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Vocal fry register

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Re: Vocal fry register

#21

Post by LanceH »

KPGv2 wrote: post #16
kibibu wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots and lots of men speak almost exclusively in vocal fry, why is it so strongly associated with the Kardashians? Go listen to Jeremy Irons or Alan Rickman.

Honestly it's probably misogyny. There are some women we are supposed to hate who use it, so therefore it's bad to use it.

It sounds like people aren't putting into the effort to speak. It's the vocal version of the intentional bored look.

Some people have it at full volume and speed and that's just their voice. But a lot of people (and fewer men) it's not their real voice, but an affectation. We get to have opinions on people's affectations still, right?

Re: Vocal fry register

#22

Post by lucas_codes »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #12
lucas_codes wrote: post #3

Is this how throat singing works? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8hrhBZJ98

Throat singing is just a band-pass filter. Having a rich set of frequencies can be helpful, but it's unnecessary for producing the overtones. Throat singing and "whistle singing" are effectively the same technique, except that in throat singing a wider collection of overtones is selected for (not necessarily wider band , but wider "matching partials" to the fundamental frequency)

Are we talking about the same thing? I mean the Mongolian throat signing in that YouTube link, which has crazy low fundamentals (I have a deep bass voice and it's much lower than I can sing).

Re: Vocal fry register

#23

Post by tsimionescu »

LanceH wrote: post #21
KPGv2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's probably misogyny. There are some women we are supposed to hate who use it, so therefore it's bad to use it.

It sounds like people aren't putting into the effort to speak. It's the vocal version of the intentional bored look. Some people have it at full volume and speed and that's just their voice. But a lot of people (and fewer men) it's not their real voice, but an affectation. We get to have opinions on people's affectations still, right?

The point is that vocal fry, even when it is an affectation and not just your normal speech, used to be seen as a marker of eloquence and high class. British actors, male ones, used vocal fry extensively. Sean Connery's James Bond uses it in the famous "Bond. James Bond" introduction [0], for just one example. Or listen to William F Buckley, an American high class conservative (buffoon that presented as an intellectual) using it to sound prim and proper [1].

It is an objective fact that hating vocal fry is just a fad, and that loving it has been a fad for at least as long. You are free to dislike it, but you can't pretend it should be hated on objective grounds, and it definitely doesn't convey boredom or low effort.

[0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b15-P12gIf0&t=1m20s

[1] https://youtu.be/5Tek9h3a5wQ?t=43m39s - in a debate where Buckley's arguing the "dignified" position that black people shouldn't receive more rights

Re: Vocal fry register

#24

Post by recursive »

KPGv2 wrote: post #14

The hatred of vocal fry is just class-oriented bigotry. It's a variation on anti-AAVE. Previously, uptick speech filled the need for hatred. But then it turned out in studies that uptick was perceived as more intelligent by later Gen Y and all of Gen Z.

Heavy vocal fry annoys me. Maybe I'm a class-oriented bigot, but I think it's just an annoying sound.

Re: Vocal fry register

#25

Post by recursive »

KPGv2 wrote: post #15
nickaflip wrote: post #13

Worst part is once you learn what the Vocal Fry sounds like, you will start hear it literally everywhere. At best, it was interesting to recognize in the real world; at worst, it ruined some podcast hosts for me.

Why does it bother you? Probably only because you've been taught that you're supposed to hate it. There's nothing inherently wrong about vocal fry: there are human languages where vocal fry is an essential component of native speech.

There's nothing inherently wrong with nails on a chalkboard either.

Re: Vocal fry register

#26

Post by VancouverMan »

KPGv2 wrote: post #15
nickaflip wrote: post #13

Worst part is once you learn what the Vocal Fry sounds like, you will start hear it literally everywhere. At best, it was interesting to recognize in the real world; at worst, it ruined some podcast hosts for me.

Why does it bother you? Probably only because you've been taught that you're supposed to hate it. There's nothing inherently wrong about vocal fry: there are human languages where vocal fry is an essential component of native speech.

> Probably only because you've been taught that you're supposed to hate it.

I don't think it has anything to do with some vague notion of "hate".

Some people simply find it to be a distracting phenomenon that can make it harder to understand what somebody else is saying, even when they like the speaker.

Re: Vocal fry register

#27

Post by alexjplant »

I accidentally discovered vocal fry screams (in the context of metal vocals) a decade or so ago. Now that I sing lead in a cover band that does slightly more aggressive music I get to leverage them on a weekly basis; the diaphragm control and breath awareness that I've learned doing heavy vocals has improved my regular singing. I had no idea that talking in this register was so divisive.

Re: Vocal fry register

#28

Post by srean »

recursive wrote: post #24
KPGv2 wrote: post #14

The hatred of vocal fry is just class-oriented bigotry. It's a variation on anti-AAVE. Previously, uptick speech filled the need for hatred. But then it turned out in studies that uptick was perceived as more intelligent by later Gen Y and all of Gen Z.

Heavy vocal fry annoys me. Maybe I'm a class-oriented bigot, but I think it's just an annoying sound.

> I think it's just an annoying sound.

Agreed. Your PP is strangely very strongly invested in it going by the number of comments. I wonder why.

Re: Vocal fry register

#29

Post by ajb »

lucas_codes wrote: post #22
IggleSniggle wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throat singing is just a band-pass filter. Having a rich set of frequencies can be helpful, but it's unnecessary for producing the overtones. Throat singing and "whistle singing" are effectively the same technique, except that in throat singing a wider collection of overtones is selected for (not necessarily wider band , but wider "matching partials" to the fundamental frequency)

Are we talking about the same thing? I mean the Mongolian throat signing in that YouTube link, which has crazy low fundamentals (I have a deep bass voice and it's much lower than I can sing).

At the start he's doing overtone singing (like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vC9Qh709gas) but yeah the low bits sound like fry.
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