Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Sung this way

Along with the rest of the world, I've been hearing a lot of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way". Lyrically, it's an "I Will Survive" for the singer's LGBTI fans, but what makes it thrilling and unique is the vocal, particularly the way Lady G repeatedly shifts between the lower and upper registers. The other great song that used this kind of vocal mannerism as a hook was Johnny Cash's "I Walk The Line", and there the shift to upper was every second paragraph (here it's every other line).


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

True!
With Cash it's more pronounced and deliberate...Gaga's is subtler...as if not intended...

a fan apart said...

I agree. I think that's probably what drew me in in the first place - the fact that she threw it in like it was no big deal.