Scatting: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

== Music ==

* This is a major component in [[Jazz]] music.

* [[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.

* Just about every up-tempo song by [[Roger Miller]] is bound to have some of this.

* [[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''.

** "Pow R Toc H" is mostly instrumental aside from a section of really strange scatting.

** "A Saucerful of Secrets".

* [[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]] 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.

* 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!''."}}

* 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.

* 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]].

* 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.

** "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".

** 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!]"

* "Mah Na Mah Na".

** Doo doo, doo-doo-doo!

* 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."

* 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).

* Eiffel 65 has the song "Blue (Da Ba Dee)". The lyrics are [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].

* Nadia Oh has a song called "Hot Like Wow". The final minute is nothing but chorus and la la la la.

* The bridge of [[Metallica]]'s "The Memory Remains" is Marianne Faithful singing nonsense syllables in a ''very'' [[Nightmare Fuel|creepy]] tone of voice.

* The Ting Tings, "Impacilla Carpisung" is the closest to actual Scatting ever heard.

* [[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).

* [[Frou Frou]] really liked this trope.

* Insects vs. Robots, ''Sacred Moose''.

* 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..."

* "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".

* [[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".

* "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.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ2lWyTi0oY Bla Bla Bla] by Gigi D'Agostino ([[Exactly What It Says on 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.

* "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]].

* 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.

* 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.

** 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".

* [[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''.

* 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!''

* 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.

* [[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.

* 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).

* 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]]: "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)".

* [[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]] does this in "D'yer Mak'er" and "The Ocean".

 

== Anime ==

** 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].

* "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 ''[[Wolf's Rain]]''.

 

== Film ==

* 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.

* "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a" from ''[[High School Musical]] 2'' has the Hawaiian gibberish lines "maka hiki mala hini hu" and "waka waka waka niki pu pu".

 

 

* Many of the musical cues in ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' are of Miley scat-singing whoa-ohs and yeah-yeahs for a line or two.

* 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.

* 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 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.

 

== Video Games ==

* The Grox Empire's anthem in ''[[Spore]]''.

** Even the regular ''[[Metroid]]'' games [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98RdRDaOsNg have it at times].

* ''[[Beyond Good & Evil (video game)|Beyond Good and Evil]]''

** 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]]''.

** 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]]'', K.K. Slider's singing consists of "we" "oh" and other such sounds. His voice is even an instrument in ''Wii Music''.

* 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]] 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.]

* ''[[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.

* ''[[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.

* 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.

** 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.

* [[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"].

* Fuka's theme in ''[[Disgaea 4: A 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.

 

== Web Animation ==

** Ironically, Strong Bad later sings a song that includes na-nas.

* The [http://www.leekspin.com Leekspin] video is set to a 20-second loop of Finnish scat singing from the bridge of Loituma's cover version of "Ievan Polkka".

 

== Web Original ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_OzM2mE_uo History of Lyrics That Aren't Lyrics] is a three-minute medley of 26 of these.

 

== Western Animation ==

* 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]]).

* This is a characteristic of the [[Devo|Mothersbaugh Brothers]], such as their work on ''[[Rugrats]]''.

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Music Tropes]]