Screaming (music)

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Screaming is an extended vocal technique that is popular in "aggressive" music genres such as heavy metal, punk rock, and noise music. It is common in the more extreme subgenres of heavy metal, such as death and black metal as well as many other subgenres.

Genres

Classical and experimental music

Although screams are often suggested in stories performed in the grand opera tradition, they were never performed as literal screams, but delivered in a singing tone. The first significant example of a literal scream being required in an opera is in Alban Berg's Wozzeck (1922), where the title character screams "Murder! Murder!" in the fourth scene of Act III. Furthermore, Berg's unfinished Lulu, written mainly in 1934, features a blood-curdling scream as the heroine is murdered by Jack the Ripper in the closing moments of the final scene. In Mascagni's 1890 Cavalleria rusticana the final line "They've murdered Turiddu!" is spoken, not sung, and often accompanied by a scream.

Other

Several gospel recordings of the mid-1920s include screaming, such as in the Reverend J.M. Gates "I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord" or Reverend J.C. Burnette's "The Downfall of Nebuchadnezzar". The screams are essentially acapella. The main singer leads with the scream and shout and a group respond following the traditional African call and response pattern. Bessie Johnson's "He Got Better Things For You" with her group Memphis Sanctified Singers, released in 1929, can be considered the first gospel song featuring screaming, backed by an instrument (acoustic guitar).^{[citation needed]}

Blues

Blind Willie Johnson is widely considered to be the pioneer of screaming in blues music.^{[citation needed]} In 1928, he performed the song "Jesus Is Coming Soon" with a soft screaming style.^{[citation needed]} Vaudeville blues singer Ora Alexander was also one of the earliest blues vocalist recorded to perform screaming with her song "You've Got To Save That Thing" in 1931.^{[citation needed]}

One of the first known

Rock and roll (before the advent of heavy metal and punk rock) employed occasional brief screaming. In the 1950s, one principal screamer was Little Richard, beginning with his "Tutti Frutti" (1955). Elvis Presley also screamed some of the lyrics to "Jailhouse Rock" in its original 1957 recording,^{[citation needed]} although recordings of live performances of the song in Presley's later career featured him strictly singing the words. Tina Turner used screaming in "A Fool in Love" (1960), her first recording as a lead singer, on which Juggy Murray commented, "All of those blues singers sounded like dirt. Tina sounded like screaming dirt. It was a funky sound."^[2]

The first take of the Beatles' recording of "Twist and Shout" for their debut studio album Please Please Me (1963) was the only complete take, since John Lennon's voice was torn up, partly by his screaming in the song. Lennon, inspired by Arthur Janov's Primal Scream therapy, screamed in his later songs "Mother" and "Well Well Well" on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

Heavy metal

While occasional screaming has been used for effect in heavy metal since the genre's dawn in the late 1960s, with singers such as Robert Plant, Ian Gillan and Rob Halford employing the technique frequently, screaming as a normal method of lyrical delivery first came to prominence in heavy metal as part of the thrash metal movement of the 1980s.^[3]

Thrash metal was influenced both by heavy metal and by hardcore punk, the latter of which often incorporated shouted or screamed vocals. The first time heavy metal used screaming for constant delivery of lyrics (rather than as a temporary effect) was Chuck Schuldiner of the band Death.^{[citation needed]} Musicologist Robert Walser noted, "The punk influence shows up in the music's fast tempos and frenetic aggressiveness and in critical or sarcastic lyrics delivered in a menacing growl."^[3] The vocal delivery of thrash metal is diverse; some bands such as Anthrax use relatively clean vocals, early Metallica vocals are very influenced by hardcore punk, while other bands such as Slayer use more "evil" shouts and yells not typically heard in hardcore punk. More recent bands within metal's various subgenres, such as Carnifex, are known for making use of multiple variations of both screaming and growling.

Screaming in some subgenres of heavy metal music is

Other forms of extreme vocalization can be found in black metal, which generally has a higher-pitched sound, and deathcore, which uses either a low growl or a high pitched scream.

Death metal, in particular, is associated with growled vocals. It tends to be darker and more

Music sociologist Deena Weinstein has noted of death metal, "Vocalists in this style have a distinctive sound, growling and snarling rather than singing the words. Making ample use of the voice distortion box, they sound as if they had gargled with hydrochloric acid."^[6]

A progressively more forceful enunciation of metal vocals has been noted, from heavy metal to thrash metal to death metal.

To appreciate the music, fans first had to accept a merciless sonic signature: guttural vocals that were little more than a menacing, sub-audible growl. James Hetfield's thrash metal rasp was harsh in contrast to Rob Halford's heavy metal high notes, but creatures like Glen Benton of Deicide tore out their larynxes to summon images of decaying corpses and giant catastrophic horrors.^[7]

Black metal

Black metal music in particular has a distinctive "screaming" style in the majority of the genre's vocals, though in varying degrees. Some black metal acts use a simple rasping sound, but others use a louder, more "grim" scream to accentuate the cold, evil, and frightening atmosphere of black metal. Vocalists like Ihsahn of Emperor, Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved and Pest of Gorgoroth use loud screaming in their vocal work, while other vocalists take differing approaches; for example: Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir once used a style similar to loud roaring in the band's Enthrone Darkness Triumphant days, and vocalists such as John Gossard of the San Francisco band Weakling and Pasi of the Finnish band Darkwoods My Betrothed used a style that sounded more like wailing mixed with the genre's more recent use of screams.

The American black metal group Wolves in the Throne Room employ long shrill screams influenced by Gorgoroth's early work.^[8]

Some

Metalcore is a genre that employs both screamed and clean vocals. Screaming became more common for the genre in the early 1990s with bands such as Earth Crisis and Converge. Some bands employ dual vocalists, one performing traditional sung vocals and another doing screamed vocals, such as The Devil Wears Prada.

Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan is known for "insane" and "constant" screams.^[9]

Deathcore

Like metalcore, deathcore is known for its use of aggressive screaming, though much more frequently. Vocals range from the low death growls of vocalists such as Phil Bozeman of Whitechapel to the high pitched screams from vocalists like Alex Koehler of Chelsea Grin. Some bands related to the deathcore genre perform what has been called "pig squealing" for its resemblance to that sound. Early albums by deathcore bands Job for a Cowboy and Despised Icon used pig squeal vocals, but they abandoned the sound in later material.

Alternative metal and nu metal

Alternative metal and nu metal bands sometimes employ screaming as well. Jonathan Davis screams in most of Korn's earlier songs. American nu metal band Otep frontwoman Otep Shamaya is also known for her use of death growls as well as high pitched screaming. Serj Tankian occasionally performs both exhale and inhale screams, which are especially notable on System of a Down's first two albums. Limp Bizkit sometimes uses screamed vocals, especially on songs from their first album. Some bands combine screaming techniques with clean vocals to create a noticeable change in tone; Chino Moreno of Deftones, who is famed for combining his high-pitched, aggressive screams with his calm and melodic singing, is an example of the concept, alongside singers such as Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Burton C. Bell of Fear Factory.

Linkin Park's singer Chester Bennington screamed in many Linkin Park songs, most notably the 17-second scream in the track "Given Up". Michael Barnes of Red has screamed in a majority of the songs the band has done, most notably in "Let Go" for 13 seconds straight.

Hardcore and punk rock

Yelling and shouting vocals are common in a type of punk rock known as hardcore. Early punk was distinguished by a general tendency to eschew traditional singing techniques in favor of a more direct, harsh style which accentuated meaning rather than beauty.^[10] The logical extension of this aesthetic is shouting, and in hardcore punk, vocals are usually shouted in a frenetic manner similar to rapping or football chants, often accompanied by "gang vocals"^[11][12] in which a group of people shout along with the vocalist (this style is very common in punk rock, most prominently Oi!, street punk and hardcore punk).^[13]

Health concerns

Some vocalists who employed improper screaming techniques have had problems with their throats, voices,

• Death growl
• Screaming
• Harsh voice
• Creaky voice
• Ingressive sound
• Pharyngealization
• Epiglottal trill

References