Beatboxing

Beatboxing (also, and sometimes, called beat boxing) is a form of

Techniques similar to beatboxing have been employed in diverse American musical genres since the 19th century, such as early rural music, both black and white, religious songs, blues, ragtime, vaudeville, and hokum. Examples include the Appalachian technique of eefing and the blues song Bye bye bird by Sonny Boy Williamson II.

Additional influences may perhaps include forms of

Vocal percussion [is], "the imitation or approximation of percussion instruments," and beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion but can be described as, "music with your mouth... beatboxing is making and being the music, not just rhythm." ...Beatboxing is both the rhythm — predominantly through the

bass lines. Using the mouth, lips, tongue, and voice to make music is thus the beatboxer's equivalent to a pianist's fingers and arms.^[6][7]

The Internet has played a large part in the popularity of modern beatboxing. Alex Tew (aka A-Plus) started the first online community of beatboxers in 2000 under the banner of HUMANBEATBOX.COM. An early example of modern beatboxing was seen in the 2001 South Korean romantic comedy film My Sassy Girl. In 2001, Gavin Tyte, a member of this community created the world's first tutorials and video tutorials on beatboxing. In 2003, the community held the world's first Human Beatbox Convention in London featuring beatbox artists from all over the world.

Beatboxing's current popularity is due in part to releases from artists such as Rahzel, RoxorLoops, Reeps One and Alem. In the Pacific, American beatboxer of Hawaii Chinese descent Jason Tom co-founded the Human Beatbox Academy to perpetuate the art of beatboxing through outreach performances, speaking engagements and workshops in Honolulu, the westernmost and southernmost major U.S. city of the 50th U.S. state of Hawaii.^{[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]}

Sometimes, modern beatboxers will use their hand or another part of their body to extend the spectrum of sound effects and rhythm. Some have developed a technique that involves blowing and sucking air around their fingers to produce a very realistic record scratching noise, which is commonly known as the "crab scratch". Another hand technique includes the "throat tap", which involves beatboxers tapping their fingers against their throats as they throat sing or hum. Beatboxers today can produce up to two different sounds at the same time.^{[citation needed]}

Modern beatboxing has also evolved with the advent of technology such as live looping. Many beatboxers like Beardyman, KRNFX, and The Petebox use modern looping devices such as the Boss RC-505 to sample or layer their beatboxing sounds live on stage, in addition to traditional solo beatboxing. Such adaptation has allowed modern beatboxers to perform entire musical compositions much like DJs but with their mouths.

Today there is an increase in the variety in which we see beatboxing throughout musical culture. People have gone as far as adding beatboxing in with different instruments to create a completely different sound unlike any other. Artist

Standard Beatbox Notation (SBN) was created by Mark Splinter and Gavin Tyte^[20] of Humanbeatbox.com in 2006^[21] as an alternative to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription, which had been used sparingly before then.

In a research study published in 2013 and based on real-time

Each beatboxer can produce a very large number of unique sounds, but there are three distinct linguistic categories of sound within beatboxing. Ejectives are the strong puffs of air from the voice box that give intensity to percussive sounds. The "t", "p", and "k" sounds can all be made into ejectives^{[dubious – discuss]}. "Ch", typically represented as [t͡ʃ], and "j", usually [d͡ʒ], are some examples of (ejective) affricates.

Nonstandard

Coarticulation is the act of controlling a sound in two places at once. A common example of this is the sound created by rolling an "r" sound while saying a "v" sound. This is called a voiced alveolar trill with labiodental articulation. Similarly, epenthesis is the sound created when beatboxers sing and do percussion at the same time. Contrary to what the sound suggests, their tongue is not in two places at once. This effect is created by placing percussive sounds in the middle of words. ^[22]

Multi-vocalism is a form of vocal musicianship conceptualized by British beatboxer and vocalist Killa Kela. It describes beatboxers who incorporate other vocal disciplines and practices into their routines and performances such as singing, rapping, sound mimicry and other vocal arts. Beardyman is a well known multi-vocalist.

According to the

Prior to this, the record was set by Booking.com employees with 4,659 participants. It was achieved by Booking.com employees together with beatboxers at the RAI Amsterdam in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on 10 December 2013 during their annual company meeting.^[28]

The previous largest human beatbox ensemble involved 2,081 participants and was achieved by Google (Ireland), Shlomo (UK) and Testament (UK) at The Convention Centre, Dublin, Ireland, on 14 November 2011.^[28]

Before Shlomo's record, the previous record for the largest human beatbox ensemble involved 1,246 participants and was achieved by Vineeth Vincent and Christ University (India) in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, on 5 February 2011.^[28]

This list is a selected discography of commercial releases which are mostly/entirely beatbox-based or are otherwise notable/influential records in the history of beatboxing and its popularization.

• Michael Winslow – Police Academy (1984)
• Fat Boys – "Human Beat Box" from Fat Boys
  (1984)
• Doug E. Fresh – "The Show" & "La Di Da Di" (1985)
• UTFO - "Bite It (UTFO song)" (1985)
• Emanon – "The Baby Beatbox" (1986)
• Roxanne Shante & Biz Markie – "Def Fresh Crew / Biz Beat" 12" (1986)
• Just-Ice – Back to the Old School (1986)
• Skinny Boys- Jockbox (1986)
• Greg Nice
  Beatboxer"
• Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince-Rock the House Ready Rock C -Beatboxer (1987)
• Wise
  – Just Say Stet (1985), Faye (1986) & Stet Troop 88 (1988)
• Biz Markie – Goin' Off (includes beatbox track "Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz") (1988)
• Havin' a Roni – from To The Extreme
  (1990)
• Snap! – Only Human – B-side on Mary Had A Little Boy 12" (1990)^[29]

• Make The Music 2000
  (1999)

• Kyle "Scratch" Jones – The Embodiment of Instrumentation (2002)
• Killa Kela – The Permanent Marker (2002)
• Esham – Out Cold (2003)
• Justin Timberlake – "Rock Your Body" (2003)
• Rahzel – Rahzel's Greatest Knock Outs (2004)
• Björk – Medúlla (2004)
• Joel Turner – "These Kids" (2004)
• Matisyahu – "Live at Stubb's" (2005)
• Biz Markie – Make the Music with Your Mouth, Biz (2006)
• Poizunus – A.D.D. (Active Dreaming Disorder) (2007)
• Kid Beyond – Amplivate (2004)
• Blake Lewis – A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream) (2007)
• Dub FX – "Everythinks a Ripple" (2009)

• Beardyman – I Done a Album (2011)
• Hopsin – "Lunch Time Cypher" (2013)^[30]
• Reeps One – "Move" (2013)^[31]
• Berywam - "Berywam" (2017)
• NaPoM – "Lips" (2018)^[32]

• Show-Go - "Silver" (2022)^[33]
• D-low - "LanigirO" (2022)^[34]
• Stitch - "Stay With Me" (2022)^[35]
• Den - "Moments I had" (2022)^[36]
• Wing - "Dopamine" (2025)^[37]

When asked to beatbox, Siri will repeat the phrase "Boots and Cats" to mimic beatboxing.^[38] Teen Vogue called it "perhaps the most entertaining mid-day pick-me-up ever created."^[39] Hamilton: An American Musical used some beatboxing in "Aaron Burr, Sir".

Beatboxing can often be seen in national advertisements. A

External links

Beatboxing-Communities supporting the scene for more than 10 years:

• Swissbeatbox.com - World's largest Beatbox Platform.
• Beatboxbattle.tv - Organizer of the World Beatbox Championship.
• Humanbeatbox.com - One of the first Beatboxing Online-Communities.

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