As in "Love Shack- by the B-52's, within the first minute of the song the background singers are in a sense keeping time with the repetition of the phrase "love getaway- in the background. Most often the "backup- singers are female, but as in songs by modern day "boy bands- like Backstreet Boys and *N Sync, there are one or two "lead- singers while the others create backup for them. A person's voice can be noted and scored, but each individual will stray away from the scored notes and make the music there own, their voice is a gesture, making-meaning through what they feel a song is about. Frith notes that with the invention of the microphone, artists were able to be more sincere to the audience. If you've ever been to a concert before, you should know that this is true. In a large venue like the UNI-Dome an artist wants to be heard and the audience wants to hear them, who would pay $25-$100 to go to a concert where you couldn't hear the singer.
When thinking of the voice as a body, the questions of gender and gender relations arise. More than likely you would be able to tell whether the voice is male or female, but there are some circumstances that may be questionable. When listening to a group like *N Sync for the first time, one may not know that the group is all male (I know I didn't the first time I heard them). The "backup- singers sounded female to me with their high, falsetto voices, it was only when I asked someone when I found out that *N Sync was five guys and no females. I was astonished and intrigued at how a man could get his voice so high without getting injured below the belt.
The high voice is heard as the young voice, and rock is a youth form - Frankie Lymon and Michael Jackson remain the teen models.This remains the norm of male rock group singing, the boys in the band harmonizing above the lead, oohing and aahing just like a bunch of girls (287).
One can manipulate their voice to sound as a different person, as in playing a character, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
