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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.▼
▲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]]s are this.
{{examples}}▼
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.
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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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** 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".
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* 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.
* ''[[Lady Gaga|Rah rah ah-ah-ah / Ro mah ro-mah-mah / Gaga Ooh-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.
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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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* "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 ==
* 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".
== 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!▼
== Live
* 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]]'' 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 on the Roof]]'', "If I Were A Rich Man" represents some sort of Yiddish version of this trope.
== Video Games ==
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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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** 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"].
* 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 ==
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** 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 ==
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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, [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!
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Music Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Scatting]]
[[Category:Word Salad Tropes]]
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