Percussion using voice
Beatboxing
(also
beat boxing
) is a form of
vocal percussion
primarily involving the art of mimicking
drum machines
(typically a
TR-808
), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and
voice
.
[1]
It may also involve vocal imitation of
turntablism
, and other
musical instruments
. Beatboxing today is connected with
hip-hop culture
, often referred to as "the fifth element" of hip-hop, although it is not limited to
hip-hop music
.
[2]
[3]
The term "beatboxing" is sometimes used to refer to vocal percussion in general.
Origins
[
edit
]
Techniques similar to beatboxing have been employed in diverse
American musical genres
since the 19th century, such as
early rural music
, both black and white, religious songs,
blues
,
ragtime
,
vaudeville
, and
hokum
. Examples include the
Appalachian
technique of
eefing
and the blues song
Bye bye bird
by
Sonny Boy Williamson II
.
Additional influences may perhaps include forms of
African traditional music
, in which performers
utilize their bodies (e.g., by clapping or stomping) as percussion instruments
and produce sounds with their mouths by breathing loudly in and out, a technique used in beatboxing today.
[4]
[5]
Vocal percussion [is], "the imitation or approximation of percussion instruments," and beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion but can be described as, "music with your mouth... beatboxing is making and
being
the music, not just rhythm." ...Beatboxing is both the rhythm ? predominantly through the
bass
and
snare drums
as well as
hi-hat
? while also incorporating various sound effects such as DJ
scratching
, synthesizers, and
bass lines
. Using the mouth, lips, tongue, and voice to make music is thus the beatboxer's equivalent to a pianist's fingers and arms.
[6]
[7]
Many well-known performers used vocal percussion occasionally, even though this was not directly connected to the cultural tradition that came to be known as beatboxing.
Paul McCartney
's "
That Would Be Something
" (1969) includes vocal percussion.
Pink Floyd
's "
Pow R. Toc H.
" (1967) also includes vocal percussion performed by the group's original lead vocalist,
Syd Barrett
. Jazz singers
Bobby McFerrin
and
Al Jarreau
were very well known for their vocal styles and techniques, which have had great impact on techniques beatboxers use today.
Michael Jackson
was known to record himself beatboxing on a dictation tape recorder as a demo and scratch recording to compose several of his songs, including "
Billie Jean
", "
The Girl Is Mine
", and others.
[8]
In contrast, the English progressive rock band
Jethro Tull
adopted beatboxing on at least one track on their 2003 Christmas album.
Gert Frobe
, a German actor most widely known for playing
Auric Goldfinger
in the
James Bond
film
Goldfinger
, "beatboxes" as Colonel Manfred von Holstein (simultaneously vocalizing horned and percussive instruments) in
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
, a 1965 British comedy film.
Contribution to hip-hop
[
edit
]
Modern beatboxing first began as a way to assist or backup the MC. When drum machines were unavailable or unaffordable, communities in the inner city of New York began to mimic the sounds with their voices in ciphers. The term "beatboxing" is derived from the mimicry of early
drum machines
, then known as beatboxes, particularly the
Roland TR-808
.
[1]
The term "beatbox" was used to refer to earlier
Roland
drum machines such as the
TR-55
and
CR-78
in the 1970s.
[9]
They were followed by the TR-808, released in 1980, which became central to
hip hop music
[9]
and
electronic dance music
.
[1]
It is the TR-808 that human beatboxing is largely modeled after.
[1]
"Human beatboxing" in hip-hop originated in the 1980s. Its early pioneers include
Doug E. Fresh
, the self-proclaimed first "human beatbox" (and arguably its most famous practitioner);
[10]
Swifty, the first to implement the inhale sound technique
[
citation needed
]
;
Buffy
, who helped perfect many beatboxing techniques;
[11]
and
Wise
, who contributed significantly to beat boxing's proliferation.
[
citation needed
]
Wise inspired an entire new fan base of human beatboxers with his human turntable technique. Other pioneers of beatboxing include
Rahzel
well known for his realistic robotic sounds and for his ability to sing and beatbox simultaneously,
Scratch
a beatboxer and musician well known for further revolutionizing the use of vocal scratching in beatboxing, Kenny Muhammad the Human Orchestra, a beatboxer known for his technicality and outstanding rhythmic precision, who pioneered the inward k snare, a beatbox technique that imitates a snare drum by breathing inward, and Emanon, an early protegee of Doug E. Fresh associated with Ice T and
Afrika Islam
.
[12]
Many refer to beatboxing as the unofficial 5th element of hip-hop.
Modern beatboxing
[
edit
]
The Internet has played a large part in the popularity of modern beatboxing. Alex Tew (aka A-Plus) started the first online community of beatboxers in 2000 under the banner of HUMANBEATBOX.COM. An early example of modern beatboxing was seen in the
2001
South Korean
romantic comedy
film
My Sassy Girl
. In 2001, Gavin Tyte, a member of this community created the world's first tutorials and video tutorials on beatboxing. In 2003, the community held the world's first Human Beatbox Convention in London featuring beatbox artists from all over the world.
Beatboxing's current popularity is due in part to releases from artists such as
Rahzel
,
RoxorLoops
,
Reeps One
and
Alem
. In the Pacific, American beatboxer of
Hawaii Chinese
descent Jason Tom co-founded the Human Beatbox Academy to perpetuate the art of beatboxing through outreach performances, speaking engagements and workshops in
Honolulu
, the westernmost and southernmost major U.S. city of the 50th U.S. state of
Hawaii
.
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
Sometimes, modern beatboxers will use their hand or another part of their body to extend the spectrum of sound effects and rhythm. Some have developed a technique that involves blowing and sucking air around their fingers to produce a very realistic record scratching noise, which is commonly known as the "
crab scratch
". Another hand technique includes the "throat tap", which involves beatboxers tapping their fingers against their throats as they
throat sing
or hum. Beatboxers today can produce up to two different sounds at the same time.
[
citation needed
]
Modern beatboxing has also evolved with the advent of technology such as live looping. Many beatboxers like
Beardyman
,
KRNFX
, and
The Petebox
use modern looping devices such as the Boss RC-505 to sample or layer their beatboxing sounds live on stage, in addition to traditional solo beatboxing. Such adaptation has allowed modern beatboxers to perform entire musical compositions much like DJs but with their mouths.
Today there is an increase in the variety in which we see beatboxing throughout musical culture. People have gone as far as adding beatboxing in with different instruments to create a completely different sound unlike any other. Artist
Greg Patillo
goes as far as adding in beatboxing while playing the flute to very iconic songs. Beatbox has become modernized and has even been seen in popular movies such as
Pitch Perfect
and
Pitch Perfect 2
. These movies showcase classical songs performed with a cappella covers in which all of the beats to the songs are done completely using the idea and technique of beatboxing to complete the sound capable to imitate the original song.
Notation
[
edit
]
As with other musical disciplines, some form of
musical notation
or
transcription
may sometimes be useful in order to describe beatbox patterns or performances. Sometimes this takes the form of
ad hoc
phonetic approximations, but is occasionally more formal.
[
b
]
is usually the bass drum,
[
k
]
is usually the snare drum, and
/
ts
/
(
[t?s]
) is usually the hi-hat (in
4
4
: ??b-ts-k-ts-b-ts-k-ts??).
Standard Beatbox Notation
(SBN) was created by Mark Splinter and Gavin Tyte
[20]
of
Humanbeatbox.com
in 2006
[21]
as an alternative to
International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA) transcription, which had been used sparingly before then.
In a research study published in 2013 and based on real-time
MRI
imaging of a beatboxer, the authors propose a notation system which combines the
International Phonetic Alphabet
with musical
staff notation
, in part motivated by their observation that many beatboxing sounds can be adequately represented by the IPA.
[22]
Phonology
[
edit
]
Each beatboxer can produce a very large number of unique sounds, but there are three distinct linguistic categories of sound within beatboxing.
Ejectives
are the strong puffs of air from the
voice box
that give intensity to percussive sounds. The "t", "p", and "k" sounds can all be made into ejectives
[
dubious
–
discuss
]
. "Ch" and "j" are examples of ejective affricates.
Nonstandard
fricatives
are the mechanical sounds such as snare drums, cymbals, and other buzzing noises in beatboxing that are made with fricatives. Certain sounds, such as velar lateral fricatives, bilabial lateral fricatives, and linguolabial fricatives, and velar trills
[23]
[24]
[25]
are all judged impossible according to the IPA but are technically possible and are sounds that are commonly used in beatboxing.
[26]
Coarticulation
is the act of controlling a sound in two places at once. A common example of this is the sound created by rolling an "r" sound while saying a "v" sound. This is called a voiced alveolar trill with labiodental articulation. Similarly,
epenthesis
is the sound created when beatboxers sing and do percussion at the same time. Contrary to what the sound suggests, their tongue is not in two places at once. This effect is created by placing percussive sounds in the middle of words.
[22]
Multi-vocalism
[
edit
]
Multi-vocalism is a form of vocal musicianship conceptualized by British beatboxer and vocalist
Killa Kela
. It describes beatboxers who incorporate other vocal disciplines and practices into their routines and performances such as
singing
,
rapping
, sound mimicry and other vocal arts.
Beardyman
is a well known multi-vocalist.
World records
[
edit
]
According to the
Guinness World Records
, the current record for the largest human beatbox ensemble was set by
The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
, with 6,430 participants, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
on 26 June 2017.
[27]
Prior to this, the record was set by
Booking.com
employees with 4,659 participants. It was achieved by Booking.com employees together with beatboxers at the RAI Amsterdam in
Amsterdam
,
Netherlands
, on 10 December 2013 during their annual company meeting.
[28]
The previous largest human beatbox ensemble involved 2,081 participants and was achieved by Google (Ireland), Shlomo (UK) and Testament (UK) at The Convention Centre, Dublin, Ireland, on 14 November 2011.
[28]
Before Shlomo's record, the previous record for the largest human beatbox ensemble involved 1,246 participants and was achieved by
Vineeth Vincent
and
Christ University
(India) in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, on 5 February 2011.
[28]
Selected discography
[
edit
]
This list is a selected discography of commercial releases which are mostly/entirely beatbox-based or are otherwise notable/influential records in the history of beatboxing and its popularization.
1980s
[
edit
]
1990s
[
edit
]
2000s
[
edit
]
2010s
[
edit
]
2020s
[
edit
]
- Show-Go - "Silver" (2022)
[31]
- D-low - "LanigirO" (2022)
[32]
- Stitch - "Stay With Me" (2022)
[33]
- Den - "Moments I had" (2022)
[34]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
When asked to beatbox,
Siri
will repeat the phrase "Boots and Cats" to mimic beatboxing.
[35]
Teen Vogue
called it "perhaps the most entertaining mid-day pick-me-up ever created."
[36]
Hamilton: An American Musical
used some BeatBoxing in "Aaron Burr, Sir".
Beatboxing can often be seen in national advertisements. A
GEICO
radio commercial
, featuring a supermarket employee beatboxing various announcements over a store intercom ("Cleanup on aisle 14" with beats interspersed), won the
Westwood One
Sports Sounds Awards Media Choice Award for best commercial heard during the radio network's coverage of
Super Bowl LII
.
[37]
A 2021 national
M&M's
commercial seen in Times Square features American beatbox looping champion
SungBeats
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
TOWARD A BEATBOXOLOGY
, Human Beatbox
- ^
The History of Beatboxing
, humanbeatbox.com
- ^
D. Stowell and M. D. Plumbley,
Characteristics of the beatboxing vocal style
Archived
2012-02-25 at the
Wayback Machine
. Technical Report C4DM-TR-08-01. 2008.
- ^
Duchan, Joshua S. (April 4, 2012).
Powerful Voices: The Musical and Social World of Collegiate A Cappella
. Tracking Pop.
University of Michigan Press
. p. 43.
ISBN
978-0-472-11825-0
. Retrieved
July 29,
2017
.
- ^
Thompson, Tok (2011). "Beatboxing, Mashups, and Cyborg Identity".
Western Folklore
.
70
: 171?193.
- ^
Sherman, Philip (2015).
"Introduction"
.
Boots and cats!: Beatboxing from a pedagogical perspective
(M.A.). Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Department of Music Education. p. 3
. Retrieved
2 February
2019
.
- ^
McDonald, Brody (2012).
A Cappella Pop
. California: Van Nuys. p. 81.
ISBN
9780739095072
.
quotes Jake Moulton (of
The House Jacks
and
Mosaic
)
- ^
"Michael Jackson BeatBoxing"
.
YouTube
. 2008-03-27.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-12
. Retrieved
2011-01-13
.
Jackson beatboxes while explaining how he composed "
Tabloid Junkie
", "
The Girl Is Mine
", "
Who Is It
", "
Billie Jean
", and "
Streetwalker
" (song on the
Bad
album 2001 Special Edition)
- ^
a
b
HISTORY OF BEATBOX: OLD SCHOOL
, Human Beatbox
- ^
"Doug E. Fresh"
.
MTV Artists
.
- ^
"Darren Buffy Robinson | HUMAN BEATBOX"
.
Humanbeatbox.com
. Retrieved
2017-02-02
.
- ^
"Afrika Islam's Personal Copy of Baby Beatbox"
.
Sotheby's
.
- ^
"Hawai'i's Human Beatbox"
.
University of Hawai?i Foundation Office of Alumni Relations
. 19 October 2018
. Retrieved
31 October
2019
.
- ^
"Kapi?olani CC alum stays on beat spreading message of perseverance"
.
University of Hawai?i News
. December 13, 2018
. Retrieved
31 October
2019
.
- ^
Yamashiro, Lexus (15 July 2017).
"KCC Alumnus Inspires Community Through Beatboxing, Motivational Speaking"
.
Kapi?o News
. Retrieved
31 October
2019
.
- ^
Ching, Kapi?olani (December 13, 2018).
"Hawai?i's Human Beatbox"
.
University of Hawai?i at Kapi?olani Alumni
. Retrieved
January 23,
2021
.
- ^
Lim, Woojin (January 21, 2021).
"Jason Tom: Hawaii's Human Beatbox"
.
The International Wave: A Collection of In-Depth Conversations With Artists of Asian Descent
. Retrieved
January 23,
2021
.
- ^
Hulme, Julia (January 25, 2016).
"Jason Tom: The Human BeatBox"
.
Millennial Magazine
. Retrieved
January 23,
2021
.
- ^
Garfield, J.
Breath Control: The History Of The Human Beat Box
at
IMDb
. 2002.
A documentary on the history of the art form, including interviews with Doug E. Fresh,
Emanon
,
Biz Markie
,
Marie Daulne
of
Zap Mama
, Kyle Faustino, and others.
- ^
TyTe.
"Standard Beatbox Notation"
.
HumanBeatBox.com
.
- ^
Liu, Marian.
"Beatboxing: An oral history; Hip-Hoppers Turn to Voice-Based Rhythms"
.
San Jose Mercury News, California
. Archived from
the original
on 2017-01-16.
2007-01-04
- ^
a
b
Proctor, M.I.; Bresch, E.; Byrd, D.; Nayak, K. & Narayanan, S. (2013).
"Para-Linguistic Mechanisms of Production in Human "Beatboxing": a Real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study"
.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
.
133
(2): 1043?1054.
Bibcode
:
2013ASAJ..133.1043P
.
doi
:
10.1121/1.4773865
.
PMC
3574116
.
PMID
23363120
.
- ^
"Voiceless Velar Trill"
.
YouTube
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-12
. Retrieved
20 April
2021
.
- ^
"The elusive Velar Trill"
.
YouTube
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-12
. Retrieved
20 April
2021
.
- ^
"Shouldn't there be a velar trill in the IPA?"
.
YouTube
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-12-12
. Retrieved
20 April
2021
.
- ^
Victoria Fromkin; Robert Rodman; Nina Hyams (1 January 2018).
An Introduction to Language
. Cengage Learning. p. 199.
ISBN
978-1-337-55957-7
.
- ^
"Largest human beatbox ensemble"
.
Guinness World Records
. Retrieved
2023-06-07
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Largest human beatbox ensemble"
.
Guinness World Records
. Retrieved
2012-03-27
.
- ^
"Mary Had A Little Boy 12"
.
Discogs
. October 1990
. Retrieved
30 June
2016
.
- ^
"NaPom - Lips"
.
swissbeatbox.com
. Archived from
the original
on 2018-04-04
. Retrieved
2018-04-03
.
- ^
"SHOW-GO - Silver (Beatbox)"
.
YouTube
. Retrieved
2023-09-24
.
- ^
"D-low | LanigirO (Beatbox Video)"
.
YouTube
. Retrieved
2023-09-24
.
- ^
"Stitch - Stay with Me (BEATBOX)"
.
YouTube
. Retrieved
2023-09-24
.
- ^
"DEN vs Zer0 | Moments I had | #bbu22 Top 16"
.
YouTube
. Retrieved
2023-09-24
.
- ^
"Siri drops sick beats when you ask her to beatbox"
.
CNET
. CBS Interactive. 13 January 2016.
- ^
Kate Dwyer (13 January 2016).
"iPhone's Siri Can Totally Beatbox ? Teen Vogue"
.
Teen Vogue
.
- ^
"Motel 6, GEICO Win Westwood One's Sports Sounds Awards"
.
Insideradio.com
. 6 February 2018
. Retrieved
20 April
2021
.
External links
[
edit
]
Beatboxing-Communities supporting the scene for more than 10 years:
Wikinews has related news: