BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Feb 13 - 05:43 PM

Vocal fry - you mean I've been worrying that my young neighbor is going to get throat cancer, but all it is a fad?

I hope so, anyhow.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 22 Feb 13 - 05:38 PM

It's a regionalism, not a "bad habit", unless all you Canadians figure that your "oot" thing is a a bad habit, or all you UKers think that funny thing you do with your R's is a speech defect(which I don't, so you don't need to get snippy about it).

It does have a function, which is to provide definition for speech (and singing) in the lower ranges so that it carries better. As those of us with lower voices know, it takes a lot more air to keep your level even in the low ranges than in the high ones.

If I were to speculate, I would say that women in broadcasting use it because it helps keep their volume level even in the lower voice range. Nothing worse than having the bottom drop out at the end of your sentences. And of course, since many of us are addicted to broadcast media, the way people speak in the media affects the way we speak.

I am sure some of you will disagree strongly with my speculations. This is, after all, a life and death issue that merits full examination.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 22 Feb 13 - 05:16 PM

I meant "men". not "me"!
I think it's an attempt by young women in the TV news industry to ape the "gravitas" of older male newscasters, such as Walter Cronkite, by artificially deepening their voices. Then it filters down to other women such as college and high-school students.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: GUEST,pete from seven stars link
Date: 22 Feb 13 - 03:10 PM

i thought it was a vocal exercise used by singers to expand their range and by starting low and slowly going higher work toward the very high warbling sound.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 22 Feb 13 - 01:21 AM

The Scientific American article mentioned that it is not found in me, but I've heard young male country singers do it masked as a drawl, but it's definitely a vocal fry.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 22 Feb 13 - 01:16 AM

Bill - thanks for teaching me the name of this phenomenon. It's bothered me for years too, and some teenage boys do it as well.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Alice
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 10:06 PM

Yes, Bill, I heard on NPR a report on vocal fry in 2011.
The study was reported in The Journal Of Voice in 2011.

http://www.jvoice.org/article/S0892-1997%2811%2900070-1/abstract

It annoys me when I hear it.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 09:42 PM

Just to clarify...those extreme examples used by Kardashians and others are just that.. extreme. Alex Wagner sounds like she got 'it' a few years ago in school, but is now just trying to sound like a 'perky', 'with it' educated young woman...leading to residual vocal affectations that even she is not aware of.
What I wonder is IF network executives who choose these women are aware of the vocal issues, and (intentionally or not) lean toward those who exhibit a trendy sound.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 09:28 PM

Not only redundant but repeated unnecessarily. :)

When I was a kid we - my brothers and I - sometimes communicated that way. Using no intelligible words we 'creaked' in each other's faces. Never knew there was a phrase for it. (And I just now tried to replicate it and discovered I no longer can.)

That phenomenon hasn't bothered me - up to now. It will probably become a sore point forthwith - what does bother me is the habit some public personages, not only female, have to kind of squeeze their voices out as they speak. What's up with that!

Oh, I must ask: Who names these phenomena? "vocal fry?

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 09:07 PM

Oddly enough, I hardly notice it. I listened to the Scientific American and didn't really react to anything until the announcer said that young women might do it to imitate their "fellow peers". I found that term a bit overly redundant.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 08:49 PM

McGrath of Harlow: I understand from something I read a few days back that it will be the new BBC standard.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 08:48 PM

Bev and Jerry, thank you. Sounds like a 1980 Valley girl who's been further lobotomized. That the sped up bullfrog thing I was talkin' about.

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 08:39 PM

That and quacking.   Thank God for remote controls. Do they actually talk like that in real life or is it put on for performances like a kind of make-up?

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 08:28 PM

We couldn't figure out what "vocal fry" sounds like from the articles but here is a very clear example.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 08:26 PM

Bullfrog? *shrug* It is just a low, vibrating rasp in 'ordinary' speech..often coupled with rising inflection at the end of sentences. (which has been mentioned in thread before). Almost never heard in older women....

Subject: RE: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 08:22 PM

Is that the sped-up bullfrog sound? Sheesh. Never knew what it was called.

Subject: BS: 'vocal fry'- my suspicions confirmed
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 07:59 PM

I have been recently (last year or so) 'bothered' by some of the vocal patterns and inflections of some youngish female TV news anchors. Alex Wagner of MSNBC was the one that caused me to Google the issue.
Turns out it is a well known and documented phenomenon. My original search was "young women" "raspy voices" and LO! Many hits...

What is really noted is famous entertainers I don't see much of, like Brittny Spears and a Kardashian or two...etc. But a little looking at links shows it is kinda common.

Scientific American article

from this article at Huffington Post

Why worry about it? In the case of TV news, it simply distracts me from what they are saying. (Alex Wagner is a pretty smart graduate of a high school here in the Wash DC area, and she is far from the worse I have heard, but I still cringe.) Contrast these with Kelly O'Donnell, an NBC Pentagon correspondent, who is always clear & pleasant.

I realize that 'some' aspects of a person's voice are beyond easy control, and those who employ vocal fry and similar sounds may have gone beyond being even ABLE to change.... but I wish stations saw this as an issue and gave on-air positions to those didn't rasp and 'vibrate' when they speak.

(Before you tell ME I'm overreacting, read those articles.)