PRESSURE’S ON: VOCAL PRODUCTION, PARALANGUAGE, AND MEANING IN AMERICAN HARDCORE PUNK (1978–86) Dave Easley, Oklahoma City University ([email protected]) 2014 Society for Music Theory National Conference, Milwaukee, WI Figure 1: Paralinguistic features of (a) speech and (b) hardcore vocal production, and (c) paralinguistic markers of intensity in hardcore (a) (b) Primary qualities pitch, loudness, temporal cues Qualifiers voice types: breathy, harsh, tense Alternants clicks, inhalations, moans, groans Differentiators (c) limited melodic activity middle to higher register loud 2+2 model vs. fast rate of declamation clipped syllables and words rising melodic motion rising register increasingly loud slower to faster rate of declamation increasingly clipped harsh voice tense voice increasingly tense, leading to vocal noise moans groans grunts n/a singing vs. heightened speech vs. shouting/screaming increasingly heightened mode of declamation sighing, shouting, laughing Figure 2: Definitions of paralinguistic categories (all from Poyatos 2002 and Lacasse 2010) Category Definition primary qualities Characteristics of voice that differentiate individuals: timbre, resonance, intensity or volume, tempo, pitch (level, intervals, range), intonation range, syllabic duration, and rhythm qualifiers Modification of verbal utterances. Includes breathing effects (e.g., whispery voice), laryngeal effects (e.g., creaky voice, harsh voice, tense voice), and others created by pharyngeal control and nasality. alternants Vocal sounds that occur independently of verbal utterances. Includes moans, groans, hisses, snorts, etc. differentiators Modification of verbal utterances or occurring independently. Includes sound constructs such as laughter, crying, shouting/screaming, sighing, gasping, etc. “Institutionalized” (Suicidal Tendencies, 1983) “Bad Attitude” (Articles of Faith, 1982) Verse 1 Sometimes I try to do things and it just doesn’t work out the way I wanted to. I get real frustrated and I try hard to do it and I take my time and it doesn't work out the way I wanted to. It’s like I concentrate real hard and it doesn't work out. Everything I do and everything I try never turns out. It’s like I need time to figure these things out. But there’s always someone there going. Hey Mike, you know we’ve been noticing you’ve been having a lot of problems lately. You know, maybe you should get away and maybe you should talk about it, maybe you’ll feel a lot better. Verse 1 Bad attitude’s a catch-all phrase When things don’t work out their way When you know you’re supposed to stay Right in your place ***RECORDING STARTS HERE*** And I go, no it’s okay, you know I’ll figure it out, just leave me alone I’ll figure it out. You know I’ll just work by myself. And they go, well you know if you want to talk about it I’ll be here you know and you’ll probably feel a lot better if you talk about it. So why don’t you talk about it? I go, no I don’t want to I’m okay, I’ll figure it out myself and they just keep bugging me and they just keep bugging me and it builds up inside and it builds up inside. Prechorus So you’re gonna be institutionalized You’ll come out brainwashed with bloodshot eyes You won’t have any say They’ll brainwash you until you see their way. Chorus I’m not crazy – in an institution You’re the one who’s crazy – in an institution You’re driving me crazy – in an institution They stuck me in an institution Said it was the only solution To give me the needed professional help To protect me from the enemy – myself. In the corner be a man Get away with what you can As long as you don’t rip them who Keep you in your place Prechorus You know that it’s not right to hate It must be that you’re born that way You need some more – indoctrinate Or else they’ll put you away Verse 2 Bad attitude’s what they serve you When their need for you is through Cause you got that attitude Keep you in your place Bad attitude’s what it must be Because you don’t think just like me Or want all those handsome things To keep you in your place Prechorus You know that it’s not right to hate It must be that you’re born that way You need some more – indoctrinate Or else they’ll put you away Chorus Bad attitude Verse 3 Bad attitude’s what I’ve been told Since I was just five years old And didn’t buy what they had sold Right in my place Bad attitude but “be yourself ” Just enough like someone else Another soul who needs our help Awww – go to hell Prechorus You know that it’s not right to hate It must be that you’re born that way You need some more – indoctrinate Or else they’ll put you away Chorus Bad attitude . . . SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Adams, Kyle. 2012. “A Preliminary Study of Articulation and Affect in Rap.” Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Music Theory, New Orleans, LA. Blush, Steven. 2010. American Hardcore: A Tribal History. 2nd ed. Port Townsend, WA: Feral House. Feld, Steven, Aaron A. Fox, Thomas Porcello, and David Samuels. 2004. “Vocal Anthropology: From the Music of Language to the Language of Song.” In A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, ed. Alessandro Duranti, 321–345. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. Gelbart, Matthew. 2003. “Persona and Voice in the Kinks’ Songs of the Late 1960s.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 128, no. 2: 200–241. Heideman, Kate. 2014. “Toward a System of Vocal Timbre Description in Popular Song.” Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Music Theory, Milwaukee, WI. Kreiman, Jody, and Diana Sidtis. 2013. Foundations of Voice Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Voice Production and Perception. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Lacasse, Serge. 2010. “The Phonographic Voice: Paralinguistic Features and Phonographic Staging in Popular Music Singing.” In Recorded Music: Performance, Culture, and Technology, ed. Amanda Bayley, 225–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Laver, John. 1980. The Phonetic Description of Voice Quality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. List, George. 1963. “The Boundaries of Speech and Song.” Ethnomusicology 7, no. 1: 1–16. Malawey, Victoria. 2014. “Vocal Prosody in Popular Music: Cover Versions of ‘Cry Me a River.’” Manuscript obtained from author. Middleton, Richard. 2000. “Rock Singing.” In The Cambridge Companion to Singing, ed. John Potter, 28–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Moore, Allan F. 2012. Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Osborn, Brad. 2013. “Subverting the Verse-Chorus Paradigm: Terminally Climactic Forms in Recent Rock Music.” Music Theory Spectrum 35, no. 1: 23–47. Poyatos, Fernando. 1993. Paralanguage: A Linguistic and Interdisciplinary Approach to Interactive Speech and Sound. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. –––––. 2002. Nonverbal Communication Across Disciplines, vol. 2, Paralanguage, Kinesics, Silence, Personal, and Environmental Interaction. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Rings, Steven. 2013. “A Foreign Sound to Your Ear: Bob Dylan Performs ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),’ 1964–2009.” Music Theory Online 17, no. 3. Rockwell, Joti. 2007. “Drive, Lonesomeness, and the Genre of Bluegrass Music.” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago. Rachman, Paul. 2007. American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980–1986, DVD. Sony Pictures Classics (17094). Spicer, Mark. 2004. “(Ac)cumulative Form in Pop-Rock Music.” Twentieth-Century Music 1, no. 1: 29–54. Stephenson, Ken. 2002. What to Listen for in Rock: A Stylistic Analysis. New Haven: Yale University Press. Summach, Jason. 2012. “Form in Top-20 Rock Music, 1955–89.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University. Leeuwen, Theo Van. 1999. Speech, Music, Sound. London: Macmillan. Waksman, Steve. 2009. This Ain’t the Summer of Love: Conflict and Crossover in Heavy Metal and Punk. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Wennerstrom, Ann K. 2001. The Music of Everyday Speech: Prosody and Discourse Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. Woods, Alyssa. 2009. “Rap Vocality and the Construction of Identity.” Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan. Zak, Albin. 2001. The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.