Screaming Dance Music

It's funny how life works. A couple of posts ago I talked about the art of screaming, and now I come across this...

I have to admit I wouldn't actually listen to this on my leisure time, but it's certainly an original idea. I'm sure it fills a niche that never existed before!

What am I talking about? Ever wonder what would happen if dance music incorporated death metal screaming? Me neither. But someone did, and here's the result. Whatever you think of it, I think we can all agree it's worth listening to once, because this is definitely different:



I checked out their other videos, but they seem to be more of a rap group than a dance group. Screaming and rap didn't surprise me as much, so I posted this video instead. If you like it, they are called brokeNCYDE.

Dancing?

I've posted about different aspects of music here, from instruments, performance, vocals, and even music videos. I think all have the potential to move people, to touch people in ways that are impossible to describe in words. However, I had a very awkward realization when it was made apparent that I have not talked about dancing.

What made me realize this? This is even more embarrassing - the youtube video from "So you think you can dance", where all the judges were crying. I guess I will embed it here. The performance is supposedly extremely moving.



But I don't get it. Nada. I thought it was entertaining to watch, but in the same way that I am impressed with gymnastics. I felt nothing watching this. Believe me, I tried though. Hard.

So it is with this realization that I reflected upon my understanding of dancing, and came out wondering: Am I missing something here? Because I really don't think I get it. Perhaps the above video is just a bad example, but I still have yet to ever see a dance that moved me. Dances can look sexy, can look strong, can look impressive...but I can't imagine a dance that could make me feel something the way music can, the way a painting can, or the way that actors can (for me personally).

If anyone has any thoughts on this, please feel free to share! I would love to understand dance. It's so utterly tied with music, yet I am completely ignorant of it.

Screamology

I can understand that people have different tastes and preferences in music. So I can appreciate people not liking, or even hating certain styles of music. But it's a whole other thing to deny the musicality inherent in different genres just because you don't appreciate it. What do I mean? I'm sure you've heard people say things like this: "That stuff takes no musical talent. It's just computer bleeps." Or "They aren't playing music, they're just screaming."

It's an unfortunate, yet common statement. Unfortunate, because I think it's not that these people don't see the musicality of these genres, it's just that they don't understand it. It's a knowledge issue, and hopefully this blog contributes a little bit towards learning more about different types of music.

On that note, I want to focus on the screaming that is used in hardcore and death metal etc. Unlike what it might seem, screaming takes a lot of proper vocal technique, and is extremely difficult. It's not just pushing your vocal chords until they crack: in fact, that would be completely wrong! I found a great Discovery Channel video about Melissa Cross, who is essentially (from what I know) the only person who teaches the proper technique to screaming. This video goes through some basic motions of what it takes, and the difficulty involved in producing these sounds.



I've also added the video of when she was on Conan, because it's pretty hilarious.