Enunciating: Classic or Dud

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i dimly remember adopting an aggressive pro-enunciation position after my fifth rum. in a more sober state, i am somewhat more moderate. i do really like loveless, chronic town, early swans, and a bit of hardcore, to give some examples, where lyrics are generally hard to decipher. (i have no trouble making out many earlier mbv lyrics). i don't think that the singers on these records don't care. it's more that they choose to signify with the sounds they make with their voices and that the semantic content of their lyrics is secondary. however, most of the time, i do like enunciation. thom yorke's swallowing of his consonants annoys me, as does billy corgan's.

i generally have no trouble hearing joy division lyrics, though i've heard a number of people do. i don't think that r.e.m. lyrics are at all indecipherable by the second album and even on much of the first. i mean, does anyone really have trouble hearing the words to "so central rain?"

― sundar subramanian, Monday, 11 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

but i really do have a problem with that godawful americanism of closing your throat as a substitute for actually enunciating "t"'s surrounded by vowels. "i got a co-on crown." aargh.

― sundar subramanian, Monday, 11 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Congratulations, Sundar, you just got me to sit and repeatedly say "cotton" aloud for well over a minute.

― Josh, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

LOUIE LOUIE!

― ms, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

By the Kingsmen, I mean.

― ms, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The 'grain' or 'timbre' of the voice is important. Delivering the words with full-on strength and committment is cool when Nick Cave does it, not Zack de la Rocha.

― tarden, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"godawful americanism" = glottal stop (pr.glo[ ]al sto[ ] ) = not an americanism, especially (ever been to London, Sundar?)

― mark s, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

AMERICANIAM?!?!? What, so the entire county of Essex has magically been transmigrated across the Atlantic?

Oh, and most regionally differently pronounced word? Probably "water". Varies from "Wor-er" to "wadder" to "what-ur" to god knows what.

― masonic boom, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

1. SHIRLEY Sims. (Simms? Sim? Simm? Can never quite remember.) SALLY Timms.

2. *Totally* agree with Tracer Hand.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I suppose it's all context. What would a lot of punk rock be without the slurred vocals?

On the other hand, it seems to me that in hiphop, enunciating and really hitting the hard consonants helps the flow a lot, gives it rhythmic definition and makes it funkier (especially on fast phrases).

― Jordan, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Clarke: No, I'm not saying that Madonna has crap lyrics that aren't worth figuring out. By saying that it'd suck to have to figure out what she's saying, I'm saying she doesn't have a style that lends itself well to confusion. Sometimes having to listen closely really holds up the song, it brings you in, makes you feel it more - that's not the case with Madonna.

― Ally, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

pf understands and agrees!! so do I win??

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Perhaps my favorite singer/songwriter of all time, Tom Waits, should be noted for enunciating very clearly at the same time as being famously gravelly and froggy. At least, I can understand almost every one of his words.

― X. Y. Zedd, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

But Tracer - I *always* agree with you.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(writes Rattlesnakes on shopping list)

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

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