a brief history of the recessive vocal

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

so instead of making use of my time intelligently or enjoyably, i was playin SOUVLAKI-TETRIS this mornin and listenin to UMMAGUMMA -- and as usual stuck on what an f.awful singer r.waters is, that his shtick is a distrust of emotive effectivness, and it occurred to me that there's a history in pop of the self-consciously characterless vocal, which operates by a kind of passive-aggressive second-guessing ("you admire this uninflected mumble as ART because it is not mere RECEIVED TECHNIQUE playing on your UNEXAMINED INSTINCTS... or some such)

it seems to me it's a feature "why indie is dislikable", and conversely an (haha unacknowledged) reason why r&b and pop divas receive so much kneejerk dislike from indie quarters (as if "being able to sing" = "suborned by THE MAN")

anyway what struck me as odd is that it's NOT a mainstream rock characteristic as of the 60s, 70s or even 80s -- vocal style characterful to the point of being gratingly dislikeable was the rule, and waters was really anomalous in his day

so A: was this the root of his prog credentials? did he make virtue of a necessity? (i'm not a syd fan but he belongs squarely in the post-dylan tradition of expressivity out of anti-technique technique... which is a very different thing)
and B: who does watersism start with? (cheeky burchill-baiting answer: julie london)

footnote: UK punk was notoriously suspicious of the borrowed expressivity of soul and blues in the white voice, but much less so of the borrowed expressivity of folk or country; in fact it pushed off into the exploration of modern urban cousins of folk and country, so it was in the dylan-tradition even when it was actively hostile to borrowed dylanisms

Comments

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Some female-sung indie (maybe esp old-school, the Would-Be-Goods popped into my head) seems to take its cue from sixties stuff like eg Françoise Hardy, ie not mumbling at all, but also not projecting much emotion, rather plain & straightforward -- does this fit anywhere into what you're talking about?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

This v. good point and I think it is related to what dubdobdee said, insofar as there is a certain apology in "indie" vocals; where rock vocals can just be bad and not give a sh1t, indie is ever so 'umble about intruding on your musical world with what it nonetheless of course believes to be an earth-shaking masterpiece. Especially in the case of frontmen/women (who tend to be the vocalist) who must be self-effacing genii or whatever.

Of course, thisn't true of all indie at all (a lot is unashamedly cocky but I suppose that is when the indie/rock line thins?) but hrmm, the indie-as-a-genre-indie I think it quite possibly is a lot of the time.

I don't know if that made any sense.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Seems to me that in the folk explosion in the '60s that female-led English bands like the New Seekers (and Joan Baez) seemed to cover the trad folk songs with very little emotion in their voice.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

yes there is definitely a quasi-folk girl-hippy founding aspect to this:

--with eg francois hardy it's as much shyness-as-allure as anything (and to be fair i think some of what eg the pastels were after was the same; at least at the start it was an anti-male-bravado move)
--baez is pretty high-end technique, filed under technique-masks-emotion rather than lack-of-technique-muffles-emotion
--with the new seekers -- and also maybe the pre-beatles kiddipop wave -- i think there's more a "nervousness of passion" operating (which is an element in what i'm talking about certainly, but not a recessive or passive-aggressive one yet)

[(Anonymous)]

In their first big interview with the Melody Maker (1988), Kevin Shields talked about how Suzanne Vega was his favourite singer, and the difference between mid-60s Roger Daltry (hesitant – good) and 70s Daltry (over–projecting – bad). From what I remember, it was pertinent to all this, but unfortunately, despite the tedious MBV-worship still rife, I can't find that interview on the internet.

[koganbot]

Baez = lack of emotion muffles emotion, but I think you're right: lack of emotion and recessiveness are different concepts, and her (not all that competent, IMO) high-end technique is in your face with its chops. I find Whitney Houston cold but I'd never call her recessive.

Of course indie guys like Barr and Panda Bear and half a million others are in your face with their recessiveness.