Sounding the Voice : Identity, Lyrics, and Vocal Recognition in Popular Music

This open access book explores why lyrics and voices resonate with listeners in various temporal, performance and technological contexts.

Sounding the Voice highlights how humans develop voice recognition and listening competence through a lifelong relationship with the voice. The voice is considered to be a transmitter of verbal information and an embodied, expressive sound that conveys identity, intent and temperament. Within this analysis is a further exploration of the impact of AI-generated voices, from how they challenge people’s knowledge of voice to their ability to recognize voices and traditional notions of vocal identity. This is a vector for considering how new technologies shape vocal aesthetics and perceptions of vocal performance and lyrical meaning.

Through interdisciplinary insights into individual artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, Jacob Collier, Joni Mitchell, Sade, David Bowie and Jason Isbell, as well as particular songs such as the Beatles’ ''The Fool on the Hill,'' Childish Gambino’s ''This Is America,'' Lady Gaga’s ''911,'' and Jason Aldean’s ''Try That in a Small Town,'' the book reveals how vocal timbre, sensory responses, performance dynamics and listening contexts shape our perception of lyrics and vocal performances. It demonstrates that lyrical and song meanings are not stable but dynamic, co-created by authors, performers and audiences and informed by factors such as technology, culture and time. Accessible yet analytical, this book offers a fresh perspective on the interplay between lyrics, voices and the evolving technologies shaping how we experience and understand songs.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Bloomsbury Open Collections Library Collective.