tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/singing-22048/articlesSinging – The Conversation2023-12-27T09:10:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2109412023-12-27T09:10:11Z2023-12-27T09:10:11ZHorse skulls and harmony singing – two winter customs which bring people in Wales together<p>Imagine you’re having a quiet evening at home when suddenly there’s a knock on the door. You open it to find a boisterous crowd carrying a horse’s skull mounted on a pole and draped in ribbons – the <em><a href="https://museum.wales/articles/1187/Christmas-Traditions-The-Mari-Lwyd">Mari Lwyd</a></em> has arrived. </p>
<p>The <em>Mari Lwyd</em>, meaning “grey (or pale) mare”, is a Christmas and new year custom in areas of south Wales dating back to the 18th century. A horse’s skull is placed on a pole and covered in a white sheet, decorated with ribbons. A person, concealed under the sheet, carries the pole and operates the horse’s jaw, making it snap. A group of stock characters accompany them including Sergeant, Merryman, Punch and Judy. </p>
<p>The procession goes from house to house and the group sing verses asking for admittance. The household is expected to respond, also in verse. And so begins a (sometimes very long) improvised poetic contest or rhyming ritual known as <em>pwnco</em> before the group is finally invited into the house and offered food and drink.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Mari Lwyd goes from door to door but would you let her in?</span></figcaption>
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<p>Several explanations have been proposed as to the origin of the custom. Some argue that its roots lie in a pre-Christian fertility <a href="http://www.folkwales.org.uk/mari.html">ritual</a>. Others have argued that the <em>Mari Lwyd</em> has associations with the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2791759">Virgin Mary</a>. </p>
<p>The custom is clearly connected to the practice of <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/art-collections/wassailing-ritual-and-revelry#">wassailing</a>, where groups of merrymakers go from one house to another asking for food and drink. It may be linked to other folk performances found elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, including the <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100300697">hobby-horse</a> tradition. </p>
<h2>Plygain</h2>
<p>Further north, a tradition celebrated in Montgomeryshire, where I was brought up, is much less colourful and firmly located within a religious context. Deriving from the Latin “pullicantio” (cock crow), the <em><a href="https://museum.wales/articles/1185/Christmas-Traditions-Plygain-Singing/">plygain</a></em> (pronounced “plug-ine”), was an early-morning service originally held on Christmas Day in parish churches and then also in nonconformist chapels, beginning in candlelight and continuing into daylight. </p>
<p>It is now mainly an evening service, although some stalwarts still adhere to the early morning tradition. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A trio singing plygain.</span></figcaption>
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<p>After a congregational hymn, a reading and a prayer, the vicar or minister will announce, “<em>Mae’r blygien yn awr yn agored</em>” (the plygain is now open). There is no programme; rather, a party of singers will get up and make their way to the chancel or the <em>sêt fawr</em> (the elder’s pew in a chapel), and sing a carol, unaccompanied and with no conductor. </p>
<p>These are often from the same family and with an ancient pedigree, their frayed carol books (usually old notebooks) having been passed down through the generations. A tuning fork is often used to pitch the tune – I’ve even seen it struck against a singer’s tooth. </p>
<p>The carols would often have been composed by local poets and sung to popular tunes of the time. They do not describe solely the birth of Christ and frequently focus on the crucifixion. Often very long, they are usually sung in three-part harmonies. </p>
<p>The <em>plygain</em> ends with the spine-chilling sound of <em><a href="http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.com/2020/12/welsh-carols-15-carol-y-swper.html">Carol y Swper</a></em> (the Supper Carol), when all the men in the congregation come forward to sing. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Carol y Swper performed at a church in Montgomeryshire.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Revival and reinvention</h2>
<p>In the 1960s, the <a href="https://museum.wales/stfagans/">St Fagans National Museum of History</a>, or the Welsh Folk Museum as it was then known, began <a href="https://museum.wales/collections/folksongs/?action=background">collecting</a> different genres of Welsh folk songs. These included <em>plygain</em> carols and <em>Mari Lwyd</em> verses. This has helped to renew interest in both traditions. </p>
<p>The museum hosts annual <em>Mari Lwyd</em> <a href="https://museum.wales/stfagans/whatson/12104/Christmas-Traditions-The-Mari-Lwyd-Performances">performances</a>, while many a Cardiff pub-goer will likely be startled by the sudden appearance of a snapping horse’s skull. The practice has evolved over time – visits can be pre-arranged, participants will sing from song sheets, the <em>Mari</em> may even be made of cardboard. In fact, anything goes.</p>
<p>Today, the <em>Mari</em> (in various guises) is thriving, and can be found as far afield as the USA and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/welshzombiechristmashorse/">Australia</a>. </p>
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<p>The <em>plygain</em> is still going strong in Montgomeryshire and, indeed, all over Wales and beyond. Around 50 <a href="https://plygain.org/dyddiadur.htm">services</a> are held during December and January. </p>
<p>And this tradition, too, has undergone many changes. Several collections of <em>plygain</em> songs have by now been published enabling new carollers to participate. </p>
<p>In 2020 and 2021, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yifxPBea1f0">virtual</a> <em>plygain</em> took place during the pandemic. A bilingual <em>plygain</em> <a href="https://www.plygain.org/home.htm">website</a> has also been set up and a new carol composed specifically for women’s voices, so that women, too, have their <em>Carol y Swper</em>. </p>
<p>Purists would argue that traditions should not be revived and re-invented. But it is in the nature of traditions to change and constantly evolve – they must do so in order to survive. </p>
<p>We should continue to celebrate the modern-day versions of the <em>Mari Lwyd</em> tradition and the <em>plygain</em> because they contribute to a shared sense of identity and instil in participants a sense of belonging.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sioned Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Mari Lwyd and the plygain are two prominent Welsh traditions celebrated over Christmas and the new year.Sioned Davies, Emeritus Professor of Welsh, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2135342023-10-05T12:34:58Z2023-10-05T12:34:58ZWhat live theater can learn from Branson, Missouri<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551211/original/file-20230929-29-joncoy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C17%2C2986%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The Shepherd of the Hills' has been running for 63 years and is the most performed outdoor drama in the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/staff-and-visitors-to-the-theatre-for-the-shepherd-of-the-news-photo/1244096062?adppopup=true">Terra Fondriest/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In summer 2023, the publication American Theatre declared unequivocally that live theater was “<a href="https://www.americantheatre.org/2023/07/24/theatre-in-crisis-what-were-losing-and-what-comes-next/">in crisis</a>” – particularly regional, nonprofit theaters. Writing for The New York Times, Isaac Butler preferred the phrase “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/opinion/theater-collapse-bailout.html">on the verge of collapse</a>.”</p>
<p>The numbers are stark. Not only have dozens of theaters across the country <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/23/theater/regional-theater-crisis.html">closed their doors</a> since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, but those that are still open have also contracted their seasons massively, <a href="https://www.americantheatre.org/2023/07/24/theatre-in-crisis-what-were-losing-and-what-comes-next/">producing 40% fewer shows than in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>What can regional, nonprofit theaters do to survive?</p>
<p>One place to look for ideas is the tourist town of Branson, Missouri. Scholars and theater critics have ignored this mecca of live entertainment that attracts <a href="https://www.bransontrilakesnews.com/news/local/article_0091efaa-ba7b-11ec-a579-4f4da3995178.html">millions of people a year</a>, largely because of its reputation for cheesy performances and political conservatism.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XdEcpDYAAAAJ&hl=en">I’m a theater and dance historian</a> at Washington University, a liberal arts institution in a city. My politics differ from that of most Branson residents. But that’s precisely why I am in the process of writing a book about the town’s entertainment industry. In an age of polarization, could I challenge myself to approach the place with an open mind? I expected to feel discomfort; I did not expect to feel envy. In Branson, people really seemed to believe in theater’s power. </p>
<p>And nowhere more so than at <a href="https://www.sight-sound.com/">Sight & Sound</a>, a for-profit Christian theater. On a Wednesday afternoon in May 2023, I joined 2,000 other patrons to watch their performance of “<a href="https://www.sight-sound.com/shows/branson/queen-esther/2023">Queen Esther</a>,” a musical retelling of the biblical story of Hadassah. </p>
<p>In “Queen Esther,” Hadassah adopts the name Esther and conceals her Jewish identity in order to marry the Persian emperor Xerxes. She faces challenges in the royal court and doubts herself. Eventually, she learns to trust in God that she was “<a href="https://www.sight-sound.com/shows/branson/queen-esther/2023">made for such a time as this</a>” and bravely saves the Jewish people from annihilation.</p>
<p>The Old Testament story is not as well known as those of Noah or Moses, nor does the musical feature any celebrity performers. Yet approximately eight times a week, 40 weeks a year, Broadway-sized crowds watch “Queen Esther” in a town of 12,000 people in the Ozark Mountains.</p>
<h2>Embracing the spectacle</h2>
<p>Sight & Sound’s formula is seemingly simple: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqpDd5EveRo&t=3s.%5D">spectacle meets story</a>.”</p>
<p>In one scene of “Queen Esther,” over a dozen women in bejeweled gowns twirl with lengthy scarves, turning the stage into a hypnotic, swirling sea of color. In another scene, 45 cast members sing from windows and doorways across a 300-foot-wide set that wraps around three sides to immerse the audience in live surround sound. At several points in the show, Xerxes and his men gallop up the aisles on real horses. Members of the royal court also ride a mechanical, full-sized elephant across the stage.</p>
<p>Nonprofit theater has long resisted the siren call of spectacle. For artists who have adopted the theories of cultural critics <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/adorno/1944/culture-industry.htm">Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer</a>, outlandish, flashy performances reflect cynical pandering to the sensory pleasures of the masses to make money. </p>
<p>But spectacle creates an experience that only live performance can offer: a visual, auditory and even – in the case of the horses in “Queen Esther” – olfactory. The effect transports an audience to another world, drawing people off their couches with the promise that they, too, <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-behind-the-magic-of-live-music-169343">can become part of an experience to remember</a>.</p>
<p>While some theater owners are beginning to recognize the <a href="https://www.americantheatre.org/2023/07/24/theatre-in-crisis-what-were-losing-and-what-comes-next">value of spectacle</a>, there’s another lesson from Sight & Sound: the value of offering hope that seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome.</p>
<h2>What do audiences really want?</h2>
<p>In the wake of the commingled disasters of recent years – the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd’s murder, climate change and an insurrection at the nation’s capitol – university dance and theater departments, as well as nonprofit theaters, have changed their mission statements <a href="https://issuu.com/setc.org/docs/2020_convention_program_-_compressed/18">to include social justice as an explicit aim of their programs</a>. They promise productions that confront racism, homophobia and authoritarianism head-on.</p>
<p>Musicologist Jake Johnson has written about today’s dominant impulse toward “<a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=98wxb9ky9780252043925">theater to make the present dystopia even more real</a>.”</p>
<p>But theatergoers have not necessarily responded positively. Since 2020, some audiences and critics have complained that theater is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/opinion/saving-american-theater.html">tilting too far toward preachy messages</a>. And when staring out at empty seats, practitioners cannot help but question their faith in theater’s power to effect social change.</p>
<p>Sight & Sound’s success suggests that the problem is less with the message of social justice and more with the approach. </p>
<p>“Queen Esther” is an ancient story of antisemitism, after all. But as Sight & Sound Chief Creative Officer Josh Enck <a href="https://bible2school.podbean.com/e/bringing-the-bible-to-life-through-storytelling-with-josh-enck-episode-34/">explained in a 2022 podcast</a>, the shows seek “not just to inform or educate” but “to inspire” – particularly since “inspiration is at the core of who God is.”</p>
<p>The animatronic elephant lumbering across the stage with a jeweled headdress is not a distraction from the serious business of salvation, but rather a way of unlocking an audience member’s sense of awe and wonder.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Queen Esther’ doesn’t shy away from spectacle.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>People flock to Branson</h2>
<p>Sight & Sound is also earnest, a feature that fell out of favor with high-art theater at the dawn of the 21st century, when the sense that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/30/arts/living-with-the-fake-and-liking-it.html?searchResultPosition=1">everything was fake</a> led to productions that dripped with <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/221355858?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">irony and cynicism</a>. </p>
<p>Today’s compounding sociopolitical crises have shaken the theater world out of complacency. But in the fierce urgency to confront the world’s myriad problems, earnestness is still seen as simplistic, naïve or even duplicitous. </p>
<p>Sight & Sound expanded to Branson in 2008 because its earnest approach fit with the town’s long-standing entertainment industry, which began back in 1907 with the publication of Harold Bell Wright’s wildly popular novel “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4735">The Shepherd of the Hills</a>.” </p>
<p>Tourists flocked to see the real-life inspirations for the characters, and local residents often obliged by performing versions of themselves. In 1959, the Mabe family began performing the <a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/275645520703">Baldknobbers Hillbilly Jamboree</a> to provide nighttime entertainment to tourists who had come to boat and fish during the day. The following year, an outdoor drama based on Wright’s novel opened, as did a theme park called <a href="https://www.ksmu.org/local-history/2012-06-05/silver-dollar-city-the-cavernous-past-of-a-modern-theme-park#stream/0">Silver Dollar City</a> that recreated an 1880s Ozark village.</p>
<p>Over time, dozens of theaters were built, featuring variety shows that combined country, gospel, Broadway tunes, comedy, magic tricks, dance numbers, acrobatics and even animal acts. Musicals that fit Branson’s brand of family-friendly, Christian entertainment also popped up along its strip. Many shows featured singers such as <a href="https://andywilliams.com/">Andy Williams</a>, whose greatest hits had been released decades earlier. </p>
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<img alt="Man wearing purple shirt holding microphone singles out an elderly woman in the crowd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551235/original/file-20230929-23-vvw3up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551235/original/file-20230929-23-vvw3up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551235/original/file-20230929-23-vvw3up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551235/original/file-20230929-23-vvw3up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551235/original/file-20230929-23-vvw3up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551235/original/file-20230929-23-vvw3up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/551235/original/file-20230929-23-vvw3up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Singer Tony Orlando serenades a fan in the audience during a 1994 performance in Branson, Mo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tony-orlando-singles-out-a-fan-in-the-audience-while-news-photo/612579126?adppopup=true">Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Some of Branson’s performers didn’t qualify as stars at all. “<a href="https://bransonregister.com/the-journey-of-the-incredible-shoji-tabuchi-in-his-own-words/">The Shoji Tabuchi Show</a>,” arguably the most popular in town during the 1990s, was headlined by a fiddler who had never produced an original hit song or been featured on the radio. </p>
<p>Branson performers – whether acrobats or singers or comedians – shared something in common: earnest messages of appreciation for their audiences, whom they greeted in person during intermissions and after shows.</p>
<h2>Ignoring the sneers</h2>
<p>In 1991, the Ozark Mountain tourist destination burst onto the national scene when it was featured on “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qac5fPGgemY&t=14s">60 Minutes</a>.”</p>
<p>Reporters from the coasts flocked to the Ozarks in disbelief after the segment aired. Wasn’t America supposed to be obsessed with youth and celebrity, not aging or unknown singers? And wasn’t earnestness merely hucksterism in disguise to dupe audiences into parting with their hard-earned money?</p>
<p>The coastal critics scrambled to come up with the wittiest insults. One called Branson a “<a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/oa_monograph/chapter/71692/pdf">cultural penal colony</a>.” Another preferred the term “<a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/232143243/AA935A7F9CBA4905PQ/1?accountid=15159">Town of the Living Dead</a>.” Even “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2El5ttjM9I">The Simpsons</a>” couldn’t resist piling on.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘My dad says it’s like Vegas – if it were run by Ned Flanders.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>The show went on, undeterred: In 2021, <a href="https://www.bransontrilakesnews.com/news/local/article_0091efaa-ba7b-11ec-a579-4f4da3995178.html">a record-breaking 10 million people</a> came to visit.</p>
<p>While not every show has survived the COVID-19 pandemic, clearly some performers are doing something right. Comedians like Stephen Colbert have continued <a href="https://youtu.be/IM4Qy1dkAVo?feature=shared&t=152">to mock Branson</a>, but live theater is in too much of a crisis to dismiss the town’s approach. </p>
<p>The town demonstrates that theater can return to the mission of imagining new, better worlds onstage and inviting audiences to join in that mission with them. It can be the stuff of spiritual transcendence – even if it grabs your attention by galloping down the aisle on a horse.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated to clarify that Shoji Tabuchi never produced a record featuring songs that he had written.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213534/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Dee Das does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Comedians like Stephen Colbert might mock the entertainment mecca, but live theater is in too much of a crisis to dismiss the town’s formula of spectacle meets story.Joanna Dee Das, Associate Professor of Dance, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134372023-09-21T12:45:25Z2023-09-21T12:45:25ZReality TV show contestants are more like unpaid interns than Hollywood stars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548929/original/file-20230918-29-jud5nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C3584%2C2619&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Country singer Adley Stump, a former contestant on NBC's hit reality show 'The Voice,' performs at an Air Force base in Washington state.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jblmpao/19564078650">Joint Base Lewis McChord/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In December 2018, John Legend <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlegend/status/1070158841499840512?s=20">joined then-newly elected U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> to criticize the exploitation of congressional interns on Capitol Hill, most of whom worked for no pay.</p>
<p>Legend’s timing was ironic. </p>
<p>NBC’s “The Voice” had just announced that Legend would join as a judge. He would go on to <a href="https://talentrecap.com/the-voice-coaches-salary-how-much-do-nick-jonas-kelly-clarkson-john-legend-and-blake-shelton-make/">reportedly earn US$14 million</a> per season by his third year on the show. Meanwhile, all of the participants on “The Voice,” save for the winner, earned $0 for their time, apart from a housing and food stipend – much like those congressional interns.</p>
<p>The fall 2023 TV lineup will be saturated with low-cost reality TV shows like “The Voice”; for networks, it’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/how-prime-time-tv-will-look-different-this-fall-63ff818c">an end-around</a> to the ongoing <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/negotiations-set-resume-striking-writers-hollywood-studios-rcna105230">TV writers</a> <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/09/actors-strike-picket-line-netflix-paramount-1235545964/">and actors</a> strikes. </p>
<p>Whether it’s “The Voice,” “House Hunters,” “American Chopper” or “The Bachelorette,” reality shows thrive thanks to a simple business model: They pay millions of dollars for big-name celebrities to serve as judges, coaches and hosts, while participants work for free or for paltry pay under the guise of chasing their dreams or gaining exposure. </p>
<p>These participants are the unpaid interns of the entertainment industry, even though it’s their stories, personalities and talent that draw the viewers. </p>
<h2>Dreams clash with reality</h2>
<p>To conduct research for my book, “<a href="https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783030445867">Getting Signed: Record Contracts, Musicians, and Power in Society</a>,” I interviewed musicians around the country. </p>
<p>The book was about the exploitative nature <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gmjw/bad-deals-are-baked-into-the-way-the-music-industry-operates">of record contracts</a>. But during my research, I kept running into singers who had either auditioned for or participated in “The Voice.” </p>
<p>On “The Voice,” singers compete on teams headed by a celebrity coach. Following a blind audition and various elimination rounds, the <a href="https://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/2012/10/how_does_the_voice_work_your_c.html">live broadcasts</a> begin with four teams of five members apiece. These 20 contestants spend months working in Los Angeles and are <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/voice-mentors-contestants-money-1370215">provided with only their room and board</a>. Each week, at least one player is eliminated. At the end of each season, the winner receives $100,000 and a record contract. </p>
<p>While some viewers might see reality shows like “The Voice” as launching pads for music careers, many of the musicians I spoke with were disheartened by their experiences on the show.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Contestants audition for ‘The Voice’ ahead of its 24th season.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike “American Idol,” where a number of winners, from Kelly Clarkson to Jordan Sparks, have made it big, no winners of “The Voice” have become stars. The closest person to “making it” from “The Voice” <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/10/08/921574715/snl-nixes-morgan-wallen-appearance-after-singer-violates-covid-19-safety-protoco">is the controversial</a> country singer Morgan Wallen, who was infamously dropped by his <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/country-star-morgan-wallen-caught-video-using-n-word-label-n1256630">label and country radio</a> following the emergence of a video of him using a racial slur. And Wallen didn’t even win “The Voice”; in fact, he <a href="https://thevoice.fandom.com/wiki/Morgan_Wallen">barely made it past</a> the blind audition.</p>
<p>Former contestants repeatedly told me that the television exposure did little to help their careers. </p>
<p>Prior to joining the show, many of the musicians were trying to scratch out a living through touring or performing. They put their developing careers on pause to chase their dreams. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2020.1733577">the show’s contracts have stipulated</a> that contestants cannot perform, sell their name, image and likeness, or record new music while on “The Voice.” (The Conversation reached out to NBC to see if this remains the case for the current season, but did not receive a comment.) </p>
<p>This leaves the 20 finalists with no means to sell their music, even as they spend up to eight months competing. When the show’s losers return to performing, many of them have little new material to promote. By the time they drop a new single or album and announce a tour, some of them told me that they had lost a good portion of their following. </p>
<p>There is one group of people who receive meaningful exposure from these shows: the coaches and judges. Several singers, such as Gwen Stefani and Pharell Williams, have used “The Voice” to jolt their stagnating music careers. While earning millions as coaches and judges, these stars even use the show to <a href="https://screenrant.com/the-voice-coaches-popstars-successful-music-careers-boost/">promote their music</a> – something the contestants themselves are barred from doing.</p>
<p>Paying these contestants is feasible. If Legend earned $13 million instead of $14 million, that spare million dollars could be dispersed to half of the contestants at $100,000 apiece – an amount that’s currently only reserved for the winner of the show. Cut the salaries of all four coaches by $1 million apiece, and it would free up enough money to pay all 20 contestants $200,000 each. </p>
<h2>A gold mine for networks</h2>
<p>“The Voice” is far from the only reality show to take advantage of the genre’s low overhead costs.</p>
<p>Over the past two decades, shows featuring Americans looking to buy houses or remodel their homes <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/how-hgtv-became-industry-juggernaut">have exploded in popularity</a>. HGTV cornered this market by creating popular shows such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369117/">House Hunters</a>,” “<a href="https://www.hgtv.com/shows/flip-or-flop">Flip or Flop</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1827882/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_property%2520brothers">Property Brothers</a>.” </p>
<p>Viewers might not realize just how profitable these shows are.</p>
<p>Take “House Hunters.” The show follows a prospective homebuyer as they tour three homes. Homebuyers featured on the show have noted that <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/06/house-hunters-true-story-of-being-on-the-show.html">they earn only</a> <a href="https://www.thelist.com/391705/heres-how-much-people-get-paid-to-be-on-house-hunters/">$500 for their work</a>, and <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/543696/how-much-do-you-get-paid-for-being-on-house-hunters">the episodes take</a> three to five days and about 30 hours to film. The show’s producers <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/house-hunters-do-the-realtors-on-the-show-get-paid.html/">don’t pay the realtors</a> to be on it.</p>
<p>The low pay for people on reality TV shows matches the low budget for these shows. A former participant wrote that episodes of “House Hunters” <a href="https://utahvalley360.com/2015/04/01/10-things-learned-filmed-hgtvs-house-hunters/">cost around $50,000</a> to film. Prime-time sitcoms, by comparison, have a $1.5 million to $3 million <a href="https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/tv-series-budgets-costs-rising-peak-tv-1202570158/">per episode budget</a>.</p>
<h2>Sidestepping the unions</h2>
<p>That massive budget gap between reality TV and sitcoms is not simply due to an absence of star actors. </p>
<p>Many scripted television shows are based in Los Angeles, where camera crews, stunt doubles, <a href="https://www.motionpicturecostumers.org/">costume artisans</a>, <a href="https://local706.org/about/">makeup artists and hair stylists</a> are unionized. But shows like “House Hunters,” which are filmed across the country, <a href="https://cmii.gsu.edu/files/2017/09/Beck-USG-FINAL-Film-Report-2014.pdf">will recruit crews from right-to-work states</a>. These are states where employees cannot be compelled to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. For these reasons, unions have far less power in these states than they do in places traditionally associated with film and entertainment, such as California and New York. </p>
<p>That’s one reason why <a href="https://www.stage32.com/blog/acting-in-atlanta-everything-you-need-to-know-2319">TV production</a> started moving to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/20/1189065338/non-union-film-workers-trying-to-break-into-the-atlanta-scene-are-hit-hard-by-st">Atlanta</a> – what’s been dubbed the “<a href="https://time.com/longform/hollywood-in-georgia/">Hollywood of the South</a>” – where shows like “The Walking Dead” and “Stranger Things” have been filmed.</p>
<p>But in my research, I also learned that Knoxville, Tennessee, has become a reality TV mecca. Like Georgia, Tennessee is also a right-to-work state. In Knoxville, many working musicians join the city’s <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1108/9781839827686">low-paying entertainment apparatus</a> by taking gigs working on TV and film production crews in between shows and tours.</p>
<p>At a time when TV writers and actors are on strike, it is important to understand that the entertainment industry will try to exploit labor for profit whenever it can. </p>
<p>Reality TV is a way to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/reruns-reality-fill-out-strike-struck-fall-tv-season-2023-09-07/">undercut the leverage of striking workers</a>, whether it’s through their lack of unionized actors, or their use of nonunionized production crews.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of striking workers yell, hold signs and thrust their arms skyward." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548927/original/file-20230918-17-6dymb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With actors and writers on strike, many networks and streaming services are featuring reality TV-heavy fall lineups.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-hollywood-actors-sag-aftra-union-walk-a-news-photo/1532794702?adppopup=true">David McNew/Getty Image</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Contestants, casts and crew members are starting to catch on. Many reality TV participants have said that they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/08/12/scabs-actors-writers-strike-breakers/">feel like strike scabs</a>, and Bethenny Frankel of “Real Housewives” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/aug/18/we-wont-take-this-any-more-reality-tv-stars-battle-to-unionise">is reportedly trying to organize</a> her fellow reality performers.</p>
<p>Preying off contestants who are desperate for exposure, reality TV might just be the next labor battle in the entertainment industry. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlegend/status/1070158841499840512?s=20">John Legend</a> put it, “Unpaid internships make it so only kids with means and privilege get the valuable experience.” </p>
<p>Reality TV does the same to aspiring actors, musicians and celebrities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Arditi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With the TV writers and actors strikes leaving networks with little scripted content, the fall 2023 lineup will be saturated with low-cost reality TV shows like ‘The Voice.’David Arditi, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at ArlingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2041672023-08-14T14:56:29Z2023-08-14T14:56:29ZThe science of why you can remember song lyrics from years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534865/original/file-20230629-22632-ez2qiu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C71%2C9447%2C6245&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The science behind rhyme, rhythm and repetition.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-african-american-woman-singing-song-2137952063">Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why is it that many people can’t remember where they put their car keys most mornings, but can sing along to every lyric of a song they haven’t heard in years when it comes on the radio? Do song lyrics live in some sort of privileged place in our memories?</p>
<p>Music has a long history of being used as a mnemonic device, that is, to aid the memory of words and information. Before the advent of written language, music was used to <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1995-97902-000">orally transmit stories and information</a>. We see many such examples even today, in how we teach children the alphabet, numbers, or – in my own case – the names of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h44uaNXEQI">50 states</a> of the US. Indeed, I’d challenge even any adult reader to try and recall the letters of the alphabet without hearing the familiar tune or its rhythm in your mind.</p>
<p>There are several reasons why music and words seem to become intricately linked in memory. Firstly, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.20.6.1471">features of music</a> often serve as a predictable “scaffold” for helping us to remember associated lyrics. </p>
<p>For instance, the rhythm and beat of the music give clues as to how long the next word in a sequence will be. This helps to limit the possible word choices to be recalled, for instance, by signalling that a three-syllable word fits with a particular rhythm within the song. </p>
<p>A song’s melody can also help to segment a text into meaningful chunks. This allows us to essentially remember longer segments of information than if we had to memorise every single word individually. Songs also often make use of literary devices like rhyme and alliteration, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197096">further facilitate memorisation</a>. </p>
<h2>Sing it</h2>
<p>When we have sung or heard a song many times before, this song may become accessible via our implicit (non-conscious) memory. Singing the lyrics to a very well-known song is a form of <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/procedural-memory.html">procedural</a> memory. That is, it is a highly automatised process like riding a bike: it’s something we are able to do without thinking much about it. </p>
<p>One of the reasons music is so deeply ingrained in memory in this way is because we tend to hear the same songs many, many times <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-were-obsessed-with-music-from-our-youth-154864">throughout our lifetimes</a> (more so, than say, reading a favourite book or watching a favourite film). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman with pink hair singing into music device with headphones on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534867/original/file-20230629-25452-718jfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534867/original/file-20230629-25452-718jfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534867/original/file-20230629-25452-718jfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534867/original/file-20230629-25452-718jfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534867/original/file-20230629-25452-718jfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534867/original/file-20230629-25452-718jfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534867/original/file-20230629-25452-718jfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘I just can’t get you out of my head’: we tend to remember songs and lyrics quite easily.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-active-stylsh-teenage-girl-pinkish-1765476086">Anatoliy Karlyuk/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Music is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-sad-songs-say-so-much-to-some-people-but-not-others-65365">fundamentally emotional</a>. Indeed, research has shown that one of the main reasons people engage with music is because of the diversity of emotions it conveys and evokes. </p>
<p>A wide range of research has found that <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-a-mark-on-the-brain-how-emotion-colours-memories-15872">emotional stimuli are remembered better than non-emotional ones</a>. The task of trying to remember the ABCs or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXtpjBzPMeY">the colours of the rainbow?</a> is inherently more motivating when set to a catchy tune – and we can remember this material better later on when we make an emotional connection.</p>
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</figure>
<h2>Music and lyrics</h2>
<p>It should be noted that not all previous research has found that music facilitates memory for associated lyrics. For instance, upon the first encounter with a new song, memorising both the melody and associated lyrics is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03198404">harder than memorising just the lyrics</a>. This makes sense, given the multiple tasks involved. </p>
<p>However, after getting over this initial hurdle and being exposed to a song several times, more beneficial effects seem to kick in. Once a melody is familiar, the associated lyrics are generally <a href="https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.106.3.927-957">easier to remember</a> than if you tried to memorise these lyrics without a tune behind them. </p>
<p>Research in this area is also being applied to assist people with various neurodegenerative disorders. For instance, music seems to help those with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2012.29.5.521">Alzheimer’s disease</a> and <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00395/full">multiple sclerosis</a> to remember verbal information. </p>
<p>So, the next time you put your car keys in a new spot, try creating a catchy song to remind you of their location the next day – and, in theory, you shouldn’t forget where you’ve put them so easily.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204167/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Jakubowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Music creates powerful memories and emotional connections in our brains.Kelly Jakubowski, Associate Professor in Music Psychology, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2086402023-06-29T16:08:44Z2023-06-29T16:08:44ZWhy our voices change as we get older<p>Sir Elton John set a record at this year’s Glastonbury, becoming the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/elton-john-glastonbury-viewing-record-b2364260.html">most-watched headliner</a> in the festival’s history, with more than 7 million people tuning in live to the BBC to watch his last ever UK performance.</p>
<p>The 76-year-old singer certainly delivered all his characteristic showmanship. But many who have followed his music over the decades will have noticed how much his voice has changed during his career – and not only because of the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/a-qa-with-elton-john-65620/">surgery he had</a> in the 1980s to <a href="https://ultimateclassicrock.com/elton-john-throat-surgery/">remove polyps</a> from his vocal cords.</p>
<p>Equally, it’s not all down to the process of ageing. While it’s no mystery that this affects every part of our body, it isn’t the only reason that a person’s voice – even a professional singer like Sir Elton – can sound quite different over the years. </p>
<h2>The sound of your voice</h2>
<p>The vocal cords are what produce the sound of your voice. They are located in the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538202/">larynx</a>, a part of the respiratory system that allows air to pass from your throat to your lungs. When air passes out of the lungs and through the larynx, it causes the vocal cords to vibrate – <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5412481/">producing sound</a>.</p>
<p>The vocal cords are composed of <a href="https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/vocal-cords">three main parts</a>: the vocalis muscle, vocal ligament, and a mucous membrane (containing glands) to cover them. This keeps the surface moist and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2810851/">protects them from damage</a>.</p>
<p>There are also approximately <a href="https://radiopaedia.org/articles/intrinsic-muscles-of-the-larynx?lang=gb">17 other muscles</a> in the larynx that can alter vocal cord position and tension – thus changing the sound produced.</p>
<p>Pre-puberty, there’s very little difference in the sound the vocal cords produce. But during puberty, hormones begin exerting their effects. This changes the structure of the larynx – making the “Adam’s apple” more prominent in men – and the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0018506X16301271?via%3Dihub">length of the vocal cords</a>. After puberty, they’re around 16mm in length in men, and 10mm in women.</p>
<p>Women’s vocal cords are also <a href="https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article/82/S1/S90/719336/Physiology-of-the-female-larynx">20-30%</a> thinner after puberty. These shorter, thinner vocal cords are the reason why women typically have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3306615">higher voices</a> than men. </p>
<p>Even after puberty, hormones can affect the voice. For instance, a woman’s voice may sound different depending on the stage of her menstrual cycle – with the <a href="https://www.jvoice.org/article/S0892-1997(08)00169-0/fulltext">best voice quality</a> being in the ovulatory phase. This is because the glands produce most mucous during this phase, giving the vocal cords their best functional ability. </p>
<p>Research also shows that women taking the contraceptive pill show <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0892199717304940">less variation in voice quality</a> because the pill halts ovulation.</p>
<p>On the other hand, hormonal changes during the premenstrual phase impede the vocal cords, making them stiffer. This may explain why opera singers would be offered “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0892199717301133">grace days</a>” in the 1960s to ensure they didn’t damage their vocal cords. And, because <a href="https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/voice-disorders/#collapse_1">women’s vocal cords</a> are thinner, they may also be more likely to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15157130/">suffer damage</a> from overuse. </p>
<h2>Everything ages</h2>
<p>As with almost every other part of the body, vocal cords age. But these changes might not be as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892199721000011">noticeable for everyone</a>.</p>
<p>As we get older, the larynx begins increasing its <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1752928X21001840">mineral content</a>, making it stiffer and more like bone than cartilage. This change can begin happening as early as <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/angle-orthodontist/article/75/2/196/57743/Ossification-of-Laryngeal-Cartilages-on-Lateral">your thirties</a> – especially in men. This makes the vocal cords less flexible.</p>
<p>The muscles that allow the vocal cords to move also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6166195/">begin wasting</a> (as do our other muscles) as we age. The ligaments and tissues that support the vocal cords also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11800365/">lose elasticity</a>, becoming <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25645525/">less flexible</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A digital drawing of the vocal cords inside the body." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534821/original/file-20230629-17-7buwfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534821/original/file-20230629-17-7buwfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534821/original/file-20230629-17-7buwfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534821/original/file-20230629-17-7buwfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534821/original/file-20230629-17-7buwfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534821/original/file-20230629-17-7buwfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534821/original/file-20230629-17-7buwfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Changes in the larynx can begin happening as early as your thirties.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/larynx-41183356">SciePro/ Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s also a decrease in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695176/">pulmonary muscle function</a>, reducing the power of the air expelled from the lungs to create the sound. The number of glands that produce the protective mucus also decrease, alongside a reduction in the ability to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10156980/">control the larynx</a>. </p>
<h2>Lifestyle is a factor</h2>
<p>While vocal cords age at largely the same rate in most people, many lifestyle factors can increase the risk of damage to them – and so can change the way your voice sounds.</p>
<p>Smoking, for example, causes <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3918293/">localised inflammation</a>, increased <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4824943/">mucous production</a>, but can also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4557797/">dry out</a> the mucosal surfaces. Alcohol has a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6166195/">similar effect</a>. Over time, these factors can damage the vocal cords and alter the voice’s sound.</p>
<p>Some over-the-counter and prescription drugs can also alter the voice – such as <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/482932">steroid inhalers used for laryngitis</a>. Blood thinners may also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10875579/">damage the vocal cords</a> and can cause polyps to form, making the voice sound raspy or hoarse. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7395839/">Muscle relaxants</a>, too, can lead to irritation and vocal cord damage due to the drug allowing stomach acid to wash back into the larynx. Thankfully, the irritation and changes caused by these medications typically disappears after stopping use.</p>
<p>One other lifestyle factor can be overuse, which is typically seen in singers and other people who use their voice a lot <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15157130/">during work</a>, such as teachers and fitness instructors. This can lead to an uncommon
condition called <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9392404/">Reinke’s oedema</a>, which can also be caused by smoking. Reinke’s oedema causes fluid to swell in the vocal cords, changing the pitch of the voice – often <a href="https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-information/reinkes-oedema/">making it deeper</a>.</p>
<p>In extreme cases of Reinke’s oedema, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00405-022-07377-9">surgery is needed</a> to drain the fluid. But in most cases, rest and avoiding irritants (smoking and alcohol) is beneficial, while speech and language therapy can also address the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-6984.1995.tb01660.x">change in sound</a>.</p>
<h2>Maintaining our vocal quality</h2>
<p>While we can’t help some of the age-related changes that happen to our vocal cords, we can maintain some of our vocal quality and ability through continued use. This may explain why, in many cases, singers show <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27049451/">significantly less vocal change</a> with age than their non-singing counterparts.</p>
<p>Singing or <a href="https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2014/improve-aging-voice.html">reading out</a> loud daily can give the vocal cords sufficient exercise to slow their decline.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/taking-care-your-voice">Looking after</a> your vocal cords is also important. Staying hydrated and limiting intake of <a href="https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/patient-information/presbyphonia/">alcohol</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7069957/">tobacco</a> can help prevent high rates of decline and damage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208640/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Every part of the body ages, including the vocal cords. But there are some things you can do to reduce the impact on your voice.Adam Taylor, Professor and Director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905562023-03-23T13:17:06Z2023-03-23T13:17:06ZHow an African church choir made a difference to care home life in Greater Manchester<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516111/original/file-20230317-386-4ty01r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/carer-leading-group-seniors-fitness-class-1178472205">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Care homes are rarely a source of good news. The system is <a href="https://theconversation.com/merely-tinkering-expert-analysis-of-the-uk-governments-new-plan-to-reform-social-care-in-england-172085">underfunded</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-care-home-staff-in-the-uk-are-at-breaking-point-185234">understaffed</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-care-reform-why-boris-johnsons-plan-wont-fix-the-crisis-expert-view-167472">overextended</a>, and homes are routinely found to be inadequate. Of the 2,934 homes the Care Quality Commission <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2023-01-24/almost-half-of-all-care-homes-inspected-in-england-found-to-be-failing">inspected</a> in the year to December 2022, 1,224 were deemed inadequate or requiring improvement. </p>
<p>Low expectations and negative stereotypes, particularly in the media, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890406513000091">exacerbate the problem</a>. But when positive relationships are placed at the centre of adult social care, care homes have the potential to be joyful, lively places. </p>
<p>Our research has looked at what happens when care homes facilitate community connections between their older residents and refugees. We have found that <a href="https://journals.healio.com/doi/abs/10.3928/00989134-20220808-04">singing</a>, in particular, is a good tool for breaking down social barriers, reducing isolation and improving wellbeing. <a href="https://theconversation.com/choir-singing-improves-health-happiness-and-is-the-perfect-icebreaker-47619">Group singing</a> can benefit everyone.</p>
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<h2>How singing improves wellbeing</h2>
<p>From 2016 to 2019, we worked with four care homes in Bolton, Greater Manchester, and a local choir which visited the homes once a month. The residents were older adults, predominantly white British. Some had diagnoses of dementia or mental health problems.</p>
<p>The choir was comprised of six to ten young people and adults from the Ephrata Church Community, a local black African church. They brought keyboards and guitars and set up shop in communal areas. The residents were free to come and go as they pleased.</p>
<p>The choir leader would introduce the songs and distribute lyrics, encouraging both residents and staff to join in. Afterwards they were asked about their experience of the session and whether they had any song requests for subsequent visits.</p>
<p>From the start, residents found the experience to be beneficial. One explained how little there was, usually, for them to do in the care home: “The staff are in rush, and we can’t have a proper conversation.” Research has long shown that this is <a href="https://sigmapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jnu.12488">not uncommon</a>. </p>
<p>Joining in the singing project, by contrast, as one member of staff put it, “greatly improved [the residents’] moods and got them up dancing”. Another said how much it “brightens up the lives of people waiting for treatment”. </p>
<p>They especially like the fact that the choristers also learned a thing or two from Googling song requests they weren’t familiar with. One resident said that the song What a Friend We Have in Jesus is their “best song, the song they will sing during my funeral”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people in smart clothes stand outside a building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516360/original/file-20230320-24-rdzouh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516360/original/file-20230320-24-rdzouh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516360/original/file-20230320-24-rdzouh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516360/original/file-20230320-24-rdzouh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516360/original/file-20230320-24-rdzouh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516360/original/file-20230320-24-rdzouh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516360/original/file-20230320-24-rdzouh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ephrata choir at one of the study care homes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kayonda Ngamaba</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How singing fosters connectedness</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britishacademyofsoundtherapy.com/singing-for-health/">Singing has been shown</a> to boost confidence, broaden communication skills and foster connections with others. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/looking-for-a-nursing-home-place-for-your-parent-with-dementia-heres-what-to-consider-63121">physiological benefits</a> it brings are clear too: as a workout, it can strengthen the immune system, improve posture and aid sleep. It is also a natural <a href="https://theconversation.com/reducing-depression-in-nursing-homes-requires-more-than-just-antidepressants-38970">antidepressant</a>, lowering <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13591053211012778">stress levels</a> and improving mental alertness. </p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03057356211042668">group singing</a>, specifically, increases levels of oxytocin, which fosters a greater sense of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453013002369">connectedness</a> and contentment. </p>
<p>Context, however, mediates the impact of oxytocin. Hence, before the singing, each chorister introduced themselves, the school they go to (for children), the work they do, their hobbies and preferred food. This started a conversation with the residents, about having gone to the same school or liking the same food. </p>
<p>Group bonding can happen <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513815001051">quickly across large groups</a> when people have a shared motivation or focus; when their activities are aligned in what psychologists call behavioural synchronicity; and when they experience a collective sense of achievement. Rather than inviting residents to watch a performance, the fact that these sessions involved the choristers using songs chosen by the residents and actively encouraging them to clap and sing along encouraged connection. </p>
<p>The benefits of a greater sense of connection are clear. Loneliness is an enduring problem for older adults, especially in care homes. Despite living in shared accommodation, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article/49/5/748/5827763?">over 60%</a> of older adults in care homes are moderately or severely lonely. Some studies show <a href="https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/ijtr.2006.13.8.370">only 10% of care home residents’ time</a> involves social interaction. </p>
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<p>On a societal level, fostering connections can contribute to reducing social stigma, prejudice and isolation – issues faced by older adults and refugees alike. Spending time together (what psychologists term <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/soco.2008.26.3.259">the “mere exposure effect”</a>) can be enough to generate familiarity. </p>
<p>In addition, introductions at the start of singing emphasised the idea that <a href="https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/spc3.12000">everyone is unique</a> – it reduced the perceived homogeneity of “older people” or “refugees”. Research suggests that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797613481607">environmental cues</a> of social connectedness (sharing an activity, say, like singing together) also reduce bias. On a more basic level, the signing group challenges stereotypes of refugees <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42889189">as hostile and taking resources</a>, to being ordinary and active members of their communities who make a positive contribution.</p>
<p>Further, better relationships between caregivers and care home residents <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1471301209350285">can reduce staff burnout</a> because they make the work more meaningful and rewarding. It acts as a buffer against stress, and some of the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-18711-001">more difficult aspects</a> of caregiving, such as working with aggression in people with dementia. This is known as “enrichment”, where caregiving <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36687423/">gives meaning and pleasure</a> to both parties, by giving something back to a previous generation, enjoying each other’s company, or learning something new.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people stand in a hall holding up pieces of paper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516364/original/file-20230320-16-ilkzbz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516364/original/file-20230320-16-ilkzbz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516364/original/file-20230320-16-ilkzbz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516364/original/file-20230320-16-ilkzbz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516364/original/file-20230320-16-ilkzbz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516364/original/file-20230320-16-ilkzbz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516364/original/file-20230320-16-ilkzbz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Ephrata choir volunteers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kayonda Ngamaba</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>Social care experts speak about <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JOSM-11-2019-0346/full/html">“older-adult-centred care”</a> wherein people are as autonomous as possible. This involves treating them with dignity, providing personalised support for their unique needs, and creating a social environment in which people feel meaningfully included. </p>
<p>Our research suggests there is an important fifth component – reciprocity – which is all about finding ways for older people <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/14717794200600015/full/html">to actively contribute</a> to wider community life. When, conversely, they receive care passively, it can create <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30514117/">an objectified, distanced relationship</a> that reduces the sense of reward for everyone involved.</p>
<p>Our group singing project delivered on all fronts. Participants were treated with respect and involved in decision making. They forged connections with the choristers and each other, shared personal experiences and knowledge. </p>
<p>Greater community cohesion was achieved too, with connections forged between two groups so often isolated. As one younger member of the African choir said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I really enjoy singing today, it helps me to be connected.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190556/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kayonda Hubert Ngamaba is volunteer at Ephrata Church Community.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheyann Heap does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Singing, as a communal exercise, can break down social barriers, reduce isolation and improve wellbeing.Kayonda Hubert Ngamaba, Research Fellow, Social Policy and Social Work Department, University of YorkCheyann Heap, Research Associate, Community-Enhanced Social Prescribing, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1974002023-01-24T19:19:23Z2023-01-24T19:19:23ZThe Australian National Anthem has a big problem – the average Aussie can’t sing it in tune<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505778/original/file-20230123-22-iecv7m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4759%2C3168&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Neilson/ AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I have one prayer as I watch the Australian cricket team sing <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/honours-and-symbols/australian-national-symbols/australian-national-anthem">Advance Australia Fair</a> patriotically before a match – “Please <em>don’t</em> turn on their microphone.” Like many Australians, their “joyful strains” of our anthem are … well, just strained. </p>
<p>It’s not their fault they misspent their youth playing cricket instead of taking singing lessons. And it’s not their fault they got so good they now have to sing in front of thousands before they can play. </p>
<p>But there is a fault. We’ve given them an anthem that average Aussies can’t sing in tune together. </p>
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<h2>Great unity?</h2>
<p>According to former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, our anthem reflects “<a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43190">great unity</a>”, but that wasn’t there at the start. It needed several “fixes”. </p>
<p><a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mccormick-peter-dodds-7323">Peter Dodds McCormick’s</a> 1878 composition began “Australia’s sons let us rejoice”. Daughters didn’t count. The <a href="https://cms.australiaday.org.au/about/nadc">National Australia Day Council</a> later recommended substituting “Australians all”, which was <a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-6380">adopted in 1984</a>. </p>
<p>First Nations people were also omitted from McCormick’s <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/advance-australia-fair">original verses</a>, ignoring their presence while glorifying British colonisation. More fixing from the Council swapped the offending verses for a politically neutral verse from McCormick’s <a href="https://www.rap.org.au/evolution-of-the-words">Federation version</a> with another tweak for gender-inclusive language. </p>
<p>Some Indigenous sport stars still refuse to sing the current anthem, as they say it <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-national-anthem-is-non-inclusive-indigenous-australians-shouldnt-have-to-sing-it-118177">doesn’t represent them</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-national-anthem-is-non-inclusive-indigenous-australians-shouldnt-have-to-sing-it-118177">Our national anthem is non-inclusive: Indigenous Australians shouldn't have to sing it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The remaining inappropriate lyric, “young”, was amended to “one” in 2021 by a governor-general’s <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-12/proclamation-australian-national-anthem-signed.pdf">proclamation</a>. And as for “girt”? No, unfortunately, it remains, but it has united Australians in its own special way. We all think it’s odd. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, while focusing on unifying lyrics, we’ve missed a musical problem that’s divided voices since 1878. The note <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_(music)">range</a> of Advance Australia Fair is more than the average Australian will sing accurately. For inexperienced singers, which is most of us, our voices crack with the very disunity the government tried to fix.</p>
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<h2>What is note range?</h2>
<p>The note range of a song is like the number of steps it takes to climb from the lowest to the highest point. If there are too many steps, the average Aussie would rather abandon the sweaty climb and hang out on the ground floor with a cold beer. </p>
<p>The range of Advance Australia Fair is 17 steps (called “semitones”). This is a bigger climb than other nations’ anthems, such as Britain’s 10 semitones in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/God-Save-the-Queen-British-national-anthem">God Save the King</a>, France’s 14 semitones in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/La-Marseillaise">La Marseillaise</a> and New Zealand’s 14 semitones in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/God-Defend-New-Zealand">God Defend New Zealand</a>. At least the Australian anthem is more modest than the Americans’ who, true to reputation, like doing everything bigger. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Star-Spangled-Banner">The Star-Spangled Banner</a> rises 19 semitones, resulting in some <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFIV7gyxvZM">excruciating vocal cracks</a>. </p>
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<p>In theory, most average adult voices should be capable of climbing 17 steps and well beyond. We have the equipment. In practice, however, many inexperienced singers have problems with something called “registers”. </p>
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<h2>Why do registers matter?</h2>
<p>Vocal registers are like gears in a car. We usually sing low steps in first gear, or “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chest_voice">chest voice</a>”. Chest voice is the most familiar and comfortable register because that’s the voice most people use when speaking everyday.</p>
<p>To sing higher, we subconsciously move small muscles in our throat to shift into second gear, or “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_voice">head voice</a>”. </p>
<p>Experienced vocalists spend considerable time developing strength in each register and making the gear change between them smooth and stable. Non-singers may not be not used to holding notes steady in second gear, and end up wobbling, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodeling">yodelling</a> and going <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/out%20of%20tune">out of tune</a>. </p>
<p>Others won’t budge out of first gear, and change the melody instead. Whichever approach we take, it certainly isn’t “unified”.</p>
<h2>Back to school</h2>
<p>Schools are the unofficial training ground for anthems. Weekly assemblies make it the most regular practice session Aussies will ever experience. But those 17 steps don’t help. </p>
<p>Many beginner instrumentalists in school bands can’t play 17 notes in their first year of learning an instrument. Some players can’t do it by their second year either. And aspiring trumpeters? Unless they are the next <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Morrison_(jazz_musician)">James Morrison</a>, hold your breath and cover your ears. </p>
<p>While there’s no rule that an anthem must be playable by children, it might increase our national pride if they could.</p>
<h2>A simple solution</h2>
<p>There is a remarkably simple solution to this musical problem dismembering our anthem – fix the note on the word “and”. Instead of this:</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504543/original/file-20230115-12-at5p6t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504543/original/file-20230115-12-at5p6t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504543/original/file-20230115-12-at5p6t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504543/original/file-20230115-12-at5p6t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504543/original/file-20230115-12-at5p6t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504543/original/file-20230115-12-at5p6t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504543/original/file-20230115-12-at5p6t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>we can use a step already in the song, like this:</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504557/original/file-20230115-20-659oki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504557/original/file-20230115-20-659oki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504557/original/file-20230115-20-659oki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504557/original/file-20230115-20-659oki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504557/original/file-20230115-20-659oki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504557/original/file-20230115-20-659oki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504557/original/file-20230115-20-659oki.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alternatively, if that sounds odd, just substitute the steps from the first two bars like this: </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504556/original/file-20230115-20-s2z61i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504556/original/file-20230115-20-s2z61i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=123&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504556/original/file-20230115-20-s2z61i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=123&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504556/original/file-20230115-20-s2z61i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=123&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504556/original/file-20230115-20-s2z61i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504556/original/file-20230115-20-s2z61i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504556/original/file-20230115-20-s2z61i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both options reduce the range to 14 steps which is singable in one register. If you start the song low, no gear change is required. Now we can sing the anthem <em>and</em> have a cold beer (or a lemonade for the kids). </p>
<p>If a proclamation can fix one word of our anthem for greater unity, then why not fix one note? Then, more everyday Australians could sing it together in unison. And isn’t that the point of an anthem?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Hargreaves does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ‘joyful strains’ of our anthem are often just strained.Wendy Hargreaves, Senior Learning Advisor, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1932222023-01-04T19:20:35Z2023-01-04T19:20:35Z5 tips to take the best care of your voice for everyone who sings, from a speech pathologist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500247/original/file-20221212-91737-p3m533.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5152%2C3445&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The care of your singing voice is crucial to maintain a healthy and long-life voice. </p>
<p>Professional singers often have teams of people keeping their voices healthy, and they have received lots of training in how to take care of their voice.</p>
<p>But everyone who sings – from young students to passionate amateurs – should be taking care of their voice.</p>
<p>If you are a singer, here are five crucial tips to prevent vocal problems. </p>
<h2>1. Keep hydrated</h2>
<p>Hydration is the most important fact to be considered when singing. </p>
<p>When we are dehydrated, the biomechanical properties of our vocal folds are impacted, decreasing our vocal range and increasing the stress on these folds.</p>
<p>Singers who do not hydrate well are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2925668/">at risk</a> of developing voice disorders such as nodules and polyps.</p>
<p>An easy way to stay hydrated is to keep up your water consumption. Singers can complement this by using nebulisers and humidifiers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500221/original/file-20221211-94733-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with her face over a bowl." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500221/original/file-20221211-94733-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500221/original/file-20221211-94733-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500221/original/file-20221211-94733-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500221/original/file-20221211-94733-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500221/original/file-20221211-94733-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500221/original/file-20221211-94733-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500221/original/file-20221211-94733-uu5no9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You can keep your vocal cords hydrated by breathing in steam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Humidifiers balance out dry air caused by heating or air conditioning. </p>
<p>Nebulisers assist with hydration directly. By breathing in a saline water solution or purified water, we can see an immediate influence on our vocal folds. </p>
<p>You don’t need fancy equipment. You can also breathe in steam from boiled water. Make sure to be careful with the temperature, as steam can burn our airway when it is too hot. Pour boiled water into a bowl, wait 5-7 minutes, place a towel over your head and then breathe in as many times as you like. </p>
<h2>2. Warm-up and cool-down your voice</h2>
<p>Vocal warm-up and cool-down exercises are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892199717300176">crucial</a>: these will have a positive benefit on your voice in the moment and prevent future injuries. </p>
<p>An easy warm-up you can try only requires a straw. With a straw between your lips into the air or a cup of water, make a “u” sound. Working for five minutes, change the pitch and frequency of making this sound. The added resistance of singing through a straw will give your vocal folds a good work out.</p>
<p>You can also add resistance by speaking or singing into a CPR mask.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500564/original/file-20221212-304-26wei2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A CPR mask" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500564/original/file-20221212-304-26wei2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500564/original/file-20221212-304-26wei2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500564/original/file-20221212-304-26wei2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500564/original/file-20221212-304-26wei2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500564/original/file-20221212-304-26wei2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500564/original/file-20221212-304-26wei2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500564/original/file-20221212-304-26wei2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Add resistance by singing through a CRP mask.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other exercises don’t require these materials. You can try lips or tongue trills, humming and blowing raspberries. </p>
<p>While there are many internet tutorials on how to do these exercises, I suggest you practise under professional supervision to avoid damaging your voice by going beyond your vocal limits. </p>
<h2>3. Watch your lifestyle factors</h2>
<p>Lifestyle is fundamental when taking care of our voices.</p>
<p>In order to avoid injuries or develop any voice disorders, we should monitor external factors such as maintaining <a href="https://wp.stolaf.edu/musician-health/nutrition-eating-and-singing/">a balanced diet</a>, having <a href="https://wp.stolaf.edu/musician-health/resting-your-voice/">periods of rest</a> and reducing the consumption of <a href="https://tobaccofreelife.org/resources/smoking-singing/">cigarettes</a>, <a href="https://www.openmicuk.co.uk/advice/alcohol-and-singers/">alcohol</a>, <a href="https://www.openmicuk.co.uk/advice/how-much-can-recreational-drugs-affect-singing/">drugs</a>, <a href="https://www.openmicuk.co.uk/advice/is-coffee-good-or-bad-for-singers/">caffeine</a> and <a href="https://www.openmicuk.co.uk/advice/are-fizzy-drinks-good-or-bad-for-singers/">soft drinks</a>. </p>
<p>By changing these habits, you can preserve good vocal health and keep your body running properly. You can also guard against developing reflux. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500241/original/file-20221211-95362-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman drinks a cola." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500241/original/file-20221211-95362-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500241/original/file-20221211-95362-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500241/original/file-20221211-95362-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500241/original/file-20221211-95362-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500241/original/file-20221211-95362-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500241/original/file-20221211-95362-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500241/original/file-20221211-95362-4pofku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drinking soft drinks can negatively impact your voice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reflux occurs when acids from your stomach travel back up your throat. Symptoms include a burning sensation in your chest (heartburn), backwash (regurgitation) of food or sour liquid, upper abdominal or chest pain, trouble swallowing (dysphagia) or a sensation of a lump in your throat. </p>
<p>This stomach acid can <a href="http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/docs/per/diet-tips-for-gastroesophageal-reflux-disease-gerd/handout_view_patient/@@getDocument">dry and irritate</a> your vocal folds. </p>
<p>If you do experience any of these symptoms, keep up your water intake, try to avoid lying down for at least two to three hours after a meal and keep your head elevated using an extra pillow or two while you sleep. </p>
<p>If these symptoms persist, visit your doctor for further examination. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-gastric-reflux-18791">Explainer: what is gastric reflux?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Listen to your body</h2>
<p>Sometimes our body sends signals when struggling. We should pay close attention to what our bodies are telling us.</p>
<p>Negative warning signs can include a reduced tonal range, constant throat clearing, vocal fatigue, pain during or after singing or talking, mild or moderate abdominal tension, unstable voice, pitch breaks, difficulty singing or speaking softly. </p>
<p>Speaking or singing should not present with any negative symptoms or conditions. </p>
<p>It’s important to note home remedies like tea with honey, lemon and ginger, and gargles with salty water – or even alcohol – <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-actually-fix-a-lost-voice-according-to-science-hint-lemon-and-honey-doesnt-work-158230">do not</a> fix your voice. These will go directly to the oesophagus and will not have any effect on your vocal folds.</p>
<p>If you are experiencing symptoms like these, pay more attention to things like your warm up, your cool down, periods of rest and your levels of hydration. If they persist, visit a doctor or a speech pathologist.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-actually-fix-a-lost-voice-according-to-science-hint-lemon-and-honey-doesnt-work-158230">How to actually fix a lost voice, according to science (hint: lemon and honey doesn't work)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. See a professional</h2>
<p>Don’t try and push through any pain or difficulties you are facing.</p>
<p>When facing any vocal difficulty, you should visit an ear, nose and throat doctor (ENT) or a speech pathologist. </p>
<p>An ENT can check your larynx and other structures to make sure you do not have any organic or functional disorders impacting your voice.</p>
<p>If you would like to practise new techniques – like belting or voice distortions – consult with voice specialists like speech pathologists, vocal coaches or music teachers who are experts on these areas. </p>
<p>Last but not least, check your voice with professionals once a year. This will help with the prevention of future injuries and help you maintain a healthy voice. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/keeping-injured-voices-hush-hush-why-professional-singers-and-actors-often-dont-seek-treatment-for-vocal-illness-183330">Keeping injured voices hush-hush: Why professional singers and actors often don’t seek treatment for vocal illness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra Rojas is affiliated with Universidad San Sebastián, Santiago, Chile. </span></em></p>Everyone who sings – from young students to passionate amateurs – should be taking care of their voice.Sandra Rojas, Speech pathologist, Voice specialist, Researcher, Federation University AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1938552022-12-15T19:06:58Z2022-12-15T19:06:58Z‘Tis the season to be jolly: singing Christmas carols together isn’t just a tradition, it’s also good for you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497796/original/file-20221128-20-tti4co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5105%2C3411&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a December night 50 years ago, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401">Eastern Airlines Flight 401</a> crashed in the Everglades, Florida. Miraculously, 77 people survived the initial impact but then endured a traumatic wait for rescue in the alligator infested swamp, surrounded by wreckage and jet fuel. </p>
<p>To lift their spirits, they sang Christmas carols.</p>
<p>What drove these survivors to sing in such distressing conditions? What is it about group singing that has the remarkable ability to bring people together, express deep emotions, and feel connected with each other?</p>
<h2>United in song</h2>
<p>It’s no coincidence that shared moments in life are often accompanied by singing together. As a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215036620303849">leisure activity</a>, group singing engages many beneficial biological, psychological, behavioural and social processes. </p>
<p>For example, when we sing, we consciously manage our breathing, unlike when we speak or are at rest. Managing our breathing during singing affects <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heart-rate-variability-new-way-track-well-2017112212789">heart rate variability</a>, and <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0024893">research demonstrates</a> group singing can synchronise singers’ heart beats and breathing patterns. To borrow a line from a <a href="https://youtu.be/RClNXmxk498">well-known song</a>, when we sing in a group it is as if “our hearts, they beat as one”. </p>
<p>This physiological synchronisation may partly explain some of the positive subjective effects of group singing such as bonding and social connection. Singing together <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03057356211042668">increases the feel-good hormone oxytocin and improves mood</a>, helping us to bond with our fellow singers as we <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00549-0">“perform” healthy relationships</a>. </p>
<p>Group singing also has <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.713818/full">psychosocial benefits</a> for people living with a range of health conditions. Such benefits include building resilience, enhancing mood, creating a sense of belonging and purpose, improving quality of life, and promoting flourishing and wellbeing. Research shows that group singing can improve individual and social wellbeing for <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13607863.2020.1720599">people with Parkinson’s</a> and their <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0305735620944230">caregivers</a>, mothers with <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/effect-of-singing-interventions-on-symptoms-of-postnataldepression-threearm-randomised-controlled-trial/534122E539704BAEAC0824F9FCACC5A8">post-natal depression</a> and <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/1/e023261">people living with cancer</a>, to name just a few examples. </p>
<p>While many of us think of singing as a performance, these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913917740391">studies suggest</a> that <a href="https://theconversation.com/flow-state-exercise-and-healthy-ageing-5-unexpected-benefits-of-singing-180415">singing is a feel-good activity</a> available to anyone willing to try it. Thought of in this way, singing is no longer about <a href="https://doi.org/10.56307/VRXQ8982">“sounding good”</a> but becomes a widely available and easily accessible tool for building wellbeing and belonging.</p>
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<h2>The origins of carolling</h2>
<p>The Christmas tradition of singing together to feel uplifted has existed for centuries. English historian <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Ronald-Hutton-3db1ba2d-46a5-4387-8705-a6a3091b14ac/">Professor Ronald Hutton</a> traced the <a href="https://soundcloud.com/englishheritage/episode-39-a-festive-special-christmas-carols-at-bolsover-castle">origins of carolling</a> to the followers of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Francis-of-Assisi">Saint Francis of Assisi</a> in the 15th century. Prompted by a need to raise spirits during long, bleak winter months, these friars sang the first Christmas carols while holding hands and dancing in a circle.</p>
<p>The spread of carols expanded during <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">The Reformation</a> in the 16th century with the replacement of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_Latin">Latin text in church music</a> with language spoken by everyday people. This helped bring carols into church services, allowing everybody to join in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregational_singing">congregational singing</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497823/original/file-20221129-20-5go8pk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497823/original/file-20221129-20-5go8pk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497823/original/file-20221129-20-5go8pk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497823/original/file-20221129-20-5go8pk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497823/original/file-20221129-20-5go8pk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497823/original/file-20221129-20-5go8pk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497823/original/file-20221129-20-5go8pk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497823/original/file-20221129-20-5go8pk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Carols by Lytras Nikiphoros (1872)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 20th century, community carol singing took yet another form that led to one of Australia’s favourite Christmas traditions. While walking home on Christmas eve in 1937, Melbourne radio announcer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Banks_(broadcaster)">Norman Banks</a> saw an elderly woman through a window. She sat alone in candlelight singing with her radio to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_in_a_Manger">Away in a Manager</a>. </p>
<p>It inspired him to create the first <a href="https://theconversation.com/carols-by-candlelight-defines-the-aussie-christmas-on-the-couch-34294">Carols by Candlelight</a> to help lonely people share in the joy of Christmas time. In 1938, 10 000 people gathered for the inaugural celebration. Since then, community carol singing events have expanded across Australia and involved some of our most notable Australian vocalists, including recently lost legends <a href="https://theconversation.com/pop-icon-olivia-newton-john-was-the-rare-performer-whose-career-flourished-through-different-phases-188428">Olivia Newton-John</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-judith-durham-the-cuddly-aussie-girl-next-door-whose-soaring-voice-found-international-fame-188343">Judith Durham</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/carols-by-candlelight-defines-the-aussie-christmas-on-the-couch-34294">Carols by Candlelight defines the Aussie Christmas on the couch</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Singing in person</h2>
<p>As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, community connection and comfort are needed more than ever. <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-11-27/covid-19-singing-choir-risk-safety-community/100630780">Group singing suffered</a> during the pandemic.</p>
<p>Lockdowns prevented groups world wide from meeting, with many resorting to virtual sessions in place of face-to-face gatherings. <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.646292/full">Recent research</a> shows that while singing with others over Zoom is better than not singing at all, the psychological benefits may not be quite the same as singing in person.</p>
<p>On the plus side, the uncertainty around in person group singing spawned some wonderful online events like <a href="https://www.couchchoir.com/">Couch Choir</a> and <a href="https://www.thesofasingers.com/">The Sofa Singers</a>. Others saw the humorous side, with a satirical call to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvLjYyZ6wtU">ban plosive consonants</a> like “p” and “b” because they increased the risk of spread <strong>of Covid?</strong>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WvLjYyZ6wtU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>What’s really under the Christmas tree?</h2>
<p>While new variants of COVID continue to proliferate, you don’t need to sing with thousands of others in a park at Christmas to reap the many benefits of group singing.</p>
<p>This Christmas – or whatever you celebrate – why not take the opportunity with friends and family to dust off some favourite songs to experience the positive effects of belonging and sharing with others. </p>
<p>When you sing together, what you really get for Christmas isn’t just more socks or the latest techno gadget – it’s the real gift of joyful human connection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193855/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When you sing together, what you really get for Christmas isn’t just more socks or the latest techno gadget – it’s the real gift of joyful human connection.Wendy Hargreaves, Senior Learning Advisor, University of Southern QueenslandMelissa Forbes, Associate Professor in Contemporary Singing, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1852852022-10-10T12:23:18Z2022-10-10T12:23:18ZWho invented music? The search for stone flutes, clay whistles and the dawn of song<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477916/original/file-20220805-32086-2pgf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C10000%2C5000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Something people today have in common with civilizations past: a love of music.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/stone-statue-head-wearing-headphones-in-remote-royalty-free-image/1270407005?adppopup=true">peepo/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Who invented music? – Rom, age 7, Las Vegas, Nevada</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>The short answer is: No one knows who invented music.</p>
<p>No historical evidence exists to tell us exactly who sang the first song, or whistled the first tune, or made the first rhythmic sounds that resembled what we know today as music. </p>
<p>But researchers do know it happened thousands of years ago. The earliest civilizations throughout Africa, Europe and Asia had music. Back then, many believed it was a divine creation, a gift from the gods. </p>
<p>Indeed, gods and goddesses from many religions and mythologies are associated with music. Stories and works of art tell us that the African god Àyàn <a href="https://news.clas.ufl.edu/ede-yan-the-language-of-yan-in-yoruba-art-and-ritual-of-egungun/">was a drummer</a>; the Greek god Apollo <a href="https://www.hellenicgods.org/the-lyre-of-apollo">played the lyre</a>, a string instrument. In the Book of Genesis, Jubal – a descendant of Adam – is identified as the <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/GEN.4.21">father of the harp and flute</a>. </p>
<p>Scientists will probably never be able to credit one person, or even a group of people, with music’s invention. <a href="https://arts.ufl.edu/directory/profile/150177">But as a musicologist</a> – that’s someone who studies the history of music – I’ve seen <a href="https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-musical-instruments-from-ur-and-ancient-mesopotamian-music/">many artifacts and much evidence</a> that can help us understand how and why the ancients played music. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477914/original/file-20220805-35296-n38306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustration, based on ancient Greek literature, depicting a man weeping as another man nearby plays the harp." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477914/original/file-20220805-35296-n38306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477914/original/file-20220805-35296-n38306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477914/original/file-20220805-35296-n38306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477914/original/file-20220805-35296-n38306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477914/original/file-20220805-35296-n38306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477914/original/file-20220805-35296-n38306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477914/original/file-20220805-35296-n38306.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ulysses weeps as he listens to the songs of Demodocus, the blind musician. From ‘Stories From Homer’ by the Rev. Alfred J. Church, M.A.; illustrations from designs by John Flaxman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/ulysses-weeps-at-the-song-of-demodocus-royalty-free-illustration/537534415?adppopup=true">whitemay/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Singing</h2>
<p>Some scholars say singing was <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-musical-self/201209/which-came-first-music-or-language">the first kind of musical sound</a>. Not that people back then were crooning full-length songs. Instead, they made simpler vocal sounds – perhaps just a few notes put together. If that’s true, perhaps early humans began to speak and sing at about the same time. </p>
<p>Why did they sing? Maybe they had an impulse to imitate something beautiful, like bird sounds. Vocal imitations of other animal sounds, however, may have been used for hunting, like a modern-day duck call. </p>
<p>It’s also possible singing was a way to communicate with infants and toddlers, like early versions of lullabies. But again, people were not singing complete melodies or songs; our modern lullabies – like “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVLDi-FFjVo">Rock-a-bye Baby</a>” – took centuries to develop. </p>
<p>Singing in Catholic churches throughout Europe during the Middle Ages is well documented. At first there was only a single vocal melody, sung either by a soloist or a small group of male clergy. Nuns also learned to sing in convents. Later, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/polyphony-music">polyphony became increasingly common</a> – when two, three or four voices would each sing different melodies, adding to the complexity of the sound. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477917/original/file-20220805-35905-p8ackr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A set of bronze bells on display." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477917/original/file-20220805-35905-p8ackr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477917/original/file-20220805-35905-p8ackr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477917/original/file-20220805-35905-p8ackr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477917/original/file-20220805-35905-p8ackr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477917/original/file-20220805-35905-p8ackr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477917/original/file-20220805-35905-p8ackr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477917/original/file-20220805-35905-p8ackr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bianzhong, a set of bronze bells, is a Chinese musical instrument that may be more than 3,000 years old. The bells were used as part of China’s ritual and court music.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/chinese-bianzhong-in-hangzhou-confucius-temple-royalty-free-image/591468205?adppopup=true">xia yuan/Moment Open/via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Instruments</h2>
<p>Archaeologists have helped musicologists learn about <a href="https://www.imagininghistory.co.uk/post/stone-age-musical-instruments">ancient musical instruments</a> from the artifacts they’ve uncovered. For example, they have found flutes and whistles made of bone, pottery and stone. </p>
<p>The archaeologists used a process known as <a href="https://kids.kiddle.co/Radiocarbon_dating">carbon-14 dating</a> to find out how old the bone instruments were. All living organisms – animals, plants and people – have some carbon-14 in them; when they die, the amount of carbon-14 decreases, little by little, over years, decades and centuries. </p>
<p>When the scientists measured how much carbon-14 was left in the flutes – which were made from the bones of large birds – they discovered some of the instruments were more than 30,000 years old!</p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Japanese-music">In Japan</a>, some ancient whistles and rattles, made of stone or clay, are about 6,000 years old. Through their small blowholes, these instruments created high, shrill tones. Those using them may have thought the sounds were somehow magical, and it’s possible they played them during religious rituals. Some of those stone whistles can still make sounds. </p>
<p>In China, pottery bells, which may be the ancestors to bronze bells, appeared at least 4,000 years ago. <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Music/">In Greece</a>, instruments like the krotola, a set of hollow blocks bound with leather, were played 2,500 years ago. The Greeks also used finger cymbals and frame drums – similar to the kind you might use at school. </p>
<p>Musical instruments could also be associated with different types of people. Shepherds played the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Panpipes/">syrinx</a>, a whistlelike instrument, known today as the pan flute. It was a simple instrument that was easy to take into the fields. <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Aulos/">The aulos</a> was a more sophisticated woodwind instrument consisting of two pipes. Because it took more skill to play the aulos, you would need training from a teacher – or perhaps, if you were wealthy, you could just hire experienced musicians to play for you. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477912/original/file-20220805-26-ozsexd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white image of women playing musical instruments." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477912/original/file-20220805-26-ozsexd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477912/original/file-20220805-26-ozsexd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477912/original/file-20220805-26-ozsexd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477912/original/file-20220805-26-ozsexd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477912/original/file-20220805-26-ozsexd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477912/original/file-20220805-26-ozsexd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477912/original/file-20220805-26-ozsexd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image shows three women in ancient Greece playing musical instruments. The women on the left and right are playing the lyre. The one in the middle is playing the aulos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/antique-illustration-of-ancient-greek-women-royalty-free-illustration/512729818?adppopup=true">ilbusca/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Manuscripts and artwork</h2>
<p>In Africa, 4,000-year-old rock paintings and engravings found in Egyptian tombs show musicians playing what appear to be harps. </p>
<p>Greek pottery <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/grmu/hd_grmu.htm">often depicts musical scenes</a>; these images often appeared on vases and urns. The settings, though, are often unclear. Whether the musicians were part of a festival or celebration, or simply playing for their own entertainment, is not always known.</p>
<p>Handmade medieval manuscripts also provide clues. Illustrations with ink, and sometimes gold leaf, often show musicians playing an instrument. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484399/original/file-20220913-4826-lb5wj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Artwork of a musician from the Middle Ages dressed in green and yellow garb playing a harp." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484399/original/file-20220913-4826-lb5wj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484399/original/file-20220913-4826-lb5wj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484399/original/file-20220913-4826-lb5wj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484399/original/file-20220913-4826-lb5wj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484399/original/file-20220913-4826-lb5wj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484399/original/file-20220913-4826-lb5wj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484399/original/file-20220913-4826-lb5wj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1139&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A reproduction of a 12th-century parchment depicts a wandering minstrel playing the harp for two soldiers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/morolf-as-spielmann-12th-century-facsimile-royalty-free-illustration/1202241555?adppopup=true">ZU_09/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A world without music</h2>
<p>Can you imagine living today without music? I can’t. Not only does it entertain and enthrall, it allows us to communicate emotions. Music helps us celebrate joyful events and consoles us when we’re sad or in pain. Certainly, ancient music made its listeners feel powerful emotions, just as music throughout this century and beyond will do the same. Think for a moment what music in the 22nd century might sound like. And who knows? Maybe – in about 78 years – you’ll find out. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An oldie but goodie, first played more than 3,400 years ago.</span></figcaption>
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<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185285/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose.</span></em></p>For thousands of years, music has been an essential part of the human experience.Laura Dallman, Lecturer in Music History, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1883632022-09-27T20:10:04Z2022-09-27T20:10:04Z‘Prima donna in pigtails’: how Julie Andrews the child star embodied the hopes of post-war Britain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486420/original/file-20220926-57491-hqtm9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C10%2C3463%2C2539&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In June, the American Film Institute presented its 48th Life Achievement Award, the highest honour in American cinema, to the beloved stage-and-screen star <a href="https://www.afi.com/laa/julie-andrews/">Julie Andrews</a>. </p>
<p>On conferring the award, the AFI praised Andrews as “a legendary actress” who “has enchanted and delighted audiences around the world with her uplifting and inspiring body of work”.</p>
<p>As anyone who has seen Mary Poppins (1964) or The Sound of Music (1965) can attest, “uplift” is central to the <a href="https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/female-glamour-and-star-power/andrews/">Julie Andrews screen persona</a>. </p>
<p>It is a sweetness-and-light image that is easy to lampoon. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BZtTQSbl-nw/?hl=en">Andrews herself</a> is alleged to have quipped “sometimes I’m so sweet even I can’t stand it”. But it’s an element of feel-good edification that fuels much of the star’s iconic appeal. </p>
<p>The idea of Julie Andrews as a figure of uplift has a long history. </p>
<p>Decades before she attained global film stardom in Hollywood, Andrews enjoyed an early career as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392397.2022.2109303">a child performer</a>. </p>
<p>Billed as “Britain’s youngest singing star”, she performed widely on the postwar concert and variety circuit with forays into radio, gramophone recording and even early television. </p>
<p>Possessing a precociously mature soprano voice, Andrews was widely promoted in the era as a <a href="https://paralleljulieverse.tumblr.com/post/63601790519/julies-status-as-a-juvenile-prodigy-possessed">child prodigy</a>. A 1945 BBC talent report filed when the young singer was just nine years old enthused over “this wonderful child discovery” whose “breath control, diction, and range is quite extraordinary for so young a child”. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-austrians-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-sound-of-music-38137">How Austrians learned to stop worrying and love The Sound of Music</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<h2>‘Infant prodigy of trills’</h2>
<p>Andrews made her professional West End debut in 1947 where she dazzled audiences with a coloratura performance of the Polonaise from Mignon. Newspapers were ablaze with stories about the “12-year-old singing prodigy with the phenomenal voice”. </p>
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<p>Reports claimed the pint-sized singer had a vocal range of over four octaves, a fully formed adult larynx and an upper <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle_register">whistle register</a> so high dogs would be beckoned whenever she sang. </p>
<p>On the back of such stories, Andrews was given a slew of lionising monikers: “prima donna in pigtails”, “infant prodigy of trills”, “the miracle voice” and “Britain’s juvenile coloratura”.</p>
<p>While much of it was PR hype, the representation of Andrews as an extraordinary musical prodigy resonated deeply with postwar British audiences. The devastation of the war cast <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK436946/">a long shadow</a>, and there was a keen sense a collective social rejuvenation was needed to reestablish national wellbeing. </p>
<p>The figure of the child was pivotal to the rhetoric of postwar British reconstruction. From political calls for <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0363199020945746">expanded child welfare</a> to the era’s booming <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30036327">family-oriented consumerism</a>, images of children saturated the cultural landscape, serving as a lightning rod for both <a href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/growing-up-in-the-second-world-war">social anxieties and hopes</a>. </p>
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<p>In her status as “Britain’s youngest singing star”, Andrews chimed with these postwar discourses of child-oriented renewal. </p>
<p>A popular myth even traced her prodigious talent to the very heart of the Blitz. Like a scene from a morale-boosting melodrama, the story claimed the young Andrews was huddled one night with family and friends in a Beckenham air raid shelter. In the middle of a communal singalong, a powerful voice suddenly materialised out of her tiny frame, astonishing all into silent delight.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/child-stars-the-power-and-the-price-of-cuteness-189444">Child stars: The power and the price of cuteness</a>
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</em>
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<h2>‘Our Julie’</h2>
<p>One of the most pointed alignments of Andrews’ juvenile stardom with a discourse of postwar British nationalism came with her appearance at the <a href="https://www.royalvarietycharity.org/royal-variety-performance/archive/detail/1948-london-palladium-">1948 Royal Command Variety Performance</a>. </p>
<p>Appearing just two weeks after her 13th birthday, Andrews was the youngest artist ever to participate in the annual event. It generated considerable media coverage and yet another grand nickname: “command singer in pigtails”. </p>
<p>Andrews performed a solo set at the event, and was also charged with leading the national anthem at the close.</p>
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<p>Ideals of restorative nationalism shaped Andrews’ child stardom in other ways. </p>
<p>Much of her early repertoire was markedly British, drawn from the English classical canon and rounded out by traditional folk songs. </p>
<p>Press reports emphasised, for all her remarkable talent, “our Julie” was still a typical English girl thoroughly unspoiled by fame. In accompanying images she would appear in idyllic scenarios of classic English childhood: playing with dolls, riding her bicycle, doing her homework.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, commentary was rife with speculations about Andrews’ prospects as “the next <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelina_Patti">Adelina Patti</a>” or “future <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Pons">Lily Pons</a>”. The mix of nostalgia and hope helped make the young Andrews a reassuring figure in the anxious landscape of postwar Britain. </p>
<h2>All grown up</h2>
<p>Little prodigies can’t remain little forever. There lies the troubled rub for many child stars, doomed by biology to lose their principal claim to fame. </p>
<p>In Andrews’ case, she was able to make the successful transition to adult stardom – and even greater fame – by moving country and professional register into the American stage and screen musical. </p>
<p>Still, the themes of therapeutic uplift that defined her early child stardom would follow Julie Andrews as she graduated to become the world’s favourite singing nanny.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brett Farmer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today she is most recognised for roles in Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music, but Julie Andrews made her professional West End debut at the age of 12.Brett Farmer, Lecturer in Film, Media and Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1864572022-07-18T13:56:19Z2022-07-18T13:56:19ZIn defence of the remix: Olivia Rodrigo’s promotional TikToks are relatable Gen Z self-branding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473402/original/file-20220711-16-2e19if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C181%2C8588%2C4759&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Olivia Rodrigo performs at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Scott Garfitt)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After rising to fame as a Disney star, Olivia Rodrigo broke the Internet. In January 2021, while recording music for her now-platinum debut album, <em>SOUR</em>, Rodrigo took to TikTok to promote her first single, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmDBbnmKpqQ">drivers license</a>.” The track received <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/arts/music/olivia-rodrigo-drivers-license.html">76 million streams</a> in its first week, breaking several global records. </p>
<p>The 19-year-old Grammy-winner has been candid about <a href="https://www.nylon.com/entertainment/olivia-rodrigo-it-girl-february-2021">how she takes cues</a> from her musical influences. But another <em>SOUR</em> single, “good 4 u,” was compared for its similarities to pop-punk band Paramore’s hit “Misery Business.” </p>
<p>While Rodrigo eventually granted Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Josh Farro <a href="https://variety.com/2021/music/news/olivia-rodrigo-paramore-good-4-u-misery-business-1235048791/">songwriting credits</a> in August 2021, critics, fans and trolls alike asked: If Rodrigo is <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22556340/olivia-rodrigo-plagiarism-originality-copy-art">not original</a>, what makes her stand out?</p>
<p>Rodrigo’s brilliance lies in her use of TikTok as a tool to present her celebrity image as authentic to a young, global audience. Her use of social media self-branding to remix already existing ideas, sounds and texts in fresh, new ways is what makes her and other young artists and creators shine.</p>
<h2>TikTok and authentic self-branding</h2>
<p>Released in 2018, TikTok is a social media platform that prioritizes short-form multimodal videos combining text, image and sound. Users restyle, remix and re-present already-circulating content, creating what media researchers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1461444820983603">Diana Zulli and David J. Zulli</a> call digital imitation publics. </p>
<p>The platform is popular among younger users – <a href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/weekly-usage-of-tiktok-surpasses-instagram-among-us-gen-z-youth/">particularly those in Gen Z</a>.</p>
<p>After releasing “drivers license,” Rodrigo proceeded to post a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@livbedumb/video/6915631405984763141?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en">now-viral TikTok</a> asking followers to stream her track. The video features the song and a series of video vignettes explaining its significance. </p>
<p>Using TikTok’s green screen feature, Rodrigo appears before a picture of her driver’s license as the track plays. Next, a text block appears: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I posted this photo on Instagram saying how i was super excited to drive alone through the suburbs crying lol … thought the experience might make a good song.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman poses on the red carpet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473404/original/file-20220711-14-2ndt4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473404/original/file-20220711-14-2ndt4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473404/original/file-20220711-14-2ndt4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473404/original/file-20220711-14-2ndt4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473404/original/file-20220711-14-2ndt4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473404/original/file-20220711-14-2ndt4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473404/original/file-20220711-14-2ndt4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Olivia Rodrigo attends the 2022 BRIT Awards at the O2 Arena in London, England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rodrigo takes on the tactics of other Gen Z TikTok creators in this promotional content. Through her playful use of TikTok’s innovative features, such as <a href="https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/green-screen-effect-on-tik-tok/">green screen</a> and <a href="https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/creating-videos/duets">duets</a>, Rodrigo appears relatable to her fans and followers. </p>
<h2>Parody, promotion and play</h2>
<p>Akin to Rodrigo’s <em>SOUR</em>, viral content on TikTok is not necessarily “original.” It is instead an imitation or restyling that adds to an ongoing conversation. </p>
<p>Referencing postmodern philosophers <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-postmodern-condition">Jean-François Lyotard</a> and <a href="https://web.education.wisc.edu/halverson/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2012/12/jameson.pdf">Frederic Jameson</a>, philosopher <a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820315317/an-introductory-guide-to-post-structuralism-and-postmodernism/">Madan Sarup</a> names pastiche as a form of parody that playfully teases the boundaries between art and life. </p>
<p>Pastiche challenges the dominant cultural conversations through finding new ways to remake old ideas — just like Rodrigo’s music and promotional TikToks. </p>
<p>TikTok welcomes imitation as a form of innovation. As media scholar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1367549420945341">Melanie Kennedy</a> explains, repetition is key to going viral on TikTok. For example, U.S.-based creator <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/03/mel-sommers-tiktok-drivers-license-olivia-rodrigo/">Mel Sommers</a> shared her interpretation of Rodrigo’s TikTok, the “drivers license challenge.” </p>
<p>The challenge consists of two videos stitched together as a clip of “drivers license” plays along. In the first video, Sommers lip-syncs along to the song’s chorus wearing no makeup and a sweatshirt. As the sound transitions to the bridge, she makes eye contact with the camera and falls backwards. This is immediately stitched with <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/pop-culture/glow-up">a second “glow up” video</a> as Sommers is shown lying on her bed in a fancy dress as the bridge plays.</p>
<p>Sommers’ <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@spoiledmel/video/6915489539767225606?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en">original video</a> accumulated 1.4 million views and inspired countless remakes by other users. </p>
<p>The challenge ultimately facilitated new readings of “drivers license” while promoting Rodrigo’s music further. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman sings on stage wearing a purple outfit" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473405/original/file-20220711-18-86uty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473405/original/file-20220711-18-86uty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473405/original/file-20220711-18-86uty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473405/original/file-20220711-18-86uty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473405/original/file-20220711-18-86uty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473405/original/file-20220711-18-86uty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473405/original/file-20220711-18-86uty4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Olivia Rodrigo performs at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England, on June 25, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Scott Garfitt)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rodrigo and the remix</h2>
<p>Rodrigo approaches her music as a composition of pop stars past, similar to how TikTok’s features encourage restyling already popular content. The “<a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/features/olivia-rodrigo-billboard-woman-of-the-year-2022-interview-1235034016/">once-in-a-generation songwriter</a>” shared her thoughts on music and originality with <a href="https://www.nylon.com/entertainment/olivia-rodrigo-it-girl-february-2021"><em>Nylon</em></a> in 2021: “… I’m going to try and take all of my … influences and inspirations … and make something … I like.” </p>
<p>Rodrigo and other Gen Z creators curate their celebrity image by mixing content and social media presence as a combined entity. Rodrigo’s promotional TikTok content centres on how she takes on existing concepts through remix and play. </p>
<p>Through stitches, duets and green screens, Rodrigo showcases the postmodern appeal of today’s popular music: a fresh face returning to the beats and lyrics of a previous generation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Rauchberg received funding from the Smart Mobility in Aging Populations Fellowship, sponsored by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council and McMaster University.</span></em></p>Through stitches, duets and green screens, Olivia Rodrigo showcases the postmodern appeal of today’s popular musicJess Rauchberg, Doctoral Candidate, Communication Studies and Media Arts, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1833302022-06-13T20:36:13Z2022-06-13T20:36:13ZKeeping injured voices hush-hush: Why professional singers and actors often don’t seek treatment for vocal illness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468268/original/file-20220610-39156-3lbq01.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=426%2C93%2C4702%2C3352&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Because of the demanding ways in which they use their voices, performers have increased risks of voice injuries. Canadian singer Michael Bublé underwent vocal cord surgery in 2016.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Professional singers and actors are at higher risks of vocal injury. Performing artists need to master their voices in a sophisticated way to meet the esthetic demands of their work. Most people may not pay much attention to their own voices, but for performing artists, any minor changes in their voice can prevent them from working and can seriously disrupt their life and career. </p>
<p>One common form of voice disorders are <a href="http://www.otolaryngology.pitt.edu/centers-excellence/voice-center/conditions-we-treat/benign-vocal-fold-lesions">benign vocal fold lesions</a>, such as nodules and polyps. Affected individuals may experience voice breaks and difficulty in singing high notes, for instance.</p>
<p>Among professional singers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2017.02.010">about 46 per cent</a> reported having a history with voice disorders, compared to 18 per cent of the general population. For those in their early training, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2013.05.006">almost 60 per cent</a> of students in drama acting showed clinical signs of vocal dysfunctions. </p>
<p>At the <a href="http://voice.lab.mcgill.ca/">Voice and Upper Airway Research Lab</a> at McGill University, we study a broad range of upper airway and laryngeal health conditions using computational models and cell cultures as well as human studies. In the Canadian health-care system, the medical specialists who manage patients with <a href="https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/voice-disorders/">voice disorders</a> include <a href="https://www.entcanada.org/">ear, nose and throat doctors</a> (ENTs, also known as otolaryngologists) and <a href="https://www.sac-oac.ca/public/what-do-speech-language-pathologists-do">speech-language pathologists</a>. </p>
<h2>Stigma and vocal health</h2>
<p>Stigma is a social phenomenon whereby individuals are marked as different, enabling discrimination and inequality. <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/addressing-stigma-what-we-heard/stigma-eng.pdf">Stigma around a medical condition</a> often makes the condition worse because of the stress it causes. Additionally, people who experience a health-related stigma are often reluctant to seek professional medical help. For example, individuals with <a href="https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/what-we-do/stigma-and-discrimination/">mental illnesses</a> like depression and addiction are less likely to seek counselling because of the stigma around those conditions. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustrations of normal vocal cords, vocal cords with benign nodules and with benign polyps." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468311/original/file-20220610-47314-am4w3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A top view of healthy vocal folds and benign vocal fold lesions (nodules and polyps).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, voice disorders also carry a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/jun/06/the-silent-treatment-singer-sarah-louise-young-losing-voice">stigma among performing artists</a>. This has made performers hesitate to seek proper and timely medical help. <a href="https://broadwaynews.com/2019/09/19/speaking-out-about-vocal-injuries-on-broadway/">Broadway singers have reportedly preferred not to disclose</a> that they have had a voice disorder because it could damage their career prospects. </p>
<p>In addition to these external pressures, performers blame themselves for their vocal health issues, believing they are the sign of an unskilled performer. In truth, even <a href="https://www.ohniww.org/category/celebrity-voice-issues/">highly skilled and successful artists can have voice disorders</a>. However, the scientific evidence for vocal stigma is mostly anecdotal. </p>
<p>For a master’s thesis project conducted at our lab, we wanted to find out how vocal stigma might affect Canadian performers. Specifically,</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do professional Canadian singers and actors experience stigma around voice disorders?</p></li>
<li><p>If so, are performers less likely to seek medical help when they experience vocal stigma?</p></li>
<li><p>Who is likely to experience vocal stigma most strongly?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>An online survey of vocal stigma was designed to answer these questions. With the help of the <a href="https://www.nats.org/">National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS)</a> and the <a href="https://www.actra.ca/">Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)</a>, 200 Canadian singers and actors ages 21 to 65 were recruited to complete the 64-item survey. An additional 200 Canadians, who did not have any experience in the performance industry, were also recruited to complete the same online survey as study controls. </p>
<h2>Vocal stigma affects Canadian performers</h2>
<p>Overall, Canadian performers experienced about 15 per cent more vocal stigma than the study controls. Performers also showed less motivation and intention to seek help from health professions if they had vocal illness. </p>
<p>The study also found that younger performers and those with previous voice disorders tended to experience more vocal stigma. It is likely that artists’ reputations are more vulnerable in their early careers and that people who haven’t had a voice disorder are less aware of vocal stigma. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man standing up with a music stand behind him, and another man sitting down and looking at him" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468313/original/file-20220610-43722-wjou46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrations of vocal coaching were part of the public information events at McGill’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders for World Voice Day on April 16.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University; Photo Fund)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our study also found that vocal stigma was characterized more by external pressures than by internal beliefs like self-blame in Canadian performers. Performers feared losing both current and future work if employers found out they have had a voice disorder. </p>
<p>The ensuing economic pressure can be compounded by challenges in accessing specialized vocal health services, including <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/waiting-your-turn-2021.pdf">long wait times for public ENT clinics</a> and <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/private-cost-public-queues-medically-necessary-care-2019.pdf">the high cost of private alternatives</a>. </p>
<h2>Possible solutions for breaking vocal stigma</h2>
<p>Like other stigmas, vocal stigma is a complex issue without a one-size-fits-all solution. Education and outreach from voice health experts could form part of the solution, with the potential to both reduce vocal stigma and help performers protect their voices. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person out of frame holds a model of the larynx and vocal cords, in front of two people seated at a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468323/original/file-20220610-24020-suzm1w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A multidisciplinary workshop on vocal health for singers, actors and other professional voice users, jointly presented by McGill and the University of Bergen (Norway) on World Voice Day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University; Photo Fund)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, McGill’s <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/scsd/">School of Communication Sciences and Disorders</a> has been holding annual public seminars, panel discussions and free voice screenings for <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/scsd/community/serving-local-community/world-voice-day">World Voice Day</a>. We hope to expand this program to reach more artists across the country. </p>
<p>Improving performers’ access to services could also play a role. For example, by improving the coverage of employment and medical insurance for performers requiring vocal health care. Upholding medical privacy is also important in ensuring that performers’ careers are not unfairly damaged by past health issues. </p>
<p>The first step, though, is to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/10/adele-vocal-cord-surgery-why-stars-keep-losing-their-voices">increase awareness of vocal stigma within the performance industry</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Y.K. Li-Jessen receives funding from Canada Research Chair, Fonds de recherche du Québec–Santé, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Singers and actors are more likely to have voice injuries, but less likely to report them or seek treatment due to stigma and fears that it may affect their career.Nicole Y.K. Li-Jessen, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Canada Research Chair in Personalized Medicine of Upper Airway Health and Disease, McGill UniversityColin Jones, Master's Student in Speech-Language Pathology, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1814592022-05-05T12:43:51Z2022-05-05T12:43:51ZA white librettist wrote an opera about Emmett Till – and some critics are calling for its cancellation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461045/original/file-20220503-12-jpgsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C22%2C2986%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A faded photograph is attached to the headstone that marks the gravesite of Emmett Till in Chicago.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/faded-photograph-is-attached-to-the-headstone-that-marks-news-photo/1308512100">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Are Black audiences, actors, and producers simply conditioned to having their stories told by white counterparts?” screenwriter and director <a href="https://www.ebony.com/entertainment/op-ed-the-problem-with-white-writers-writing-black-stories/">Darian Lane</a>, who is Black, wondered in a 2021 op-ed for Ebony. </p>
<p>On TV and in film, white authorship of Black stories has long been a point of contention, whether it was David Simon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/11/us/who-gets-to-tell-a-black-story.html">writing about a Black neighborhood</a> in Baltimore for his series “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/">The Wire</a>” or Tate Taylor writing and directing “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/">The Help</a>.”</p>
<p>It was only a matter of time before this issue would beset the world of opera. Since “Emmett Till, A New American Opera” <a href="https://playbill.com/article/emmett-till-a-new-american-opera-to-premiere-at-john-jay-college">premiered at John Jay College</a> on March 23, 2022,
a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/cancel-a-new-american-opera-emmett-till-at-john-jay-college">Change.org petition</a> has circulated with 12,000-plus signatories calling for the production to never again see the light of day. </p>
<p>The reason?</p>
<p>A white woman named Clare Coss wrote <a href="https://www.uncoveringsound.com/difference-between-a-libretto-and-a-script/">the libretto</a>, or text, for the opera, which she based on an award-winning play she had written called “<a href="https://theaterlife.com/emmett-down-in-my-heart/">Emmett, Down in My Heart</a>” in 2015. </p>
<p>Coss concocted a fictional white female protagonist named Roann Taylor, who fails to call the police when she overhears the lynching of the 14-year-old Till. Eventually, she realizes that her silence has perpetuated injustice and she confronts the killers. </p>
<p>Critics claim the opera elevates the guilt of white audiences while capitalizing on Black trauma. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/03/22/emmett-till-opera-protest/">The Washington Post</a> notes that the production joins a slew of white-authored responses to the Emmett Till murder that didn’t sit well with the Black community, ranging from Bob Dylan’s “<a href="https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/5856">Death of Emmett Till</a>” to Dana Schutz’s painting “<a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/01/dana-schutz-open-casket-emmett-till-painting.html">Open Casket</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting of boy in suit in casket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dana Schutz’s painting of Till sparked protests during the 2017 Whitney Biennial, where it was displayed – with some people calling for its destruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Casket#/media/File:Dana_Schutz_Open_Casket_2016_Oil_on_canvas.jpg">Dana Schutz, Open Casket (2016). Oil on canvas</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the one hand, I sympathize with the frustrating legacy of white artists telling Black stories. On the other hand, my 25 years of experience <a href="https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/0031Q00002QPtm6QAD/anita-gonzalez">teaching African-American theater</a> have made me acutely sensitive to the complications of authorship – especially when it comes to stage productions.</p>
<h2>Whom is the opera for?</h2>
<p>When artists develop new stories about Black experiences it matters who creates the story. How might their own background connect to the narrative? What sort of audience do they have in mind?</p>
<p>Social activist and cultural thinker W.E.B Du Bois published <a href="https://archive.org/search.php?query=sim_pubid%3A10994+AND+volume%3A32&sort=date">an essay in a 1926 issue of Crisis magazine</a> that set out to define what constitutes African American drama. He argued that they were plays that ought to be “about” Black communities, “by” Black authors, written “for” Black audiences and performed “near” Black neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Under this definition, Coss’ opera wouldn’t be considered African American drama. While it was a production about the Black community, it was composed, in part, to help white audiences empathize with Black pain. </p>
<p>And even though Coss has said the opera is intended for everyone, she’s also noted that the inclusion of a white character who recognizes her slow response to racial violence was <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2022/03/23/1088169711/a-new-opera-about-emmett-till-is-criticized-for-being-written-by-a-white-woman">important for predominantly white operagoing audiences to see</a>.</p>
<p>This is the rub. Many Black artists <a href="https://www.ebony.com/entertainment/op-ed-the-problem-with-white-writers-writing-black-stories/">are weary of products told from white perspectives</a> because there’s a tendency for the characters and conflicts to fall into familiar tropes. Lost are the ambiguities and inconsistencies of our unique cultural legacies.</p>
<p>Productions like George Gershwin’s “<a href="https://www.metopera.org/season/2021-22-season/porgy-and-bess/">Porgy and Bess</a>,” where the Black experience is reflected in old tropes, still draw huge crowds. The opera – which tells the story of Porgy, a disabled, downtrodden Black man who lives among drug dealers and addicts – perpetuates stereotypes of Black people as addicts who are incapable of self-sufficiency.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Older man using crutches sings on stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 2019 dress rehearsal of ‘Porgy and Bess’ at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-baritone-eric-owens-performs-at-the-final-dress-news-photo/1179461251?adppopup=true">Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/us/george-floyd-protests-police-reform.html">In this moment of raised social consciousness</a>, it’s important to tell stories about Black injustices. But stories of joy, community, healing and wellness are just as important. </p>
<p>So it’s refreshing to see newer musicals like Michael R. Jackson’s “<a href="https://strangeloopmusical.com/">A Strange Loop</a>,” which is now playing on Broadway. Jackson, who is Black, wrote a musical that plumbs the inner psyche of a character named Usher who struggles with anxieties about his queer identity and lifestyle. A chorus of colorful characters depicts his thoughts as he untangles his fraught family relationships and rebuilds his self-esteem. </p>
<h2>The complications of ‘by’</h2>
<p>The “by” of Du Bois’ argument is particularly complex in the case of both the Till opera and “Porgy and Bess.” Both productions feature white authors writing about Black experiences that are then depicted by Black performers. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man in suit sits in chair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To W.E.B. Du Bois, a work needed to meet certain criteria to be considered African American drama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dubois-waits-to-be-called-as-a-witness-at-the-federal-news-photo/514697730?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Is the author the writer, producer, director or lead performer? Many productions about the Black experience – Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088939/">The Color Purple</a>” is just one example that comes to mind – were originally authored by Blacks yet produced by whites to accommodate white sensibilities. At the time of its release, the film also <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2020/04/the-color-purple-debate-anniversary-1202217786/">elicited controversy</a> for depicting Black female experiences through the eyes of a white male producer and director.</p>
<p>The current controversy about the Emmett Till opera ultimately glosses over a complex collaborative processes. As with most performance projects, many artists participated in realizing the final product. Afro-Cuban composer <a href="https://www.tanialeon.com/">Tania León</a> conducted the score. The Harlem Chamber Players and Opera Noire International co-produced the work. </p>
<p>Most importantly, Mary Watkins, the composer, is Black. The composer is usually considered the core creative artist in an operatic work, and Watkins artfully uses emotional arias and music that mimics moans to draw listeners into the anguish of the mother’s loss.</p>
<p>“Even though there are many artists of color involved in this project, the critics are assuming that we have had no impact on the final shape of the piece and that the playwright has somehow forced all of us to tell her story,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/03/22/emmett-till-opera-protest/">Watkins wrote in an email interview</a>. “It is an insult to me as a Black woman and to the cast members who are African-American.” </p>
<h2>Performing race</h2>
<p>One of my students once pointed out that enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas naked and were then forced to don clothing provided by the enslavers. </p>
<p>We have been wearing garments and identities designed to conform to white sensibilities ever since. African American theater historians have long grappled with how to assess Black contributions in a country where white critics, by and large, evaluate our cultural productions. </p>
<p>Books like “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/african-american-performance-and-theater-history-9780195127256?cc=us&lang=en&">African American Performance and Theater History</a>” describe how double-conscious performance styles enabled Black artists to resist stereotypical representations on stage. <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/04/hattie-mcdaniel-gone-with-the-wind-oscars-autobiography">Hattie McDaniel</a>, for example, played the maid in “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(film)">Gone With the Wind”</a> with tenacious spunk, using sassy comedy to humanize her servile “Mammy” role.</p>
<p>Newer anthologies, like my edited collection “<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/black-performance-theory">Black Performance Theory</a>,” complicate notions of Black authorship and artistry. The book describes how Blackness circulates through cultural productions as vocal, physical and visual imagery which may or may not be aligned with Black bodies on stage. For example, in “Emmett Till, A New American Opera,” Watkins’ use of resonant open tones in the first few bars of Mamie Till’s lament, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kfwNzQyrDA&t=28s">My Son, My Child</a>,” evokes the choral singing of the African American gospel tradition.</p>
<p>To me, the backlash against the white librettist is ultimately a waste of time. Not only is there room for works done in collaboration with Black artists, but cross-cultural, interethnic collaborations also add to the richness and versatility of performed storytelling. </p>
<p>Du Bois wrote about Black performance as it existed within the confines of a segregated society. Theatrical performances by, for, near and about can certainly unite Black communities around collective storytelling. </p>
<p>But I also cherish the vibrancy of storytelling that includes a diversity of perspectives. I hope to see more operas, plays and musicals that encourage conversations about Black identities – without efforts to cancel those who have contributed to the effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anita Gonzalez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Black audiences are justifiably weary of works about their community told from white perspectives. But authorship isn’t always black and white.Anita Gonzalez, Professor of African American Studies and Performing Arts, Co-Founder/Director Racial Justice Institute, Georgetown UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1804152022-04-13T20:34:06Z2022-04-13T20:34:06ZFlow state, exercise and healthy ageing: 5 unexpected benefits of singing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456277/original/file-20220405-26-kbbf24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2759%2C1839&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Miguel Bautista on Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Singing with others feels amazing. Group singing <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00549-0">promotes social bonding</a> and has been <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03057356211042668">shown to</a> raise oxytocin (the “bonding hormone”) and decrease cortisol (the “stress hormone”). </p>
<p>But it’s not just about singing in groups. There are many unexpected ways
singing is good for you, even if you’re on your own. </p>
<p>Singing is a free and accessible activity which can help us live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives.</p>
<p>And before you protest you are “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1360.018">tone deaf</a>” and “can’t sing”, research shows <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429420951630">most people</a> can sing accurately in tune, so let’s warm up those voices and get singing. </p>
<h2>1. Singing gets you in the zone</h2>
<p>If you’ve ever lost track of time while doing something slightly challenging but enjoyable, you’ve likely experienced <a href="https://www.headspace.com/articles/flow-state">the flow state</a>. Some people refer to this feeling as being “in the zone”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456281/original/file-20220405-25-vm2chp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man strums a ukulele" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456281/original/file-20220405-25-vm2chp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456281/original/file-20220405-25-vm2chp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456281/original/file-20220405-25-vm2chp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456281/original/file-20220405-25-vm2chp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456281/original/file-20220405-25-vm2chp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456281/original/file-20220405-25-vm2chp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456281/original/file-20220405-25-vm2chp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Playing around with a song you know can help you get into a flow state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/perma-model/">positive psychology</a>, flow, or deep engagement in a task, is considered one of the key elements of well-being.</p>
<p>Research has shown singing can induce the flow state in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0305735619899137">expert singers</a> and <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00518/full">group singing</a>.</p>
<p>One way to get into this flow state is through improvisation.</p>
<p>Try your hand at some <a href="https://psyche.co/ideas/the-jazz-singers-mind-shows-us-how-to-improvise-through-life-itself">vocal improvisation</a> by picking one phrase in a song you know well and playing around with it. You can improvise by slightly changing the melody, rhythm, even the lyrics. </p>
<p>You may well find yourself lost in your task – if you don’t realise this until afterwards, it is a sign you’ve been in flow.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/let-it-happen-or-make-it-happen-theres-more-than-one-way-to-get-in-the-zone-149173">Let it happen or make it happen? There's more than one way to get in the zone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Singing gets you in touch with your body</h2>
<p>Singers make music with the body. Unlike instrumentalists, singers have no buttons to push, no keys to press and no strings to pluck. </p>
<p>Singing is a deeply <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10298649211062730">embodied activity</a>: it reminds us to get in touch with our whole selves. When you’re feeling stuck in your head, try singing your favourite song to reconnect with your body. </p>
<p>Focus on your breathing and the physical sensations you can feel in your throat and chest.</p>
<p>Singing is also a great way to raise your awareness of any physical tensions you may be holding in your body, and there is increasing interest in the intersection between <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0305735617729452">singing and mindfulness</a>. </p>
<h2>3. Singing as exercise</h2>
<p>We often forget singing is a fundamentally physical task which most of us can do reasonably well. </p>
<p>When we sing, we are making music with the larynx, the vocal tract and other articulators (including your tongue, lips, soft and hard palates and teeth) and the respiratory system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456280/original/file-20220405-26-ldgfxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman jumps on the couch while singing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456280/original/file-20220405-26-ldgfxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456280/original/file-20220405-26-ldgfxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456280/original/file-20220405-26-ldgfxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456280/original/file-20220405-26-ldgfxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456280/original/file-20220405-26-ldgfxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456280/original/file-20220405-26-ldgfxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456280/original/file-20220405-26-ldgfxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Singing can be great exercise for your respiratory system – and your whole body.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just as we might jog to improve our cardiovascular fitness, we can exercise the voice to improve our singing. <a href="http://thevoiceworkshop.com/somatic-voicework/">Functional voice training</a> helps singers understand and use their voice according to optimal physical function. </p>
<p>Singing is increasingly being used to help improve <a href="https://www.jvoice.org/article/S0892-1997(16)30442-8/fulltext">respiratory health</a> for a wide range of health conditions, including those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson’s, asthma and cancer. </p>
<p>Because singing provides such a great workout for the respiratory system, it is even being used <a href="https://www.eno.org/eno-breathe/about-the-eno-breathe-programme/">to help people</a> suffering from long COVID.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/long-covid-for-the-1-in-10-patients-who-become-long-haulers-covid-19-has-lasting-effects-173817">Long COVID: For the 1 in 10 patients who become long-haulers, COVID-19 has lasting effects</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Singing builds psychological resources</h2>
<p>Group singing can help combat social isolation and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0733464815577141">create new social connections</a>, help people <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0305735620944230">cope with caring burdens</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2019.1624584">enhance mental health</a>. </p>
<p>Studies show these psychological benefits flow because group singing promotes new social identities. </p>
<p>When we sing with others we identify with, we build inner resources like belonging, meaning and purpose, social support, efficacy and agency. </p>
<h2>5. Singing for “super-ageing”</h2>
<p>“<a href="https://ana-neurosurgery.com/want-to-be-a-superager/">Super-agers</a>” are people around retirement age and older whose cognitive abilities (such as memory and attention span) <a href="https://www.jneurosci.org/content/36/37/9659">remain youthful</a>. </p>
<p>Research conducted by distinguished psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett and her lab suggest the best-known way to become a superager is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/opinion/sunday/how-to-become-a-superager.html?referringSource=articleShare">to work hard at something</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456279/original/file-20220405-12-4kdu59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older couple sing in the kitchen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456279/original/file-20220405-12-4kdu59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456279/original/file-20220405-12-4kdu59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456279/original/file-20220405-12-4kdu59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456279/original/file-20220405-12-4kdu59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456279/original/file-20220405-12-4kdu59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456279/original/file-20220405-12-4kdu59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456279/original/file-20220405-12-4kdu59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Learning a new skill – like singing – is a great way to help with healthy ageing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Singing requires the complex coordination of various physical components — and that’s just to make a sound! The artistic dimension of singing includes memorisation and interpretation of lyrics and melodies, understanding and being able to hear the underlying musical harmony, sensing rhythm and much more. </p>
<p>These characteristics of singing make it an ideal candidate as a super-ageing activity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-stay-fit-into-your-60s-and-beyond-110214">How to stay fit into your 60s and beyond</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Forbes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You might have heard singing helps lower stress hormones – but there are so many benefits to warming up our voices and letting loose.Melissa Forbes, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Singing, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1745892022-01-20T21:27:16Z2022-01-20T21:27:16ZTeaching music online in the pandemic has yielded creative surprises, like mixing ‘Blob Opera’ and beatboxing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441784/original/file-20220120-9595-1jh6fg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=63%2C206%2C1149%2C560&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blob Opera, developed by Google and AI artist David Li, lets students manipulate a soprano, alto, tenor and bass quartet of blobs.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(YoutTube/Google Arts & Culture)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Learning to make music <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/intellect/ijmec/2020/00000015/00000001/art00004">is a full mind-and-body activity</a>. Whether teaching how to play a musical instrument, or how to sing, teachers rely on learners’ physical cues to help them progress — cues that are often obscured either by watching someone on a screen or listening through a microphone. As a music educator, I’d hazard that few school music teachers would opt to teach their students remotely. </p>
<p>However, as many teachers and students have <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/parents-frustration-schools-covid-1.6303239">discovered in the last two years of on-and-off virtual school</a>, music lessons during the pandemic have unearthed some pleasant surprises. </p>
<p>Going online has forced music educators to adapt existing ideas, or adopt existing technology, to discover, invent and share ways to reach students to keep music education alive. </p>
<h2>Instrument-free music</h2>
<p>During the pandemic, most school-based music teachers have faced the challenge that elementary students don’t have access to instruments at home. This often leaves online tools as the default. As school budgets are always stretched, it’s important for programs to be very inexpensive or preferably free.</p>
<p>At the elementary level, students can enjoy and learn from <a href="https://www.incredibox.com">apps such as Incredibox</a>, where students can explore beatboxing, combining rhythms and sound effects to create unique pieces. Beatboxing musicians who create <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRp5qGQXaGQ">complete musical works manipulating their breathing, mouths and throats</a> inspired this tool’s development.</p>
<p>Or teachers can introduce students to choral exploration in <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/blob-opera/AAHWrq360NcGbw?cp=e30">Blob Opera</a>, a “<a href="https://experiments.withgoogle.com/blob-opera-on-tour">machine learning model trained on the voices of four opera singers</a>,” developed by Google and AI artist David Li. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAgdT-YO_nc">In Blob Opera</a>, students manipulate four operatic blobs — a soprano, alto, tenor and bass quartet — and can have them sing a variety of pieces on global stages. Students can “take the blobs on tour” where they might sing <a href="https://koreanpicnic.com/2021/06/17/korean-folk-songs-powered-by-ai/">a Korean folk song in Seoul</a>, or a piece by composer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erik-Satie">Erik Satie</a> in Paris. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZfLYuXi6sDI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Making Blob Opera with David Li,’ video by Google Arts & Culture.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On various platforms, students are able to share their creations live with teachers and classmates. I’ve found that when we introduce technology to students, they often take it in unexpected directions. One student I was teaching set up a rhythm on Incredibox and left that window open and playing to accompany a Blob Opera set: not an obvious musical pairing but a wonderfully creative one.</p>
<h2>Learning from home with instruments</h2>
<p>Even before the pandemic, some music researchers were interested in helping educators overcome hurdles with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2019.1585791">teaching instrumental music online and how online lessons could benefit children in rural locations</a>. However, singing and playing instruments online comes with its own set of technological issues, the most prominent of which is time lag — what some of my students refer to as “glitchiness.”</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A boy with a clarinet looking at a screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441788/original/file-20220120-8679-klk62t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441788/original/file-20220120-8679-klk62t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441788/original/file-20220120-8679-klk62t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441788/original/file-20220120-8679-klk62t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441788/original/file-20220120-8679-klk62t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441788/original/file-20220120-8679-klk62t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441788/original/file-20220120-8679-klk62t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Technological issues can make for some frustrations with virtual instrumental music instruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, research conducted during the pandemic suggests that teaching students how to play instruments online can offer music teachers the chance to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864921996033">redefine curriculum, set new goals for students and consider new criteria for evaluation</a>. </p>
<p>For students who have access to instruments at home, music teachers can use a flexible accompaniment app like <a href="http://www.smartmusic.com">SmartMusic</a>. Without altering pitch (a critical capability), students can change playback speeds, manipulate the nature of accompaniment they hear, activate a metronome and even click on individual notes in a score to show the fingering and sound of the note for specific instruments. </p>
<p>This program costs money, but schools are able to purchase site licenses, thus making the resource accessible to more students.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/investing-in-technologies-for-student-learning-4-principles-school-boards-and-parents-should-consider-173211">Investing in technologies for student learning: 4 principles school boards and parents should consider</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Sound exploration</h2>
<p>Google’s <a href="https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/">Chrome Music Lab</a> suite offers learning for K-8 students. Younger children <a href="https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Rhythm/">can explore rhythm</a>, or teachers and students can explore melody, harmony, form, duration, rhythm, timbre and tempo <a href="https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/">to compose relatively complex electronica</a>, save projects and submit them for assessment.</p>
<p>At the secondary level, teachers can encourage students to explore and collaborate on <a href="https://www.bandlab.com/">Bandlab</a>, a program akin to Apple’s Garageband. Students can compose pieces using standard western notation on the web-based <a href="https://www.noteflight.com">Noteflight</a> — especially accessible because it requires no downloads or sharing of personal information.</p>
<p>Some online offerings promote healthy movement at home. <a href="https://www.beatgoeson.co.uk/#:%7E:text=Ollie%20is%20a%20drummer%2C%20percussionist,including%20the%20Sydney%20Opera%20House.">Ollie Tunmer, British body percussionist and former STOMP cast member</a>, hosts professional development for teachers and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0519TNM1mcc">short lessons for kids</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0519TNM1mcc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Body percussionist Ollie Tunmer leads an online lesson.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other teachers have posted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIYQr-TfVPk">clips exploring form and movement in music</a>, based on techniques from an approach to teaching rhythmic movement, listening and embodied music intuition known as <a href="https://dalcrozeusa.org/about-dalcroze/what-is-dalcroze/">Dalcroze Eurythmics</a> and subsequent work by <a href="https://www.feierabendmusic.org/john-feierabend/">early childhood music educator John Feierabend</a>.</p>
<h2>Making music education more inclusive</h2>
<p>Aside from making music at home accessible for many students, online learning that focuses more on pop music, electronica and rhythm-heavy musics tends to shift the curricular emphasis away from predominantly western art music like “classical” genres.</p>
<p>Music researcher Margaret Walker examines how <a href="https://www.ams-net.org/ojs/index.php/jmhp/article/view/310">music education in the West has traditionally advanced European exceptionalism and cultural superiority</a>. Walker is one of many music educators promoting music education that reflects the cultural diversity of learners. Music education researcher <a href="https://www.routledge.com/How-Popular-Musicians-Learn-A-Way-Ahead-for-Music-Education/Green/p/book/9780754632269">Lucy Green</a> found that students who have more choice about their own repertoires are more successful and stay with music longer. </p>
<p>Revising music curricula to be more inclusive may involve both introducing new forms of music, but also repositioning canonical artists like Mozart and Bach within a broader musical context to allow entry and success for more learners. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/handels-messiah-today-how-classical-music-is-contending-with-its-colonial-past-and-present-173218">Handel's 'Messiah' today: How classical music is contending with its colonial past and present</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Learning about music</h2>
<p>Music curriculum calls not just for <em>making</em> music but also learning about music. Online read alouds, — narrated stories accompanied with music — existed before the pandemic but likely became even more useful in remote contexts. Favourites of my students include Sergei Prokofiev’s 1936 composition <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px8FakwGPDM">Peter and The Wolf</a></em> and the 2015 children’s book <em><a href="https://storylineonline.net/books/trombone-shorty">Trombone Shorty</a></em> by Troy Andrews. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QitquEL48Co?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Actor Angela Bassett reads ‘Trombone Shorty.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Music educators and students also benefit from the isolation-inspired composite style videos such as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6_MJ6w45hw">Kingston Youth Orchestra’s performance of Cold Play’s “Viva La Vida,”</a> especially when students cannot currently attend live performances.</p>
<p>For younger children, <a href="https://www.kingstonsymphony.ca/about/music-director/">Evan Mitchell</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/kingstonsymph/status/1469026847329501191">conductor of the Kingston Symphony</a>, launched a children’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPEY9fmSkK4">online music series, <em>Harmon in Space!</em></a> The series sees Harmon, a fuzzy dog puppet, isolated on a spaceship. Harmon’s limited social contact happens via <a href="https://www.thewhig.com/entertainment/local-arts/symphony-series-is-out-of-this-world">online chats with musical friends — members of the Kingston Symphony</a>. The first episode has over 11,000 views on YouTube. When I interviewed Mitchell, he said he has received many letters from children concerned for Harmon’s safe return to Earth.</p>
<p>No one wants remote music education to become the norm for most students. But the creative minds who have made it feasible, fun and often productive have given us unexpected gifts and welcome strains of beauty amidst global noise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174589/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robbie MacKay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From incorporating video-based performances to learning new composition apps, teaching students virtually has forced music educators to learn and share new ways to reach students.Robbie MacKay, Lecturer in Musicology, Dan School of Drama & Music, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1723892021-11-24T02:55:18Z2021-11-24T02:55:18ZIt’s 30 years since Freddie Mercury died. His music is still the soundtrack of our lives<p>Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara in 1946) died on this day 30 years ago. A prolific songwriter, arranger and music producer, a consummate theatrical entertainer and one of the 20th century’s best-known lead singers, Mercury fronted Queen from 1970 until his death in 1991. </p>
<p>Artistically, he challenged many of the prevailing pop and rock parameters, willing to take musical risks and happy not to be part of the mainstream. He fearlessly pushed artistic boundaries, believing in the spontaneity of live performance: every show was different.</p>
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<h2>The composer</h2>
<p>As a composer, Mercury drew on an eclectic range of genres. He wrote songs with poetic and heartfelt lyrics, witty metaphors and memorable melodies, with Queen <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/1237266/Queen-music-influences-The-Beatles-John-Lennon-Freddie-Mercury-Jimi-Hendrix-Brian-May">drawing influences</a> from The Everly Brothers, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and the Beach Boys.</p>
<p>Mercury’s 1979 composition Crazy Little Thing Called Love pays homage to Elvis Presley. In the song, Mercury subtly models aspects of Presley’s vocal tone and rockabilly styling in the catchy chorus. </p>
<p>He gives us just a hint of his vocal range in the bridge, on the lyrics “she gives me hot and cold fever” where Mercury effortlessly uses an octave yodel. </p>
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<p>In 1975’s Bohemian Rhapsody, perhaps Queen’s most famous song, Mercury took genre crossing to a new level. This six-minute epic is unrivalled in complexity of form, lavish production, vocal layering and the sheer number of <a href="https://www.music-production-guide.com/overdubbing.html">choral overdubs</a>. </p>
<p>The song, which topped the British charts for almost nine weeks, was described by Mercury as a “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2332716.Queen">mock opera</a>” .</p>
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<h2>The singer</h2>
<p>Technically masterful, Mercury possessed a voice that was powerful, agile, and highly expressive. A lyric rock tenor with over three octaves in range, Mercury could belt into his upper register with his signature fast vibrato, or use a controlled pure falsetto with smooth <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legato#Vocal_music">legato phrasing</a>.</p>
<p>Strong musicianship, excellent pitch and vocal control enabled Mercury to draw on a broad array of note choices, dynamics, <a href="https://www.dummies.com/art-center/music/singing/defining-tone-in-singing/">tone colours</a> and vocal effects. His vocal timbre could depict a delicate vulnerability, especially with his falsetto, or use dynamic extremes to accentuate lyrics with screams and growls. </p>
<p>Mercury demonstrated his versatility, genre crossing and creative exploration on the 1985 song Living On My Own. </p>
<p>Here, he employs scat singing and the opening syncopated repetition of a single note hints at Ella Fitzgerald’s influence. It is a driving, high spirited and fearless vocal solo. Mercury solos again at the end of the song with a loose vocal reference to Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing). </p>
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<h2>The performer</h2>
<p>Queen’s appearance at the historic Live Aid Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in July 1985 remains one of the greatest rock performances of all time. </p>
<p>Mercury and band were in stellar form, having just completed a world tour for their album The Works, recorded in 1984. When the entire crowd of 72,000 joins Mercury in beating out the rhythm to We Will Rock You, it is electrifying.</p>
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<p>Further evidence of Mercury’s masterful stagecraft can be found in a bootleg video of Queen performing in Sydney in 1985. </p>
<p>Twelve minutes into the footage, Mercury slowly struts to the piano and improvises a segue into Somebody to Love in a gospel style with a call and response with the audience. </p>
<p>His years of touring experience provided him with an arsenal of stagecraft prowess: strutting, holding poses, dressed in his glam rock style, with white spandex. </p>
<p>Audiences adored his showmanship and flamboyance. </p>
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<h2>The influencer</h2>
<p>30 years on from his death, Mercury’s incredible compositions are still part of the soundtrack of our lives.</p>
<p>Somebody To Love was used in the films Happy Feet (2006) and Ella Enchanted (2004). Lady GaGa <a href="https://www.thelist.com/281348/the-bizarre-story-of-how-lady-gaga-got-her-name/">coopted</a> her name from Queen’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azdwsXLmrHE">Radio GaGa</a>.</p>
<p>Ceelo Green <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/qa-cee-lo-green-on-freddie-mercury-and-the-future-of-gnarls-barkley-236262/">attributes</a> his falsetto usage to his collection of Queen albums. </p>
<p>Kurt Cobain <a href="https://ontheaside.com/culture/19-musical-artists-that-wouldnt-exist-without-queen/">listened</a> to Queen’s News of the World on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-track_tape">8-track</a>.</p>
<p>Katy Perry has acknowledged Mercury as a major influence, performing Queen’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJttLAMbTCw">Don’t Stop Me Now</a> during her Hello Katy tour in 2009. P!nk included the iconic stadium songs We Are the Champions in her tour in 2019.</p>
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<p>Many filmmakers have told his story: Bryan Singer’s film Bohemian Rapsody (2018) is joined by a <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/music/five-queen-documentaries-to-stream-before-bohemian-rhapsody-20181031/">suite of documentaries</a>. Next month, the BBC are releasing <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/freddie-mercury-death-bbc-queen-b1960663.html">a new documentary</a>, this time looking at his tragic death from AIDS at just 45.</p>
<p>30 years on, Mercury is remembered as a powerful songwriter, filled with on-stage magnetism, creativity and intelligence, a hard work ethic and a passion for perfection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leigh Carriage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>He fearlessly pushed at artistic boundaries, and believed in the spontaneity of live performance; Freddie Mercury’s legend continues.Leigh Carriage, Senior Lecturer in Music, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1693392021-11-09T15:30:16Z2021-11-09T15:30:16Z‘Oh creator, it’s you I now renounce’: How death metal lyrics echo some Bible passages, and what it means<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427077/original/file-20211018-17-11v8wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3860%2C2579&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">David Vincent of death metal band Morbid Angel in Washington, D.C., in September 2012.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Metal Chris/flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The other day I came across a <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/heavy-metal-lyric-or-bible-verse"><em>Buzzfeed</em> quiz</a> that asked me: “Heavy metal lyric or bible verse?” </p>
<p>As someone who is a PhD candidate in religious studies and loves heavy metal, I was surprised to see that I hesitated on a number of my responses. Why does heavy metal use so many biblical references and symbolisms? </p>
<p>As I researched, I rediscovered death metal, a musical genre I used to listen to as a teen. It seems like death metal was even more fixated with religion than heavy metal. But why is this musical genre so obsessed with religious and spiritual symbolism? </p>
<h2>Heavy metal and religion</h2>
<p>Known as an extreme sub-genre of heavy metal, <a href="https://metal.fandom.com/wiki/Death_metal">death metal usually uses techniques such as</a> deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys and <a href="https://www.mvorganizing.org/what-is-tonal-and-atonal-music/">atonality (not conforming to the system of tonal hierarchies)</a> to transmit its lyrical themes of not just death and violence, but also of political conflict, philosophy, true crime <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jpms.2018.200007">and, more importantly, religion</a>. </p>
<p>In 2010, historian James Robertson published an article called “<a href="https://tif.ssrc.org/2010/08/19/pipeline-to-god/">Death metal: A ‘pipeline to God?’</a>” One of the few published articles that examines the connection between death metal and religion, Robertson writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“What is fascinating here is the consistency with which black metal has pursued religious forms […] Such religious pluralism begs the question as to whether these are just new and interesting attempts at youth rebellion, or whether something more is playing itself out.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But what is that something more? </p>
<p>Many metal historians such as Ian Christie have said that <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Sound-Beast-Complete-Headbanging-History-Heavy/1276890816/bd">the history of heavy metal begins with Black Sabbath’s debut studio album</a>, “Black Sabbath,” released in 1970. </p>
<p>When the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/black-sabbath-cover-art-keef-keith-macmillan-interview-951578/">album is opened</a> it reveals an inverted cross and <a href="https://twitter.com/korygrow/status/1228050647578271754/photo/1">a disturbing poem</a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiY2JsGXrtM">The fourth track on the album is called <em>N.I.B.</em></a>, which was written from Lucifer’s point of view. Thus, the relationship between heavy metal and religion was born. </p>
<p>Christie points out in his book, <em>Sounds of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal</em> that anthropological history is interwoven with metal’s musical history as “the rise of black metal coincided with the thousand-year anniversary of Christianity in Norway, when two pagan kings […] violently imposed religion on the western coast of Norway,” the territory that has most influenced black metal.</p>
<h2>‘Chapel of Ghouls’ and ‘Blessed are the Sick’</h2>
<p>Death metal then appeared with the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478209/">fusion of thrash metal and first-wave black metal</a> in the 1980s. Possessed, Death, Deicide and Morbid Angel are a few of the first bands to fall into the death metal genre. Morbid Angel has written songs such as <em>God of Emptiness</em>, <em>Rapture</em>, <em>Immortal Rites</em>, <em>Chapel of Ghouls</em>, <em>Angel of Disease</em> and <em>Blessed are the Sick</em>. And Deicide has written about ritual sacrifices, the crucifixion, Satan, Jesus and anti-Christian sentiments. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Morbid Angel’s music video for <em>God of Emptiness</em></span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the connection between death metal and religion solidified, so did its controversy. In the mid-80s, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/853600">Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)</a> was born, an institution focused on increasing parental control over access to music that was deemed violent or satanic. This didn’t deter death metal musicians or followers, but hardened their criticism of mainstream religion. </p>
<p>PMRC’s biggest issue was over anti-Christian sentiments. The song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4dFGiHd3Fo"><em>Away from God</em> by Immolation</a> discusses salvation, heaven and hell in a way that could be seen as an extreme form of biblical lament. Part of the song goes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You sit and watch, in all your splendour
Oh creator, it’s you I now renounce
Ever-loving God, your love has failed me
I don’t need your love …”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Compare the lyrics with <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2022%3A1-2&version=NIV">Psalm 22:1-2</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Death metal’s obsession with religious themes</h2>
<p>So, the question remains, why is death metal so obsessed with spiritual and religious themes? Perhaps the only other genre that is so preoccupied with religion and spirituality in such a focused way is gospel music, yet the two seem like complete opposites. </p>
<p>One apparent answer to the proposed question would be that death metal, like other forms of rock, <a href="https://caml.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/caml/article/view/32101/29347">is anti-establishment</a>. Rebelling against religion and the status quo seems to be one of the reasons this kind of music is so popular. </p>
<p>Another possible answer could be that death metal and its parent, heavy metal, are trying to find a <a href="https://neuroanthropology.net/2010/08/27/death-metal-religion-and-the-socialization-of-emotion/">language to express their dark mystical experiences</a> — metal is attuned to spirituality. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Crying angel statue in an old graveyard" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4748%2C3165&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427071/original/file-20211018-165041-163lrn8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Possessed, Death, Deicide and Morbid Angel are a few of the first bands to fall into the death metal genre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As someone who studies religion, I believe that writers, musicians and listeners of death metal who are attuned to spiritual matters believe there’s more to the world than meets the eye. Many feel the need to attend to their turbulent inner life, and oftentimes value principles that religion has neglected or opposed.</p>
<p>Death metal <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dissecting-the-bloodthirsty-bliss-of-death-metal/">explores the dark side of the human experience</a> with the same vehemence that some forms of organized religion resist it. </p>
<p>So why would anyone want to experience violent, angry music that could lead to having negative experiences? A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000184">2019 study</a> looked into who and why people enjoy listening to violent music, they found that they are not angry people: “They’re not enjoying anger when they listen to the music, but they are in fact experiencing a range of positive emotions.” The catharsis that death metal fans experience is in fact a way to <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dissecting-the-bloodthirsty-bliss-of-death-metal/">release negative emotions</a>. </p>
<p>In other words, I believe every one of us wants positive experiences and are attuned to spirituality in the way that we understand it. In the words of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRpikSZHHRY">Venom’s <em>Angel Dust</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I live my life,
Like there’s no tomorrow,
Take no chances
I’m drowning all my sorrows coz’ I,
Need it, want it,
You know I’ve got to have it,
Takes me higher than anything I know.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Channah Fonseca Becar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Not unlike gospel music, death metal seems heavily preoccupied with spiritual matters. Does this mean Death Metal is a form of spiritual music?Channah Fonseca Becar, PhD Candidate, Religious Studies, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1668232021-09-01T04:12:44Z2021-09-01T04:12:44ZWhat art are you engaging with in lockdown? Australians are mostly watching TV — but music, singing and dancing do more for your mood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418571/original/file-20210831-15-1bsou92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5133%2C3411&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">y Kinga Cichewicz/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How have you been passing the time during lockdown? Have you been taking an online drawing class, or did you join an online choir? Perhaps you focused on gardening, or finally picked up that guitar in the corner to have a go?</p>
<p>We have long known creative activities <a href="https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329834/9789289054553-eng.pdf">help us cope</a> during hard times. Engaging with the arts <a href="https://www.culturehealthandwellbeing.org.uk/appg-inquiry/Publications/Creative_Health_Inquiry_Report_2017_-_Second_Edition.pdf">enhances physical and mental well-being</a>, can boost our sense of accomplishment and meaning, and strengthen our resilience to cope with life’s challenges. </p>
<p>The arts help give life beauty.</p>
<p>So we wanted to explore how Australians turned to art during lockdowns in 2020. We wanted to know which art forms most appealed to Australians, and which ones were helping Australians cope with the lows of lockdown.</p>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.696202/full">newly published research</a>, we found many Australians improved their mood using the arts. But the activities we turned to the most frequently weren’t necessarily the ones which could most improve our sense of well-being.</p>
<h2>What makes us feel better?</h2>
<p>In an online survey, we asked Australians which artistic creative activities they had been undertaking during the lockdown, and which activities they normally participated in but weren’t under lockdown. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418578/original/file-20210831-27-z84weq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An Asian girl and mother bake." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418578/original/file-20210831-27-z84weq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418578/original/file-20210831-27-z84weq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418578/original/file-20210831-27-z84weq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418578/original/file-20210831-27-z84weq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418578/original/file-20210831-27-z84weq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418578/original/file-20210831-27-z84weq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418578/original/file-20210831-27-z84weq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cooking and baking was one of our favourite lockdown creative activities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also asked our participants to rank their activities from most to least effective at making them “feel better”. Measures for anxiety, depression, loneliness and emotion regulation were taken to help us identify any relationships between mental health and well-being and arts engagement. </p>
<p>The most popular activities were watching films and television, listening to music and cooking and baking. Listening to music was ranked as the most effective activity at making our participants feel better — but watching films and television ranked more than halfway down the list, at 18 out of 27.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/great-time-to-try-baking-sourdough-bread-136493">Great time to try: baking sourdough bread</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Of the most effective activities, singing took second place and dancing came in third.</p>
<h2>The power of music</h2>
<p>Three of the four most frequently undertaken activities (watching films and television, listening to music and reading) are usually considered passive or receptive activities: engaging with the artistic creation of others, rather than creating our own new art. </p>
<p>It comes as little surprise the most prevalent activities were receptive ones, since they could be easily done from home. But passive activities were often not the ones which were effective in helping us through trying times.</p>
<p>Active arts activities are beneficial partly because they involve seeking out novel ideas, experiences and possibilities, which in turn have positive <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1440-1630.12190">cognitive</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0164027514568103">physical</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24009169/">emotional and social</a> effects.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/great-time-to-try-learning-to-draw-135298">Great time to try: learning to draw</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But listening to music seemed to be different from other passive arts activities. </p>
<p>Music has long been regarded as an <a href="https://www.austmta.org.au/journal/article/music-and-mood-regulation-historical-enquiry-individual-differences-and-musical">effective coping tool</a>. We use music to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2015.1021750">regulate</a> our emotions and to create <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Music-Asylums-Wellbeing-Through-Music-in-Everyday-Life/DeNora/p/book/9781472455987">a refuge</a> for healing and imaginative play.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418593/original/file-20210831-23-1bg268z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman on a lounge chair with headphones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418593/original/file-20210831-23-1bg268z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418593/original/file-20210831-23-1bg268z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418593/original/file-20210831-23-1bg268z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418593/original/file-20210831-23-1bg268z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418593/original/file-20210831-23-1bg268z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418593/original/file-20210831-23-1bg268z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418593/original/file-20210831-23-1bg268z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most passive activities didn’t improve our moods — but listening to music was an exception.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Listening to music can also accompany daily activities such as cooking or doing household chores much better than activities such as watching television or reading. Some of music’s well-being benefits may originate in this combination of aesthetic and practical elements.</p>
<p>We also found anxious and depressed Australians seem to be turning to music as a coping mechanism or emotional crutch significantly more than others. People <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1029864913478305">often report</a> specifically listening to sad music to help improve their mood. </p>
<p>While this might seem counter intuitive, listening to sad music while in a negative state can produce a positive outcome as a form of processing or catharsis. </p>
<p>(However, people living with depression should approach listening to sad or negative music with caution. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2015.32.4.313">Emerging research</a> indicates those with clinical depression may find the outcome of sad music to be more negativity instead of positive release.)</p>
<h2>Get up and moving</h2>
<p>Participants who reported exercising more during the pandemic compared to their pre-pandemic routine fared significantly better in terms of mental health and well-being compared to those undertaking less or the same amount of exercise than prior to the pandemic. </p>
<p>This finding supports a <a href="https://www.jsams.org/article/S1440-2440(20)30838-0/fulltext">growing body</a> of research showing increased physical activity during lockdown is a robust method for maintaining mental wellness. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418574/original/file-20210831-17-2yjbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two young Black girls dancing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418574/original/file-20210831-17-2yjbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418574/original/file-20210831-17-2yjbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418574/original/file-20210831-17-2yjbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418574/original/file-20210831-17-2yjbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418574/original/file-20210831-17-2yjbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418574/original/file-20210831-17-2yjbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418574/original/file-20210831-17-2yjbs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dancing is both art and exercise, and can have a hugely positive impact on our mood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ilona Virgin/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It also indicates why participants found dancing to be so beneficial. Not only is dance a form of artistic expression, it can be more effective than other forms of exercise at <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ijpo.12117">reducing body fat</a> and is linked to numerous <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27390986/">physical</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03630242.2016.1243607?journalCode=wwah20">psychological</a> benefits.</p>
<p>Sadly, dancing was the activity most likely to have ceased under lockdown, followed by theatre rehearsals and performances, and singing.</p>
<h2>Your own artistic helper</h2>
<p>There are clear public health and safety reasons for why so many people had to stop dancing, singing and making theatre during the COVID-19 pandemic. But these activities are very effective in helping us navigate difficult times.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/great-time-to-try-knitting-your-first-woolly-scarf-136618">Great time to try: knitting your first woolly scarf</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>With this in mind, artistic creative activities — and in particular active activities such as singing and dancing — warrant additional support and consideration as an important and efficient aspect of Australia’s mental health response to COVID.</p>
<p>For those interested in incorporating singing and dancing into your lockdown routines, there is no shortage of inspiration for <a href="http://musicacrossthebalconies.com/">how to do so</a> online. The arts always seem to find a way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was a collaboration between the Creativity and Wellbeing Hallmark Research Initiative (CAWRI) at the University of Melbourne and the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frederic Kiernan has previously received funding from the former Australian Government Department of Education and Training as well as the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions CE1101011.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Chmiel and Jane Davidson do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Active arts activities where you are an active participant will best help you through the long days of lockdown.Frederic Kiernan, Research Fellow, Creativity and Wellbeing Hallmark Research Initiative, The University of MelbourneAnthony Chmiel, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney UniversityJane Davidson, Deputy Director ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1532902021-02-04T20:29:04Z2021-02-04T20:29:04ZFalsetto: The enduring love affair with the soaring male voice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382576/original/file-20210204-22-128lat2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C700%2C432&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rapturous falsetto voices are heard in the new HBO documentary 'The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.' </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(HBO)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In this dreary COVID-19 winter, there are some high points — and high notes — available to people cooped up at home. </p>
<p>The documentary <em><a href="https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/the-bee-gees-how-can-you-men-a-broken-heart-review-barry-robin-maurice-gibb-1234851498/">The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart</a></em>, which premiered on HBO in December, explores the musical significance of the group and is interwoven with performance footage. At the Super Bowl on Feb. 7, the <a href="https://www.etonline.com/the-weeknds-super-bowl-halftime-performance-everything-we-know-159392">halftime performer will be Canada’s The Weeknd</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382555/original/file-20210204-16-y7nx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Weeknd" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382555/original/file-20210204-16-y7nx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382555/original/file-20210204-16-y7nx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382555/original/file-20210204-16-y7nx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382555/original/file-20210204-16-y7nx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382555/original/file-20210204-16-y7nx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382555/original/file-20210204-16-y7nx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382555/original/file-20210204-16-y7nx4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Weeknd performs in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 23, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mahmoud Khaled)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What kind of sound do these singers share? And what on Earth do they have in common with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX1klhwUzBQ">Monty Python comedians in sketches where they portray women</a>? </p>
<p>All these artists use the falsetto voice, a specialized sound that features <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_History_and_Technique_of_the_Counter.html?id=esXMxAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">amazing high notes</a>. Falsetto is associated particularly with the male voice singing in the range normally used by women and children. </p>
<p>Historically, perhaps most famously, beautiful high notes are often associated with opera roles originally written for a particular group of male <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11202227/">singers known as “castrati,”</a> who were castrated. Today, opera roles originally written for castrati are sung by <a href="http://www.vocapedia.info/_Library/JOS_files_Vocapedia/JOS-057-2-2000-019.pdf">countertenors</a>. These singers go beyond the higher “normal” range associated with the tenor voice while singing in falsetto. </p>
<p>Of course, beyond these classically based countertenor singers, the falsetto sound is heard in innumerable beloved pop singers. While standout artists have learned to develop their voices into something quite fascinating, anyone can find a falsetto sound. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B5tncybE7Wg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">HBO trailer for Bee Gees documentary, ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘False’ voice</h2>
<p>Falsetto is an extension of our normal voices that we use every day — beyond the voices we use in all those Zoom meetings of late. The word falsetto refers to a “false” voice, so called because the voice uses only part of the vocal apparatus in our throats, rather than the full vibratory sound used in regular singing and speaking.</p>
<p>The normal vocal sounds we make are created by the vibrations of our vocal folds (or vocal cords). These tiny folds are <a href="https://www.voicescienceworks.org/inside-the-larynx.html">controlled by an intricate system of muscles and cartilage in the throat</a>.</p>
<p>The vocal folds function <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Structure_of_Singing.html?id=45QYAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">basically by the rate of air movement, or pressure, from the lungs</a>. With more air pressure, the folds will vibrate more quickly and will produce a higher pitch. Less air, and the pitch will be lower. You can feel the vibrations for yourself if you say or sing “ooh,” thinking of a lower pitch, while placing a hand on your throat. </p>
<p>But if you use only the edges of the vocal folds, without allowing the whole mechanism to vibrate, then you can achieve that high, floaty sound that is your “false” voice — your falsetto. </p>
<h2>Falsetto in classical music</h2>
<p>The falsetto sound can still be heard in various forms of classical music — a vestige of the ban on women performers <a href="https://journals.library.mun.ca/ojs/index.php/singing/article/view/1034">in earlier centuries.</a> The traditional English church choir includes men singing in their falsettos to provide the alto line in hymns and anthems. (The soprano line was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/05/girls-choirs-male-dominated-english-tradition-boys-changing">sung by boys</a>, not women.) </p>
<p>In some classical music, as in the perennial December favourite, Handel’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1UCo8xfZp8">Messiah</a>,” a countertenor will sing the alto solos — more usually sung by a woman. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoFzyBm6WGk">Canada’s Daniel Taylor</a> is one of the best countertenors in the world. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382580/original/file-20210204-16-6fzt3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of opera singer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382580/original/file-20210204-16-6fzt3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382580/original/file-20210204-16-6fzt3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382580/original/file-20210204-16-6fzt3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382580/original/file-20210204-16-6fzt3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382580/original/file-20210204-16-6fzt3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382580/original/file-20210204-16-6fzt3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382580/original/file-20210204-16-6fzt3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">1743 portrait of Farinelli by Barolomeo Nazari.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Portrait of Farinelli by Barolomeo Nazari/Wikimedia Commons)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today’s opera roles sung by countertenors were originally written for the castrati <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1743-6109.2012.02844.x">who were superstars</a> in the 17th and 18th centuries. Castration caused a physical difference in the way these voices functioned — and in the body shape and size of the castrated men — but the resultant sound was much the same as today’s countertenor sound. </p>
<p>You can hear <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-04-02-ca-50067-story.html#:%7E:text=Email-,COMMENTARY%20%3A%20The%20Castrato%20Sound%3A%20Real%20and%20Imagined%20%3A%20The%20film,of%20an%20emasculated%20male%20soprano">an attempted re-creation of the sound of a castrato, rendered by electronically fusing the voices of a female singer and a countertenor</a>, in the 1994 <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109771/">movie <em>Farinelli</em></a>, a cinematic take on the great 18th-century castrato opera singer Farinelli (born Carlo Broschi). </p>
<p>The only aural record of a castrato is of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oq/2.2.1">nine recorded selections of castrato Alessandro Moreschi</a>, believed to be the last singer of his kind.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y3fzhMnGs5E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Scene from ‘Farinelli.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Falsetto in popular music</h2>
<p>Some scholars have explored falsetto sounds in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1214967?seq=1">Black popular and “soul” music</a> including through genre-bending musical fusion.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-an-icon-of-a-new-form-of-classical-music-58270">Prince: an icon of a new form of classical music</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Falsetto is found widely in popular music styles today from <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/d2cb205c3a330159ecf46ce6e162055d/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1996336">from The Weeknd</a> and <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7633393/justin-timberlake-best-hip-hop-rb-collaborations/">Justin Timberlake</a>. If you listened to the concert celebrating Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration in the United States, you would have heard Timberlake singing “Better Days” with Ant Clemons. Timberlake’s naturally high voice works seamlessly into an effective falsetto sound. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u4HkM6WzmFY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Justin Timberlake with Ant Clemons. Listen for Timberlake’s regular voice at about 3:40, then hear him switch into falsetto at 4:00.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Floating beauty</h2>
<p>Is there a female falsetto voice? Yes! The process for making the sound is the same as in men. But because women’s voices are already higher, it’s harder to hear a different quality. You can hear it some singers, including Christina Aguilera.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RNprQYHenNI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Christina Aguilera sometimes sings in falsetto. Her voice changes at about the one minute mark in this song from ‘Mulan.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.frieze.com/article/evolution-male-falsetto">the allure</a> of the falsetto voice remains more compelling in men than in women. Perhaps it is the attraction of the natural lower male voice contrasted with the high notes: maybe we are waiting for a crack or admiring the physical effort. Or perhaps we simply enjoy the floating beauty of the sound of high notes. </p>
<p>Whatever the reason, male high notes and the falsetto voice <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Supernatural_Voice.html?id=UhMABQAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">remain fascinating</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Pridmore receives funding from The Canada Council for the Arts, and SSHRC.</span></em></p>Falsetto male pop and opera artists fascinate us with their high voices, but it’s also intriguing to know anyone can find a falsetto sound.Helen Pridmore, Associate Professor of Music, University of ReginaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1539742021-02-02T18:49:44Z2021-02-02T18:49:44ZThe Weeknd at the Super Bowl and shanties on TikTok reflect how masculinity is performed in 2021<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381735/original/file-20210201-15-hp0co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C0%2C4596%2C3078&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Recording artist The Weeknd performs at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Oct. 26, 2017.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Invision — Scott Roth</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Current trends in male singing offer strikingly different visions of what it means to be a man. Consider, for instance, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2016/01/12/the-weeknd-michael-jackson/78711268/">spectacular falsettists like the Weeknd</a>, who will <a href="https://www.etonline.com/the-weeknds-super-bowl-halftime-performance-everything-we-know-159392">headline the 55th Super Bowl halftime show</a> on Feb. 7, and the reassuring choruses of sea shanties currently trending on TikTok. What can these singing styles tell us about being a man in 2021?</p>
<p>During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, our longing for an embodied connection has grown intensely, and ShantyTok offers collectivity through group singing in a time when we are all isolated. The ShantyTok trend started with a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@nathanevanss/video/6910995345421962498">Scottish postman creating harmonies with his own tenor voice</a> in
“The Wellerman,” a 19th-century song created by merchant seamen longing for the arrival of the Weller company man who would bring supplies. </p>
<p>Taking advantage of TikTok’s collaborative possibilities, an American teen joined in, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WBbcI8ZVYQ">doubling the melody two octaves lower</a>. Between them, <a href="https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/nathan-evans-reacts-to-wellerman-chart-success-and-talks-hopes-for-debut-album__32338/">Nathan Evans</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@_luke.the.voice_/video/6916959389823814917">Luke the Voice</a> carved out the upper and lower ends of the conventional male range, making space for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgsurPg9Ckw">innumerable others to join in</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1348867807367344129"}"></div></p>
<p>The sea shanty tradition is embraced as wholesome, and nostalgic for simpler times, like a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-37-mainstreet-ns/clip/15819351-sea-shanties-find-audiences-tiktok">sonic equivalent of “dad bod.”</a> However, many of these songs originated in <a href="https://twitter.com/DrMaDMo/status/1349490440106602497">slaving ships</a>, and the Wellerman’s “sugar, tea and rum” were <a href="https://theconversation.com/shantytok-is-the-sugar-and-rum-line-in-wellerman-a-reference-to-slavery-153573">commodities gained through plantation labour and part of the triangular slave traffic</a>. In professional sports likewise, Black athletes’ labour can be exploited, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/16/sports/basketball/slavery-anniversary-basketball-owners.html">and athletes are “owned”</a> by their teams. </p>
<h2>Participating or watching</h2>
<p>Sea shanties are musically appealing, with simple melodies, triadic harmonies and lots of repetition that invites participation, even upon first hearing. <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2021/01/sea-shanty-tiktok-wellerman-trend-explained.html">The pleasures of group singing</a> involve dissolving into a collective. </p>
<p>Falsetto singing, on the other hand, signals rupture, and the transcendence of restrictive boundaries. The technical demands of <a href="https://www.frieze.com/article/evolution-male-falsetto">falsetto singing</a> represent the heights of individualism, placing the listener squarely in the position of passive spectator. </p>
<p>Historically, men who sing high have portrayed heroic, noble and powerful characters on the opera stage. The appetite for high voices paired with men’s bodies drove the <a href="https://ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/content/through-lens-baroque-opera-gendersexuality-then-and-now">castrati phenomenon</a>. These opera stars were male singers who had been surgically prevented from going through puberty, resulting in a high vocal range combined with an adult’s build and lung capacity. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Farinelli">Remarkable singers like Farinelli</a> played roles such as <a href="https://www.wqxr.org/story/beware-ides-march-heres-aria-handels-giulio-cesare/">Julius Caesar</a>, to acclaim that seems strange at this later point in history.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/falsetto-the-enduring-love-affair-with-the-soaring-male-voice-153290">Falsetto: The enduring love affair with the soaring male voice</a>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Falsetto in contemporary pop music.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Popstars at the Superbowl</h2>
<p>The Super Bowl is <a href="https://qz.com/1794113/how-the-nfl-super-bowl-became-a-cultural-phenomenon/">the modern world’s largest spectacle</a>, and the halftime show is the most viewed musical performance in any given year. While English football is notorious for fan singing, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XToD6PKIOg">including shanties like “Sloop John B,”</a> American football presents music as a spectacle to be watched instead. The halftime show has been central to enhancing the appeal of the National Football League beyond its American, male fan base. </p>
<p>Up through the 1990s, the show featured <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4zzu4Jrl4o">local music and ensembles like marching bands</a>. All shows before 1991 involved a team of performers, often presenting a medley of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxK3qTsj_eE">regionally themed material</a>. </p>
<p>The first pop superstar act was New Kids on the Block, a pop ensemble whose sound and image offset the manhood offered by burly team players engaging in a violent contact sport on the field. Aiming to appeal to international audiences of all ages and genders, the group’s performance was framed by a children’s choir singing “We Are the World” and “It’s a Small World.” </p>
<p>Strikingly, NKOTB performed “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nITMhO3ZPZM">Step by Step</a>,” rather than their more familiar hit “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By86PcLufOU">Hangin’ Tough</a>,” even though this song’s theme, complete with unison chanting in a low range, would seem more in line with football manhood. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In 1991, New Kids on the Block were the first pop superstars to perform during the Super Bowl halftime show.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Still, their success paved the way for more superstar performers, including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBkNQZ-6QHg&ab_channel=MusicStar">Michael Jackson</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiE8v29h6zI&ab_channel=ecraviotto2003">U2 and</a> the “Nipplegate” incident with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzipWoXgVm0&ab_channel=MichaelDantas">Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake</a> in 2004. This infamous event was followed by safe, legacy acts like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFcLXodyK0E&ab_channel=DaMORG">Paul McCartney</a>, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X43UBPe1-t4&ab_channel=ElizabethBosch">Rolling Stones</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScA2FqJn9ic&ab_channel=wgfa">The Who</a>. </p>
<h2>The vocal prowess of falsetto</h2>
<p>American football revolves around strength, power and dominance in the context of a team of men, yet this year’s halftime entertainer will present a singer famed for his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFLhGq0060w">soft, floating voice</a>. The Weeknd’s virtuosic display follows a long line of Black male falsettists: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKAhwrm3nAw">Maxwell</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=H9tEvfIsDyo&list=RDD5lKQUMMJi0&index=20">Prince</a> (who ditched his falsetto to perform at the 2007 Super Bowl) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp7Q1OAzITM">Marvin Gaye</a>. </p>
<p>This style comes from African American gospel singing, exemplified by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjtcOh4hmyE">Sam Cooke’s</a> soaring voice trying to break free of earthly constraints and everyday indignities. </p>
<p>Yet the Weeknd’s vocal agility has a parallel in the prowess of football’s skilled position players. The gravity-defying receptions of wide receivers, along with the acrobatic manoeuvres of running backs, get the most play on post-game highlight shows. These spectacular feats are enabled by the grunt work of linemen, who are paid less and regarded less than the stars they support. Just as seamen’s singing helped them work together in rhythm, the timing, execution and teamwork of largely anonymous linemen is essential, if unglamorous.</p>
<p>These versions of manhood need not be in competition: they show us clearly that there are many ways to be a man. The inclusion of a falsettist within the macho world of American football may indicate that we are ready for a fuller range. We need the fragile and the strong, the chorus and the star, the lineman and the touchdown maker, to embrace all kinds of men.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153974/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The falsetto virtuosity of the Weeknd, headliner of this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, contrasts with popular ShantyTok singalongs. How do these both reflect masculinity in 2021?Jacqueline Warwick, Professor of Musicology, Dalhousie UniversitySteven Baur, Associate professor of musicology, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1534212021-01-26T13:25:22Z2021-01-26T13:25:22ZTikTok’s sea chanteys – how life under the pandemic has mirrored months at sea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380266/original/file-20210122-17-c9mmhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C197%2C2586%2C1954&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daily life on a ship could be monotonous and dreary, so songs were sung to lighten the mood.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-old-superb-so-westward-ho-for-trinidad-and-eastward-ho-news-photo/904575454?adppopup=true">Heritage Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve perused social media in recent weeks, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-delights-of-sea-chantey-tiktok">you may have come across people singing chanteys</a>, which were work songs employed on merchant sailing ships.</p>
<p>Historically, chanteys – which are <a href="https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/chantey">also spelled</a> as “shanties” or “chanties” – began with a sing-out by a crew member recognized as “the chanteyman,” usually someone prized for his voice and ability to extemporize. Fellow sailors would respond with the refrain as they toiled away at their tasks. Now we’re seeing TikTok and Twitter users belting out songs inspired by chanteys to their followers, often accompanied by the hashtag #seashanty.</p>
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<p><a href="https://nautilus.maritime.edu/volume-x-2019/">As a chantey scholar</a>, I’m fascinated by the sudden surge of interest in this genre, which dates back to the 15th century and peaked in popularity <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/776708">at the end of the 19th century</a>, right before wooden ships gave way to steam vessels. </p>
<p>The chantey was, historically, a release valve for loneliness, fear and oppression. Finding ourselves in the midst of a pandemic – with the scourge of <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2021/01/25/the-pandemic-induced-economic-inequality-gap-is-widening/">inequality growing more pervasive by the day</a> – perhaps it’s no coincidence that the chantey has made a triumphant return. </p>
<h2>Singing to fears</h2>
<p>Sailors were often at sea for several months – sometimes years – at a time.</p>
<p>The work on the ship could be tedious and monotonous. But sporadic dangers were always lurking, from storms to shipboard accidents, fomenting an undercurrent of anxiety, which crews tended to confront with a morbid sense of humor.</p>
<p>Richard Henry Dana Jr., the author of <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2055/2055-h/2055-h.htm">a popular 1840 memoir detailing the two years he spent on a ship</a>, wrote that “you must make a joke of everything at sea; and if you were to fall from aloft and be caught in the belly of a sail, and thus saved from instant death, it would not do to look at all disturbed, or to make a serious matter of it.”</p>
<p>This outlook inspired many chanteys: They entertained the sailors during the monotonous work of the vessel, but their upbeat and cavalier lyrics could nonetheless acknowledge the speed with which clear skies could turn to stormy clouds.</p>
<p>Take <a href="https://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1910s/1917-1933_gordon_inferno_collection_(MSS)/index.htm">George Gordon’s</a> example of the chantey “Blow the Man Down.” In it, the sailor watches, in horror, as a beautiful woman morphs from “a pretty young damsel” to one wholly changed, as she removes her ear, leg, teeth and one eye. Like life at sea, excitement and pleasure quickly transform into terror. </p>
<p>Importantly, there was also a utility to the songs. Cooperation on the ships was, in the words of historian Marcus Rediker, “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/colonial-american-history/between-devil-and-deep-blue-sea-merchant-seamen-pirates-and-anglo-american-maritime-world-17001750?format=PB&isbn=9780521379830">a collectivism of necessity</a>.”</p>
<p>Merchant ships hired men from varying backgrounds. The songs were a shared language that strengthened the crew’s ties, while also establishing a rhythm to repetitive tasks like hauling, which could entail hoisting sails, and heaving, which might mean <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3mNn-ik5d4">walking the capstan</a>. In fact, authentic chanteys <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shanties-Seven-Seas-Maritime-Hugill/dp/0913372706">are divided</a> into “hauling chanteys” and “heaving chanteys,” <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Way-Ship-Sailors-Shanties-Shantymen/dp/1934757616">though other descriptors exist</a>.</p>
<h2>Slyly speaking truth to power</h2>
<p>In their songs, sailors told stories of women, ships, ports, food, captains and mates; they spoke to manhood, desire and longing.</p>
<p>Chanteys were also used to push back against the tyranny inherent to life aboard the ship, in which a small number of people – usually the captain and his mate – lorded over the rest. The tension of this dynamic <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Before-Wind-American-Captain-1808-1833/dp/0140291911">could sometimes boil over into violence</a>.</p>
<p>Some of the songs deployed what anthropologist James C. Scott termed “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300056693/domination-and-arts-resistance">hidden transcripts</a>” – subtle digs at those in control, who remain oblivious to what’s being said about them.</p>
<p>Accomplished chanteymen could take aim at captains or grouse about food or pay. For example, one rendition of “<a href="https://www.vwml.org/record/JMC/1/1/4/A">Blow, Boys, Blow</a>” closes with the pointed line “There will be Sally, Molly, Peg and Nell / And the skipper and mate can go – —- as well.”</p>
<p>In a different version of “<a href="https://www.vwml.org/record/JMC/1/1/4/A">Blow, My Bully Boys, Blow</a>,” the character bewails poor food quality aboard the ship: “What d’ye think they have for dinner? / Monkey tails and bullock’s liver.” And in Richard Warner’s 1928 version of “<a href="https://www.vwml.org/record/JMC/1/1/4/A">Handy, My Boys</a>,” the singer growls about poor wages: “I thought I heard our old man say / Handy, me boys, so handy! / You can work all day, but you’ll get no pay.”</p>
<p>Similar to other forms of folk music, these chanteys hit thematic notes of dispossession, invisibility and a longing to be seen and heard. </p>
<h2>The spirit of the chantey lives on</h2>
<p>Many of the songs circulating on social media are not technically chanteys. To be a true chantey, the song must be authenticated as a work song of the sea, sung on ship and created by seamen for shipboard tasks. There was, in fact, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00253359.2012.10708990">a taboo against singing chanteys on land</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, they might be called <a href="https://twitter.com/superhotpickle/status/1350278360597884934">sea songs</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/Condiment_Games/status/1351583748047953924">shore songs</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/TheLongestJohns/status/1352242272134430722">ballads</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, these songs echo the spirit of the chantey.</p>
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<p>Though not adrift at sea, many of us find ourselves in territory that is alien and unsettling, with daily life changing in ways that the merchant sailor would understand all too well – a world that was, as the historian Rediker put it, “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/colonial-american-history/between-devil-and-deep-blue-sea-merchant-seamen-pirates-and-anglo-american-maritime-world-17001750?format=PB&isbn=9780521379830">chronically uncertain</a>.”</p>
<p>Perhaps we will we be able to look back on this bleak period and recognize some glimmers of levity and unity, as when people from disparate worlds connected on social media and noticed they had “<a href="https://www.vwml.org/record/JMC/1/1/4/B">a ship stout and strong, and a jolly good crew</a>,” and so decided to sing their way to “<a href="https://www.vwml.org/record/JMC/1/1/4/C">one and all</a>.”</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153421/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Floyd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Crews sang the songs to ease the fears, anxieties and loneliness of daily life on merchant ships.Jessica Floyd, Associate Professor and Coordinator of English, Community College of Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1470972020-10-02T03:40:56Z2020-10-02T03:40:56ZOn the 50th anniversary of her death, Janis Joplin still ignites<p>Janis Joplin died 50 years ago this Sunday, aged just 27, but her songs reach beyond time. Her enduring influence and popularity can be attributed to her raw, unadulterated, fearless performances.</p>
<p>We respond to vocalists who can express emotions such as pain, angst and release. Joplin gave us all those in spades, delivered with a powerful, uninhibited raspy voice.</p>
<p>Influenced by artists like Bessie Smith, Otis Redding, Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, she possessed a command of blues styling, phraseology and melody. She was inducted into the <a href="https://library.rockhall.com/janis_joplin">Rock and Roll Hall of Fame</a> in 1995 and voted number 28 in Rolling Stone’s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-singers-of-all-time-147019/janis-joplin-12-223493/">greatest singers of all time</a> in 2008.</p>
<p>But when we hear a vocalist such as Joplin, who stirs something deeply in us, what is actually happening? </p>
<h2>In command of her voice</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199660773.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199660773">origins of music</a> are rooted in the emotional expression of the human voice. Expressive musical performances have been shown to <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0013812">activate</a> the emotional centres of our brains.</p>
<p>Joplin had a powerful and commanding voice. In her live performances she was focused and uninhibited, showcasing a broad palette of distinctive vocal timbres coupled with a fast vibrato. With her three-octave range, she used raspy growls, wails and screams to express raw emotion.</p>
<p>Rock singing often uses a rich chest voice, requiring great physicality and energy. Blues and rock singers might also incorporate a constricted quality in their voices: tightening the larynx and manipulating the air pressure they sing with. </p>
<p>Joplin’s voice has been <a href="https://cvtresearch.com/effects/distortion/">described</a> as using a distortion and edge, a mixture of noise and tone.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-art-of-the-pinch-popular-music-and-appropriation-86919">Friday essay: the art of the pinch – popular music and appropriation</a>
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<p>This is perhaps best demonstrated in her 1968 song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uG2gYE5KOs">Piece of my Heart</a>. This constricted sound directly conveys intensity — it is very exciting but also creates tension. This constriction comes to a climax on the line “you know you got it”: she improvises on the melody, changing the phrasing to include blues licks and then screams before the last chorus. </p>
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<p>This use of constriction in singing carries with it a variety of challenges and significant risks, impacting the singers’ control. But audiences are thrilled by risk-taking of high-wire artists. Here, Joplin’s technique is in service to the communication of emotion, simultaneously thrilling and devastating.</p>
<h2>The deepest of emotions</h2>
<p>In performance, Joplin was at once vulnerable and fearless, yearning to break free, pushing boundaries and willing to reveal her authentic self. She was unapologetic.</p>
<p>While Joplin wasn’t singing the protest songs of her contemporaries like <a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/the-political-bob-dylan">Bob Dylan</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/26/phil-ochs-the-doomed-folk-singer-who-woke-up-from-the-american-dream">Phil Ochs</a>, a sense of protest comes through in her expression, her choice of repertoire and the way she refused to sing in a “pretty” voice accepted of women at the time.</p>
<p>As her biographer Alice Echols <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/06/07/127483124/janis-joplin-the-queen-of-rock">said</a>: </p>
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<p>Janis in some sense was the great unrecognized protest singer of the 1960s. No, Janis was not singing explicit protest songs. But in her voice, what people heard was somebody who was refusing the status quo.</p>
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<p>Joplin’s last recorded work, posthumously released as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_(Janis_Joplin_album)">Pearl</a>, demonstrates the ongoing evolution in her vocal use. Her voice has undergone a refinement, still featuring gutsy and raw moments, here it is more controlled, without any loss of expression.</p>
<p>The opening of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfGSd-tikH4">Cry Baby</a> features Joplin singing two notes at once in a constricted tone, then loudly belting out the chorus. She then reduces the volume and softly explains her betrayal in the verses. </p>
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<p>There are clear influences in her use of call and response from gospel music, and in particular the original recording and vocal stylings of <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/garnet-mimms">Garnet Mimms</a>.</p>
<p>This refinement is also visible in one of her last filmed performances. On <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063957/">This is Tom Jones</a> in 1969, she transformed the touching jazz standard Little Girl Blue into a rhythm and blues epic. </p>
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<p>It is edifying to compare her performance with performances of the same song by some of her influences, Nina Simone and Nancy Wilson. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT_Z-D31vbU">Simone’s delivery</a> on piano and voice are expressively delicate and highlight a refined musicianship with subtle embellishments of the melody. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUNGuG700_Q">Wilson’s version</a> features rhythmic precision coupled with lush orchestration.</p>
<p>In contrast, Joplin’s approach features a change of rhythm and tempo throughout the song, regularly extending phrases and singing long held notes highly ornamented with gravelly yearning calls and vocal twists, turns and tone colours. </p>
<p>Joplin stands out as a vocalist of great influence. She was willing to express the deepest of human emotions – emotions not easily allowed nor expressed in western society. She afforded her audience a vicarious understanding of her emotions, an understanding which still echoes today.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-reason-for-livin-early-death-in-female-popular-musicians-61162">'No reason for livin': early death in female popular musicians</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leigh Carriage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joplin’s voice stirs something deep within us. What is it about her that still makes us listen?Leigh Carriage, Senior Lecturer in Music, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1447892020-09-18T22:00:18Z2020-09-18T22:00:18ZThis video shows just how easily COVID-19 could spread when people sing together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355017/original/file-20200827-23-m47nky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C8%2C997%2C654&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/milan-italy-june-10-unidentified-group-99843077">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Production of the reality TV show The Masked Singer <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-victoria-melbourne-tv-show-masked-singer-millionaire-hotseat-studio-outbreak/73913611-1522-4e1e-a858-b76007b39e01">was shut down</a> last month after several crew members were infected with COVID-19.</p>
<p>It’s one of several examples of COVID-19 transmission associated with singing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/10/888945949/is-singing-together-safe-in-the-era-of-coronavirus-not-really-experts-say">around the world</a> <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919e6.htm">since March</a>, prompting some jurisdictions to <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/german-choirs-silenced-singing-branded-virus-risk-025930646--spt.html">ban group singing</a> altogether. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/17/892189590/australian-state-orders-no-dancing-no-singing-no-mingling-to-halt-covid-19">In New South Wales</a>, for example, choral singing <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Pages/cho-advice-religious-gatherings.aspx">is banned</a> and there are no-singing rules <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/industry-guidelines/wedding-ceremonies-and-receptions">at weddings</a> and nightclubs.</p>
<p>Now our <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciaa1241/5908276">new study</a>, which included filming droplets and aerosols emitted when someone sings, shows how singing might be an infection risk. This is especially if many people sing together, in a poorly ventilated room.</p>
<h2>What we did and what we found</h2>
<p>We took high-speed video of a person singing a major scale, as do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do (seen below, without audio). We then tracked the emissions of droplets and aerosols.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GSPv04IJvpI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>We found certain notes, such as “do” and “fa”, generated more aerosols than others. We also found the direction of emissions changed with different consonants.</p>
<p>Infection control guidelines assume respiratory droplets <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaa189">settle rapidly</a> within one to two metres of the person emitting them. </p>
<p>However, most droplets we observed appeared not to settle rapidly, and tended to follow the ambient airflow. </p>
<p>Therefore, without adequate ventilation, these droplets may persist in aerosol clouds. </p>
<p>These observations may partially explain the higher infection rates of COVID-19 during group singing, even when people singing <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919e6.htm">appear well</a>.</p>
<p>Our findings are based on one person singing and individuals may generate aerosols differently. However, our findings apply to singing in <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Pages/cho-advice-religious-gatherings.aspx">any groups</a>, such as churches, schools and social gatherings, all of which are vulnerable to outbreaks of COVID-19.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nsw-hits-pause-on-school-choirs-but-we-cant-stop-the-music-forever-145010">NSW hits pause on school choirs, but we can't stop the music forever</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is it with choirs?</h2>
<p>We’ve known since March of the potential for group singing to transmit SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In this well-documented US example, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6919e6.htm">87% of 61 people</a> who attended one 2.5 hour choir practice became infected, with two deaths. One singer had mild symptoms during rehearsal.</p>
<p>Now our research adds to the growing body of research looking at the transmission risk of singing and the role <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412020319942">aerosols</a> might play.</p>
<p>We know social distancing is effective in reducing the risk of spread during normal social interactions. However, singing in a group and in closed, poorly ventilated environments may generate <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021850208002036">more aerosols</a> than speaking.</p>
<p>When we sing, we vocalise louder and often hold notes for longer. This, together with many singers close together in confined spaces for an hour or more, create conditions that may increase the spread of SARS-CoV-2.</p>
<p>When researchers analysed results from the US choir example, they estimated the infection risk <a href="https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/articles/n583xw008">could have been halved</a> with a shorter choir practice.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-airborne-route-a-major-source-of-coronavirus-transmission-141198">Is the airborne route a major source of coronavirus transmission?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We tend to think of only coughs or sneezes as the primary source of generating aerosols. But <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/you-may-be-able-spread-coronavirus-just-breathing-new-report-finds">even breathing</a> generates aerosols, albeit at lower concentrations. </p>
<p>In fact, we breathe and speak much more than we cough or sneeze. So the cumulative aerosol exposure for a group of people singing and talking, without coughing or sneezing, in a closed environment <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2196-x">may be higher</a> than from a single cough.</p>
<h2>How can we sing together, safely?</h2>
<p>We’ve seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-song-in-your-heart-shouldnt-lead-to-an-infection-in-your-lungs-reasons-to-get-with-online-choirs-137705">online choirs</a> as a safe alternative to traditional ones.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HezxInuN1YA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Singing from your couch is one safe way to continue singing in a group.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other options for safer group singing now and in the future include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>singing outside or in a well-ventilated room</strong> with large open windows as this is likely to dissipate aerosols and further reduce the risk</p></li>
<li><p><strong>physical distancing</strong> of at least two metres while singing</p></li>
<li><p><strong>short performances</strong> to minimise exposure</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://www.gondwana.org.au/covid-19-the-future-of-choral-singing-in-australia/">humming</a></strong> rather than singing during rehearsals, because we show consonants (such as “do”) generate the most aerosols</p></li>
<li><p><strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/20/performers-could-sing-or-play-softly-to-reduce-covid-risk-study-shows">singing softly</a></strong> (and using amplifiers) as this is likely to emit fewer aerosols</p></li>
<li><p><strong>using rapid test kits</strong>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/17/rapid-coronavirus-testing-pcr/">if available</a>, which would allow singers to be screened before performing</p></li>
<li><p><strong>assessing risk factors for individual singers</strong> based on age, chronic diseases and other risk factors for COVID-19. It is more important people at <a href="https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/coronavirus-covid-19-groups-at-higher-risk-faqs">high risk</a> of complications from COVID-19 avoid group singing while there is community transmission.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Some people recommend <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-06-14/how-can-we-resume-choir-practice-without-spreading-coronavirus/12344812">wearing face shields</a> while group singing. But these allow you to breathe in aerosols through the gap underneath, which may be even more likely with the powerful inhalations during singing.</p>
<p>No one measure alone will be enough to mitigate the risk. We need multiple measures used together — physical distancing, shorter performances, open windows, outdoor venues, softer singing and risk-based screening — to allow safer group singing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>C Raina MacIntyre is supported by a NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship, grant number 1137582 and leads a NHRMC Centre for Research Excellence in Integrated Systems for Epidemic Response (ISER) (grant number 1107393. She has received grant funding and been on advisory boards for Sanofi and Seqirus in the past five years.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abrar Ahmad Chughtai had testing of filtration of masks by 3M for his PhD. He also has worked with Paftec on research in respirators (no funding was involved).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charitha de Silva receives funding from the Australian Research Council </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Con Doolan receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Department of Defence.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prateek Bahl and Shovon Bhattacharjee do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our video shows aerosol emissions from singing a simple scale. No wonder singing in a choir can be risky.C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW SydneyAbrar Ahmad Chughtai, Epidemiologist, UNSW SydneyCharitha de Silva, Lecturer, UNSW SydneyCon Doolan, Professor, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW SydneyPrateek Bahl, PhD Candidate, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW SydneyShovon Bhattacharjee, PhD Candidate, The Kirby Institute, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1443892020-09-17T11:24:18Z2020-09-17T11:24:18ZHow to keep teen boys happily singing – instead of giving up when their voices start to change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357043/original/file-20200908-24-1bx9n9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4583%2C3394&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Helping boys through their voice change can keep the joy of singing alive.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MacysAnnualGreatTreeLighting/86b33d3b5cf244e186ea0733bc15fedc">Tomas Ovalle/AP Images for Macy's</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Boys like to sing. Adolescent boys around the world report the same thing: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S026505171400031X">They enjoy singing</a> and want to get better at it. </p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/13/cincinnati-boychoir-plans-to-examine-science-behind-boys-changing-voices/">many boys stop singing</a> during the transition from childhood to adolescence. There is a misconception that boys stop because their voices start to change. Boys don’t actually say that. What they say is, as their voices develop through puberty, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X09344382">become convinced they are no longer good singers</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=FLXq7m4AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F4QskfmkV0fEfSlc3Bn_KtUYPIVRdyw0R8LUKD4dwM8SLMu2ccvDqWpimDXU-MB7oxh6YxA-TMcqC9Yn7yEhFqPMNsXfE2PBIIFL9SKzgly_ShaAiI">music professor and researcher</a>, I’ve interviewed hundreds of boys about why they sing and, more importantly, why they don’t. My goal is to learn what boys want from singing – and how parents and teachers can provide the necessary skills, guidance and support to help them grow into their adult voices.</p>
<h2>Friends and role models</h2>
<p>Adolescent boys are powerfully influenced by peers, family and teachers. These individuals can provide direction and motivation during a boy’s transition from childhood to adolescence, especially if they are supportive and share his goals. It used to be thought that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432108321076">boys stopped singing because of peer pressure</a>. While this may remain true for some, many boys report the opposite: The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X09344382">support of their peers</a> is what attracts them to singing and keeps them involved, especially in school choirs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357033/original/file-20200908-16-1fyyzv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3444%2C2536&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ten boys ranging in age from roughly eight to 16, stand facing the same direction singing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357033/original/file-20200908-16-1fyyzv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3444%2C2536&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357033/original/file-20200908-16-1fyyzv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357033/original/file-20200908-16-1fyyzv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357033/original/file-20200908-16-1fyyzv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357033/original/file-20200908-16-1fyyzv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357033/original/file-20200908-16-1fyyzv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357033/original/file-20200908-16-1fyyzv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From boys to men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SpoletoFestivalUSA/1b2b37dd54854fc4abe59c727429a69a">AP Photo/Bruce Smith</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Older role models are important, because they provide images of what the boy could become in the future. A boy who has a positive role model can make decisions about what he needs to do in order to become like that role model. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S39776">adolescent brain makes this kind of forward-oriented thinking possible</a>, marking a change from childhood, when the focus is on the here and now.</p>
<p>If a boy has an older role model who sings, he can envision a future in which he sings, too – possibly even with friends. That idea might lead him to join a singing group or choir in school. <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/patrick_freer_from_bowling_alone_to_singing_together">Better yet, he might decide to do it with a group of buddies</a>. </p>
<h2>Supporting singing through voice change</h2>
<p>Adolescent boys who sing have unique concerns that must be addressed by teachers or supportive adults. </p>
<p>Boys want to know why their voices crack, when they will be able to sing lower pitches and what to expect during the development process. They also want to know they will be protected from embarrassment. </p>
<p>Providing information about vocal anatomy helps boys understand why and how their voices are changing. A <a href="https://acda-publications.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/choral_journals/Thurman.pdf">boy’s voice change occurs in stages</a>, each clearly defined in terms of the range of high to low notes that can be sung in each stage. The <a href="https://acda-publications.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/choral_journals/Thurman.pdf">six stages of voice change</a> correspond with the six stages of male pubertal development.</p>
<p>Instruction should be adapted to the changing needs (and voices) of adolescent boys. For instance, pitches that were easily sung a month ago might not be accessible today, requiring teachers to adjust the repertoire and voice parts they assign. </p>
<p>Boys can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/8755123318779880">enlisted to discover and chronicle</a> the changes in their own voices. This strategy embraces the autonomy that is so important for adolescent boys. </p>
<p>Adult role models can describe their own voice change, compare notes with the boy and reinforce that older boys and adult men sing. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357047/original/file-20200908-16-1l9z8c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four Black teen singing together." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357047/original/file-20200908-16-1l9z8c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357047/original/file-20200908-16-1l9z8c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357047/original/file-20200908-16-1l9z8c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357047/original/file-20200908-16-1l9z8c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357047/original/file-20200908-16-1l9z8c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357047/original/file-20200908-16-1l9z8c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357047/original/file-20200908-16-1l9z8c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Singing need not be in a choir.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teenagers-rehearsing-on-stage-royalty-free-image/105657687">Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Building musical skill during adolescence</h2>
<p>Many boys will thrive in a school choir, but others will prefer to sing individually or in self-formed groups with friends. The same dynamic occurs in sports, where some athletes join teams while others focus on individual sports or pickup games. What matters is that the boy is presented with ever-increasing challenges appropriate to his growing level of musical skill. </p>
<p>Developing singers have much to learn, such as mastering breath control; understanding how the larynx will grow and change to enlarge their vocal range; coordinating the muscles that will eventually allow for lower (and often louder) pitches; and reading music written in the bass clef. Instead, boys report they are not taught these fundamental components of musical growth, leading them to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2015.1014330">give up hope of ever being “good singers” again</a>. </p>
<h2>Performing</h2>
<p>Music teachers are often evaluated by school administrators the way athletic coaches are judged – by the outcome of a choral performance or game. This is problematic, because adolescent boys say they value the <a href="https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P3-3957114091/reclaiming-group-vocal-instruction">process of learning more than the act of performing</a>.</p>
<p>A public celebration of musical achievement, in front of friends and family, at the precise moment a boy feels most vulnerable about his changing voice, is exactly what many boys say they don’t want at the crux of pubertal development. Instead, many boys I’ve spoken with say they would continue singing were it not for the public performance. The obvious question becomes, “Do all choirs need to sing in public?” These boys suggest the answer is, “No – not until I’m more confident.”</p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the spaces where boys sing. <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-musicians-can-perform-on-virtual-stages-when-schools-are-closed-140820">Virtual choirs, like Zoom choirs, have proliferated</a>. Technology has enhanced the ability for boys to connect socially while making music together. Software featuring amazing production tools is free and easily accessible. But even in this environment, boys will benefit greatly from virtual musical guidance and the support of teachers and other adults.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>A recent nationwide survey found that <a href="https://www.chorusamerica.org/resource/chorus-impact-study-singing-lifetime">54 million Americans (one in six) sing in choirs</a>, and many more enjoy singing in other settings. Research shows <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-004-0006-9">singing improves mood, lowers stress</a> and <a href="https://www.chorusamerica.org/resource/chorus-impact-study-singing-lifetime">builds community</a>. It is my hope that, with a little understanding, the singing boys of today can become the singing fathers, teachers and buddies of tomorrow – who together can join in song.</p>
<p><em>(Note: In this article, “boys” refers to biological sex, not gender identification. Families may wish to discuss the intersections of biology, gender and singing as related to puberty and adolescent development.)</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick K. Freer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many boys stop singing at adolescence – but with the right support, they can continue to sing through their voice change and emerge as lifetime singers.Patrick K. Freer, Professor of Music Education, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.