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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]]''', ''"Scatman!"''}}
'''Scatting''' is vocalization that isn't lyrics. It is, for the most part, improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables, whistling, [[Careful with 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}}▼
▲Compare [[Indecipherable Lyrics]] and [[Word Salad Lyrics]]. Many [[Lyrical Tic
Not to be confused with [[Squick|scat]].
▲{{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,
* Just about every up-tempo song by [[Roger Miller]] is bound to have some of this.
** His song "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg7DcCI39GY 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 (animation)|Coraline]]''.
* [[Goldfrapp]]'s songs ''Voicething'', ''Slippage'', ''Oompa Radar'' and ''Felt Mountain''
* [[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''.
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* Some songs by Liv Kristine.
* [[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!<ref>
* If vocal bridges qualify under this trope, then [[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!''."}}
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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."
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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 (band)|CAKE]]'s ''Arco Arena''. No real lyrics, just John McCrea occasionally muttering something or interjecting with his usual [[Lyrical Tic
* [[The Beatles (band)|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.
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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
* 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 on the Tin|mostly gibberish]], outside of the chorus, which tells you to "Stop talking gibberish or just stop talking."
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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..."
* [[
* "Rubber Biscuit" by the Chips. If you don't know it, you might be more familiar with the Blues Brothers versions. [
* "Centerfold" by the [[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".
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* [[Woven Hand]]'s "Slota Prow" has David Eugene Edwards [[wikipedia: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
** 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.
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* 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]]: 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
* The fadeout of "What Can't Be Seen" by [[Everything Else]] features the melody scatted at a faster tempo.
* Many songs by [[Imogen Heap]].
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== Film ==
* Played with in ''[[The Simpsons
* Some of the ''[[Coraline (animation)|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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* The theme for ''[[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
* HGTV's ''Divine Design'' has a noticeable scat solo over light jazz as its theme song.
{{quote|"Whee-dow, ba-bop-bop-bah-bwee..."}}
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* 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
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* 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 & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]''
* Venus's song in ''[[
* The background music to the "Secret of..." levels in ''[[
** 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]]''.
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* 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]] 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 [[
* ''[[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.
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* ''[[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]]'' 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]]
* 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.
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** The "sharara shaara" part of TËЯRA's "Flowers" after the [[Truck Driver's Gear Change]].
* In ''[[Warcraft]] 3'', some parts of the Frozen Throne Human and Night Elf songs do this.
* Most of the music in [[
* Eve's Asylum Int Music from [[
* [[Team Fortress 2|YATATATA!]]
* [[Jet Set Radio|Hideki]] [[Sonic Rush Series|Naganuma's]] sampling tends to turn vocals into this. A good example is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMMANIT5v-M "Ethno Circus"].
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* 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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