I have a new obsession thanks to boing boing: listening for vocal fry. This speech pattern, in which the voice dips down into a gravelly lower register, was once considered a defect, but is now apparently common, especially among college-aged women. As my daughter is too young for this and I don't recall hearing my nieces do it, I appealed to a friend who is a college professor, who responded,
Yes! So obnoxious. Makes the speaker sound like an idiot. Started in the early oughts, yes? Some reality tv celeb or something popularized it. Teenage girls eat it up. Hear it all the time in classes. Grating.
When I pressed for an example, he told me to try the Kardashians. So I did. I picked a random 14-second clip from Kim Kardashian's youtube page and heard at least two, and possibly three examples.
Now I'm not going to be able NOT to hear this.
Why is this a Best Noon Thing? Because I like learning new things, even if I have to encounter Kardashians to do it.
Leave a Comment:
Males do it as well. Listen to David Bowie in Let's Dance. My Ex did it as well especially in those relaxed moments in the afterglow. It has a sexy quality that raises the hair on the back of my neck (and other things as well).
I've noticed in the last few years many of the female voice-overs in commercials are of the raspy-growly-gravelly nature. Do advertisers think their products are more appealing if touted by a truck driver?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOXpsk4RXmA
I've never really noticed the low register, but I've been perpetually annoyed lately by the whiny, nasally way that girls/women speak today. Had no idea where they picked up that horrible habit, but since this woman uses both obnoxious sounds when she speaks, I'd have to assume that given her perplexing popularity, she may be largely responsible. Sounds really stupid, as in "not very smart", to me.
Im sexy, I can sound like that too, perhaps a cue of partying with cigs and alcohol ok? Did she say shouues?
OMG, SHOEZ.
LET'S GET 'EM
What fascinates me about this being posted here is that Rachel Maddow herself often practices a variant of vocal fry! It sounds much more like the glottal trill that DJs often add to their voices (I don’t know the technical term for it — I searched). It’s much more prevalent when she’s “pitching” an idea, but occasionally it creeps into her conversations/interviews too. I wonder if this is the way she always talks, or if it’s an unconscious affectation. I’m a huge fan, but this aspect of her speech has always baffled me.
Nancy Bogle I prefer it to women who end every sentence as if it were a question? I mean it is so annoying?
This is not new. Mark Liberman, resident phonetician at 'Language Log', weighs in on this phenomenon, which was never considered a defect nor is new. You can read the article here: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3626#more-3626
It includes a recording of Mae West's famous line, "Why don't you come up some time, see me?" which clearly ends with Vocal Fry. He also compares it to 'creaky voice', common in Chicano English.
My voice teacher calls it "bubble talk." It's like you're making bubbles of air come out through your larynx. Unfortunately, Chelsae Clinton used it a bit during her debut on NBC's nightly news tonight. Very grating and unprofessional.
P.S. Bill Clinton used to speak almost exclusively in "bubble talk." He seems to have made an effort to correct the problem.
What exactly makes it "unprofessional"?
IMHO, professionals who depend upon their speaking voice for a living should take care to use it in a way that is good for that voice (bubble speak is very hard on the larynx), is pleasing to the ear (of most), and not trendy. Clearly, this fry/bubble sound annoys many, as does the rising, "question"/tentative inflection at the end of a sentence, a monotone delivery, etc. It can make it harder to hear the message.
Here is another great example: http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57340635-285/how-to-hack-your-own-touch-screen-gloves/?ttag=fbw
The vocal fry isn't half as annoying as the nasal quality of most young women. I cannot for the life of me understand how men could find it attractive, it is so unappealing. I would like to perform free adenoidectomies with a pickle fork!
This has bothered me for years, it's so ugly sounding. I started noticing it in the late 20th century and blamed it on "Valley Girl" talk after the popular movie. For a while, only dumb valley girls used that tone. Now it has become so pervasive, that almost every young female "fries" - yes, even NPR correspondents.
What's revealing is to listen to female voices of the 30's, 40's, etc in the movies and NO ONE used that tone. It's unnatural and grating on the ears. It's a learned behavior, an affectation. It just shows the power of cultural influences, good and bad.
To those of you commenters that can't hear the difference, that's because you are likely young and surrounded by similar speakers. To one who is older and used to a natural voice, it's grating.
It's the "aughts," not the "oughts."
Oh yes, for me it's definitely annoying and I too believe it is an offshoot of the Valley Girl dialect and as such, of course a social trend. Ah - social trends, where do we begin? Although I am sensitive to what I consider lack of "proper" speech, as a 50-something female and current college senior, I am more concernced with what I perceive as its connection to the inability of a majority of young people to write properly! I have earned quite a nice side income while in college the last five years as an editor for my fellow students' papers. I am convinced those who cannot speak well do not write well. Maybe this is an obvious and well-known connection, but then I am not a sociology major.
Pretty much anything that sounds like an affectation can feel irritating to others. In general, we like our human beings to seem genuine and unpretentious. We don't want to feel as though the person we are in conversation with is deliberately trying to create an image of themselves. But maybe it's when these affectations run rampant that they REALLY become irritating.
Oh, also--vocal fry sounds great in coffee and chocolate commercials, so perhaps context is important too! ;)
But don't forget the "nasal" quality concomitant with "vocal fry". So when you add "vocal fry", nasal affectations, up talk and baby girl voice you are seeing the very sad effect of the infantalization of the american female.