Has Anyone Noticed this 'Vocal Fry' Syndrome Going On

[titaniumsalute]

For those of you who haven't heard this term check this article out.

http://gawker.com/5867222/vocal-fry-is-the-hot-new-linguistic-fad-among-women

I'm hearing this a lot from young females and my wife (a HS teacher) is telling me she hears it all the time. How bizarre.

[Odin2005]

1. I hear it all the time.

[enough]

2. This is far preferable to the infant/child squeak/squeal thing that is equally common

among young women. I see this as a positive development.

I have to say also, older women are equally prone to the squeak/squeal habit, and it's even less appealing in that case.

I'm 68, female, in case anyone want to analyze my prejudices.

[nolabear]

3. Well that's cool.

I like linguistic fads. Sometimes they become permanent changes, usually not. The one that I'm most aware of is "I know, right?" NEVER used to hear that.

[titaniumsalute]

4. I like the response

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah...real fast.

Honestly that shit drives me up the wall. One "yeah" is sufficient.

[eShirl]

33. ha - I always hear that one w/a 1940's New York accent

like Leo Gorcey of the Dead End Kids/ East Side Kids /Bowery Boys

[Fawke Em]

5. I naturally sound like that because of all my allergies.

I had surgery for a deviated septum because I kept getting blocked up and had horrid headaches. Now, I drain so well, that my voice box is usually irritated and creaks all by itself.

[zappaman]

6. Howard Stern brought this up last week

and was playing many examples.
Way weird.

[shcrane71]

7. Sounds like Marge Simpson's groan.

[Sparkly]

8. Meghan McCain does this.

In an interview recently, she was talking about the Dream Act, and every time she said "Act" she fried it.

[backscatter712]

9. Hmmm.

The times I do vocal fry is when I'm taking after Keith Olbermann and mimicking Bill O'Reilly with the Ted Baxter voice.

"TIDES GO IN! TIDES GO OUT! NEVER A MISCOMMUNICATION! YOU CAN'T EXPLAIN IT!"

But I'm a guy, so my use of vocal fry is different from how women use it.

[Control-Z]

10. I've done that my whole life.

Worse as a kid, though. Now that it's in I guess I can go back to my childish ways?

[bluestate10]

14. So have it. Typically when tired or frustrated.

It is my way of avoiding ripping someone's face off and going to prison.

[Warpy]

11. The croaking chorus of young, collegiate women has been remarked about extensively

on a non political site I often post on. In the attempt to emulate the lower voices of males and thus be taken a bit more seriously, a lot of young women have succeeded in emulating frogs and it drives most of us who thought males could just bloody well learn to take us as we are around the bend.

Somebody needs to tell them it's not going to work.

[kestrel91316]

12. Valleyspeak.

[MrScorpio]

13. I do it too on my radio show

If you listen to me, you'll hear it from time to time

[titaniumsalute]

16. What's your radio show?

I used to do 5 hours every night of talk radio and I don't think I did it.

Where can I hear your show?

[MrScorpio]

17. Here you go

http://www.mixcloud.com/tag/mrscorpio/

http://tinyurl.com/ScorpiosPodcasts

[titaniumsalute]

18. Nice! Thanks.

[arely staircase]

15. that is a fad?

I used to amuse myself as a young child doing that. We didn't have all the modern gadgetry and had to make our own fun.

[saras]

19. Linguistics profs write papers on it. I think it comes from pop music.

Personally I find it annoying because of the fad aspect - a lot of people who do it just sound wrong and stupid. But that's always the case with fads - there's a whole bunch of people, often the majority, who only get away with it because it's a fad. There were actually a small handful of male dancers who looked good in lime green polyester leisure suits, and an equally small handful that looked good with spiky green hair - probably about ten of them. The rest, in both cases, should have stuck to their blue jeans and t-shirts.

At least they're not all talking like they're auto-tuned. Yet.

[arely staircase]

20. talking like they are autotuned

I would actually like to see that.

[saras]

32. Don't ask for it if you don't really want it...

...personally I'd love to be able to do a cover of Vic Chesnutt's Vibratile Nerves

[Manifestor_of_Light]

21. Autotune is evil. As explained by noted singer Neil deGrasse Tyson.

[Dawson Leery]

22. Indeed.

[frogmarch]

30. Very funny! I got

a big kick out of it, especially the shower scene.

[vineyarddave]

23. Fry drives me nuts as well.

Nearly every female NPR segment reporter has it. Melissa Block does as well. I wonder if it's a job qualification.

Here is a nasty example of it. Arrggghhhh.

Funny thing... The Today Show did this piece on it. Three seconds later one of the Today Show reporters, with her own nasty vocal fry, interviewed a guest. She didn't even seem to know she had the affliction, deliberate as it may be.

Maybe something is wrong with my ears. To me vocal fry is more annoying that scraping fingernails on a blackboard. A sharp fork in a stainless steel mixing bowl?

My 30-something nephew thinks it's sexy as hell.

What-ever.

[Brickbat]

24. Women, just so you know, you can't ever win. If your voice is too high, you're infantalized or

told you sound like a little girl and need to be more assertive. So if you lower your voice to add gravitas, you're accused of "vocal fry" or "creaking."

Just so ya know! You're fucked either way.

[seabeyond]

27. i was thinking being told forever voice TOO high....

now bitchin cause too low.....

meh

better than the valley girl

[Duer 157099]

25. So that's what Nick Nolte is doing on "Luck"

WTH happened to his voice? Or is this what it is?

[superpatriotman]

26. Yes! Thanks for posting

The "Paris Hiltonization" of women.

[frogmarch]

28. OMG I was going to

post about vocal fry yesterday!

At first it didn't annoy me too much to hear someone growl when they sang, but now I can't stand listening to any singers who do it.

I've never noticed anyone speaking with vocal fry, but I'm not around a lot of young people, and that may be why.

[Snake Alchemist]

29. Anything that seems to be spread by Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears cannot be good.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57343205-10391704/are-creaking-pop-stars-changing-how-young-women-speak/

[MadrasT]

31. Hmmmm. Yes I hear it a lot, now that I think about it.

It doesn't particularly bother me.

[eShirl]

34. "vocal fry" is one approach for beginners learning khoomei style throat singing

http://www.busker-kibbutznik.org/khoomei/HOW-TO/crashcourse.html