" has a part where a robot sings glibberish.
* How come ''[[Halo]]'' is not mentioned anywhere? From the moment you hit the main menu in Halo/Halo:CE you are treated to wordless chanting.
** In some parts of the second game you can find holograms of the Prophets chanting the series theme in alien gibberish.
* ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'' episodes 2 and 3 had plenty of songs with nonsense words. It's a preferred style of Yuki Kajiura, a composer for both games.
* The track [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVeQhEW_L3Y "Knight of Fire"] in ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'' sparked countless debates among fans as to what a voice was saying in a certain portion of the song. After years of speculation, somebody [[Mundane Solution|simply messaged]] Yasunori Mitsuda via Twitter, and [[Word of God|he replied]] that the words were "coined" for the song.
* Wasn't the entire point of The Urbz to build a game around [[Black Eyed Peas|The Black Eyed Peas]] [[Scatting]]?
* Much of the soundtrack of ''[[The Neverhood]]'' consists of this. To quote the liner notes of the official soundtrack: "Note to the listener: Should you choose to sing along to any of the following songs, we wish you luck. You're gonna need it!"
* A few ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' songs break into this. "Golden Sky" earns bonus points for the lyrics devolving into "la de da" ''at two separate points'' in the chorus.
** "Wild Rush", whose vocal samples are also used in "Genom Screams" and "Paranoia Survivor", as well the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfWys2g3q28 "Lavande Bleu"] music in ''[[Ray Crisis]]'' and the outdoor shooting range music in ''[[Silent Scope]] 2''.
** The "sharara shaara" part of TËЯRA's "Flowers" after the [[Truck DriversDriver's Gear Change]].
* In ''[[War CraftWarcraft]] 3'', some parts of the Frozen Throne Human and Night Elf songs do this.
* Most of the music in [[Nie RNieR]] is sung in a made up language, stated to be a "possible future evolution of our current languages" by the composer. There's several versions of the ending theme depending on the ending and at least 1 of them is in English though.
* Eve's Asylum Int Music from [[Little Big PlanetLittleBigPlanet]] 2
* [[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|YATATATA!]]
* [[Jet Set Radio|Hideki]] [[Sonic Rush (Video Game)Series|Naganuma's]] sampling tends to turn vocals into this. A good example is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMMANIT5v-M "Ethno Circus"].
* Fuka's theme in ''[[Disgaea 4: a Promise Unforgotten (Video Game)|Disgaea 4 aA Promise Unforgotten]]'' is a remixed version of a previous song ("You Go, Girl!") [[With Lyrics]]... well, sort of. More accurately, it has ''a'' lyric ("la") repeated about six hundred times or so.
 
 
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== Western Animation ==
* [[Phineas and Ferb]] have a lot of fun with this trope when they sing "Gitchy Gitchy Goo".
* ''[[Futurama]]'' uses this behind the scenes. Bender's singing is almost always [[John Dimaggio|John DiMaggio]] scatting. Frequently mentioned (and demonstrated) on the DVD commentaries.
* 75% of the background music in the Nickelodeon version of ''[[Doug]]''...and it was ''[[Crowning Music of Awesome|awesome]]''.
* Bradford Marsalis capped off his ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]'' appearance by leading the cast in a round-robin scat session (although [[Comedic Sociopathy|Zorak had to threaten him with a laser rifle first]]).
* The opening theme to [[The Tick (animation)]]. Bop TWEEE-dot-dot-dot TWEEE dah!
* [[Popeye (cartoon)|Popeye]] had a charming habit of scatting to himself as he went about his business.
* This is a characteristic of the [[Devo|Mothersbaugh Brothers]], such as their work on ''[[Rugrats]]''.
 
 
== Literature ==
* The [[Discworld|Ankh-Morpork]] national anthem, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120413140233/http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/We_Can_Rule_You_Wholesale We Can Rule You Wholesale], has a second verse composed almost entirely of gibberish. It was written that way because the writer figured people would [[Indecipherable Lyrics|sing it that way]] anyway. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAqCbOJc6RU performed it].
* Dada poet Kurt Schwitters wrote a fairly long poem called Eine Sonata mit Urlauten ("a sonata with primitive words") that goes on for quite some time like this. The lyric sheet is pretty amazing, being made mostly of consonants. NNZKT RNS KRMU!
 
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[[Category:Music Tropes]]
[[Category:Scatting]]
[[Category:TropeWord Salad Tropes]]
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/810...2009455"