Beatboxology - An Academic Research Paper on Beatboxing.

Toward a Beatboxology; 'Do The Beatbox', A New and Developing Art Form.

“Beatboxing for the past like 20 years has been a baby and it's still, I think, only a toddler. Now its walking”. Reepsone-2009

Music Undergraduate Dissertation for Goldsmiths University. 05/2015.

Charlie Kew.

Beatboxing has been developing rapidly since the 1980’s. What was (and may still be) commonly known as 'hip hop vocal percussion' has become incredibly expansive and outweighs the ambiguous and limited definitions surrounding it. This essay will outline the journey of beatbox as far as one can perceive from the recorded and available information online, highlighting the depth of complexity that is often taken for granted in this artform. The techniques and musical developments of beatboxing will be expressed reflectively. This is an exercise in taking beatboxing seriously and while not the first, it is a first for an academic review of beatbox as its own subject, meaning that the academic sources used rarely refer to beatbox directly. Often the directly relevant material comes in amateur and obscure forms online, while the academic content refers to aspects within the beatbox phenomenon but not directly, meaning a wide variety of sources has been applied. This is primarily a musicological research, so it is my aim to express the potential for ethno(musico)logical, linguistic or phonetic and anthropological research as well. The foremost question to be explored in this essay is; what is beatbox (so far)? And how can we begin an academic discussion, on the musical potential of beatboxing and its place in the larger world of art? This may not seem to pose a lengthy discussion at first, perhaps you may feel the answer exists and is simple. However I will argue that there is a large misconception, that a limiting view has culminated through the disparate distribution of beatbox. Instead it will be put forward that we theoretically understand very little about beatbox, that its impact has been huge and has therefore been steadily settling into our awareness and acceptance. Fortunately the musical material to support this claim is extremely available, well archived, and often of high quality, most of which is available on Youtube.

To understand the development of beatbox I will refer to its short history in two periods; the 'Old School', that ends with the emergence of battles and the dissemination of beatbox material on the internet, and the current 'New School', which ignites an increased attention to technical abilities. Unforetunately the pedagogy of beatbox technique in this essay is limited and is not a sound by sound representation of beatbox's musical evolution. If it were possible to create a beatbox pedagogy it would take hugely collaborative and delicate research, so what I have deduced from the techniques is a broad summary, explored throughout the discussion of the Old School and in full detail in the Technical Beatbox section. This covers many areas of the vocal anatomy that are either a first for being applied into music at all, or are being applied in an entirely new way, however the entirety of beatbox techniques goes beyond this essay and as time and beatbox music progresses, I believe the technical content of this essay will become increasingly minute compared to the endless variety and depth of accuracy that beatbox nurtures from the human voice.

Historical Precedence.

Let us set aside the beatbox idea from all other vocal music, before making comparisons. Vocalists of all styles will use the different muscles of their vocal anatomy to varying degrees, beatboxers included. However the non- beatbox vocalist by and large, prioritise one area of the vocal tract unanimously, that is the vocal folds. This attention to the vocal folds permeates through the near entirety of Western vocal music and much of the world, yet uniqueness in style is abundant in every form even within this penny sized area of the anatomy. This is because all styles of vocal music come with a particular concept on how the rest of the anatomy should behave while the vocal folds resonate. Most vocal styles also have an extensive history of practice, with an abundance of masters, intermediates and apprentices stretching back for centuries if not millenia. Beatbox is not like this. Beatbox specifies no particular area of the vocal tract as its focus or vocal sound or style and never has there been an authoritative decision made upon what is or isn’t beatboxing, whether that be sonic or stylistic. Having begun barely years earlier than the 80’s, we are discussing an artform that sees its original masters and pioneers, performing alongside the latest innovators. An artform that belongs just as much to the newest participator, as it does to its oldest originator and yet its history is immensely broad and deeply mysterious.

Many are inclined to suggest that beatbox has a 'prehistory' extending way beyond the 80's and America, but to what extent is this a mere association? A lineage is drawn from Indian 'bols' and African vocal traditions, perhaps based on their mutual association to the term 'vocal percussion'. The aforementioned cultures have strong oral traditions they both imply multiple musical cultures, some of which may have travelled to America from as early as the 1600’s through slavery. In India, a Bol is a syllable, the tradition aids the learning of the tabla drum by embodiment of the drums' sonic characteristics. Bols includes both vowels and consonants and often reaches quite remarkable speeds, the tradition is very old and not the only vocally embodied instrument tradition. Troubadours too are said to be of significance in the build up to beatbox, beatboxers and troubadours both share travelling lifestyles and hold authenticity in great esteem. These are very loose and sporadic connections on paper, but its significant that a proportion of the content written on beatbox, would attempt to make such lineages. What we can deduce is a need for beatbox to be examined in a larger context and a reminder, that it has not just 'popped up- out of the blue'. When we listen to beatbox music, the associations to older traditions can become convincing in certain cases, beatbox has a very strong relationship to all vocal music, because its generation have access to all music, via the internet.

Closer to the dawn of the word beatbox, there was the barbershop quartet, a popular American vocal practice that went through revival in the early 20th century. The attention to gesture, facial expression and theatrical movements and at a stretch, the musical attentiveness to the use of lyrics, could be argued as commonalities of beatbox and barbershop. Yet even closer to the dawn of both hip hop and beatbox, is another popular vocal movement in Black American culture that occurred in the 1950’s and 60’s known as doo-wop. Toop explains how it had particular influences in ‘The Force MD’s’ rap group in combination with rapping and break dancing and amongst the streets and youth before hip hop. From this we can deduce that beatbox may not be the first youth and street oriented vocal experimentation in music and if a pre-history is credible, doo-wop may be its closest descendant. Just outside of doo-wop is Jazz, and in the mid 20th century Scat was emerging as a form of improvised vocal expression which received a considerable amount of participation and investment from singers in Jazz and beyond. When scatting, vowels are used as shapes that accompany the musical style, of course consonants too make an appearance, but are less dominant because of scats relationship to pitch and harmony. The vowel is important in beatboxing as it is to all voice sounds, for it (in short) indicates the positioning of the mouth which is a defining characteristic for the resonance of the breath/sound.

Arguing the ethnological and geographically succinct evolution in vocal music to beatbox as credible, is for another essay title. But amongst the more directly associated developments in vocal music, let us not forget the broader world of singing. Classical singing styles can be seen as the most restricted form of vocal music, where strength comes entirely from the vocal folds and artists work to smooth out any nuances caused by other parts of the vocal tract. However during the latter half of the 20 century a number of Western composers (American included) from Lutowaski and Berlioz to Cage, were systematically re-evaluating the known paradigms of singing, to include ever more unorthodox behaviours. If we were to include the work of Dada sound poetry, the artistic disposition to use the voice in knew and unexplored ways becomes more than music. If we were to see beatbox as a singing style, could we consider it the most free and unrestricted form? Furthermore, if we consider beatbox as music, to what extent can it be equally credible in the world of poetry and language?

Early Old School.

The beginning of the term beatbox is almost inseparable from hip hops four elements, some feel inclined to call beatboxing the fifth. Tyte and White Noise explain that the ‘beat box’ (not beatbox) electronic drum machine inspired “The Art of Human Vocal Percussion”. When expressed as “Human Beatbox”, it neatly summarizes the styles we see in 80’s hiphop culture. It is fairly well established that due to the price of these machines, many Hip-Hop-Americans would have been unable to attain them, hence the introduction of vocal imitation. If we listen to the Eli Compu Rhythm CR7030 it becomes even clearer that the work of early beatboxers, was inspired by these technological influences. As beatbox and technology develops the relationship grows more complex, but a clear relationship exists non the less. By following key developments in technological music production, we may be able to infer a general relationship to beatboxings quickly progressing techniques, but the nature of this relationship will become harder to define up to the present day.

1986 ‘Big Fun in the Big Town’ is one of the earliest (available) filmed documents presenting a number of people “do[ing] the beatbox” in various contexts. The majority of them are supporting rappers, which appears to be a symbiotic relationship such as instrumentalist and singer might share, supporting and therefore raising demand for one another. Some are simply entertaining themselves and those around them much like the b-boys and graffiti artists, and it seems to be of interest to a generally younger generation. Rap began with the MC, the voice that arose from a mixed influence of club DJ’s making announcements and the soft tone of radio DJ’s talking over records. In FREESTYLE we also see a number of beatboxers on the street, in the company of the rappers who hold the documentaries focus. Eluard Burt II compares rap to preaching and explains; “if it gets good a preachers no longer speaking, he’s just making sounds”, would it be possible that beatbox shares this same relationship to rap? He also mentions the unity of the ‘cypher’ form, when rappers gather in a circle, in safe and protective unity around the sounds they make. This happens frequently in beatbox communities and the nature of freestyle too is prominent throughout, so it would appear that beatbox has more than a functional relationship to rap.

The characteristics of DJing too has been influential to beatbox music. Hip hop turntable techniques began with extending the more favored passages of records and has since embodied a complex technical vocabulary. Being able to play different music in flow is a crucial concept for beatboxing and switching between styles seamlessly allows for a more diverse show of technique and musicality. We see many beatboxers use the concept of quickly changing beats, as well as scratch sounds accompanied by gestures that indicate a direct reference to turntablism. First a beat box and then turntables, the idea that a human can sound like another instrument continues to develops and the introduction of terms like ‘Human Orchestra’ appears in the 90’s, but in the 80’s an inclination towards electronic instruments is prevalent. The expansion of instrumental imitation is often accompanied by the ‘gesture’ throughout the Old and New School Beatbox. This idea of imitation is unanimous with many of the styles demonstrated prior to the turn of the millennium, but it becomes a term of controversy come the New School Era.

Few of the early human beatboxers commit themselves to “do[ing] the beatbox” as out rightly as the young Doug. E. Fresh. While many have been supporting the rhythm for rappers on and off stage in the case of Biz Markie, Fresh enthusiastically demonstrates his unique style unaccompanied and uses the term ‘gift’ to describe his performance. While expressing the struggles of his own performances, hip-hop innovator GrandMaster Flash uses a relatively contradicting term; “We were forced to add gimmicks. Like the beatbox”. It would appear that a mixed opinion on the value and role of beatbox has existed from the beginning and true it prevails into the New School, where many audiences find the concept too bewildering and super-human, to even consider it as legitimate music. So whether ‘gimmick’ or ‘gift’, what has been the musical content from the dawn of beatbox up until the early 90’s?

Commercial Old School.

Live performances aside, from the mid 80’s the sound of beatboxing was commercially available. In 1984 both Doug.E.Fresh in The Treacherous Three, clicking all over ‘Xmas Rap’, and Fat Boy Buffy’s percussive contribution to ‘Stick Em’, mark the beginning of a trend of beatbox featurettes in records. They all portray common traits; little a cappella, often there is a simultaneous or mixed combination of vocals and electronic produced music. There is also the tendency to celebrate the human beatbox, particularly in early tracks, to the point of it becoming a main theme in the music. There is little evidence to suggest people were signing deals with beatboxers as it could be said a further ten years on for Bjorks album ‘Medulla’, but rather the emergence of beatboxing in commercial produce, relies purely on groups that decide to incorporate the human beatbox into their existing music.

We begin to see in the late 80’s that beatbox has an uncanny ability, to emerge in any form of media, almost anywhere. Will Smith and his performances in ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ marks the first of beatboxings large steps into popular media, reaching an audience way beyond the beatbox foundations. When talent shows emerge as popular television formats in the late 1990’s, so do opportunities for beatboxing to reach a larger and less temporal demographic. Internet sensation French Pepool covers popular songs on Nouvelle Star and Joel Turner gives a varied demonstration on American Idol. Although beatboxing is reaching a wider audience in the 90’s, even through till the 00’s its impact is weaker than when it landed in hip hop, with reactions being less hyped and a little more intrigued, if not bemused. These pockets of mainstream television give very little to the cultural relevancy of the art form it portrays, especially for something as new and illusive as beatboxing.

The ‘Man of 10,000 Sounds’ Micheal Winslow was a popular figure in 80’s ‘Police Academy’ films (and later series 1997). Winslow confesses to simply making sounds from an early age, imitating his sonic environment as a part of his daily routine. As an adult this passion has lead to a wide and detailed knowledge of sounds, comic and inspiring, including hip hop beats. Another notable voice of this time was Bobby McFerrin, a musician with dynamic interests and skills, who inspires young beatboxers of the coming New School. His style may be more accurately described as scat and he uses body percussion more so than vocal, but he is equally fascinated by and engaged with the palate of the human voice. Neither McFerrin nor Winslow claim to be beatboxers, but their appreciation and devotion to the personalities of their vocal chords made them big inspirations. They are the first of examples mentioned in this essay, that will express the complexity of establishing definitive perimeters on beatbox. Smith, Winslow and McFerrin are propagators of an essential driving force behind beatboxing, without needing to be defined as beatboxers they express to a large audience that more can happen with the voice than we have been aware.

Performers going by the title of ‘beatboxer’ in the mid to late 90’s had made an impact on the mainstream world, if only in fleeting doses. Those who were not witnessing beatbox in a film or on television were most likely hearing the work of Rahzel or Kenny X. Unlike predecessors of the beatbox lime light these musicians made many solo performances in addition to their records, strictly solo, meaning they would perform a set of ‘beatboxing’ and people would go to see them purely for this reason. These are the first instances of beatboxing standing on its own two feet. Kenny collaborated widely, giving him a variety of musical inspirations and Rahzel’s work equally reflects an increase in both artistic treatment of the musicality and techniques, boasting awareness of beatboxing as a musical concept. Rahzel released a hidden solo vocal track on the album ‘make the music 2000’. He famously achieved ‘the tricky part, the beat and the chorus at the same time’ and performed the routine countless times across the globe. The ‘tricky part’ has a profound affect on the audience, but is relatively straight forward to interpret when considered linguistically. Rahzel has worked his beatbox sounds around a lyrical phrase, without diminishing the authenticity in the pronunciation of the individual lines. It certainly left people stunned to be hearing two simultaneous lines of music and it is not something that can be done on the fly. Kid Lucky presents us with a slightly alternative demonstration, his is a freestyle where the focus is not the deceiving layering of sounds but the improvising of rap and beats combined. Perhaps owed to the expansion of musical genre influencing these beatboxers, the art was no longer just an idea but a skill that can be learned and utilized by any willing individual.

Old School Techniques

Musically speaking most of what we hear early on is the bass drum and snare, summarized by Big Buff Love’s style in collaboration with the Fat Boys. He essentially has two techniques, the in- out accentuated breathing for a pitched ostinato, as well as the over accentuated bilabial plosive which he uses in combination with ‘S’ tongue and ‘F’ lip fricatives and lip oscillations, to create enough variation for engaging beats. Doug. E. Fresh has sharp retroflex clicks which make for a distinctive style compared to Buff Love’s, using the diaphragm far less and the facial muscles more. While the retroflex click can be difficult to master there are simpler sounds being made with other areas of the tongue. Biz Markie uses pressure between the tip of the tongue and the roof of the mouth, to create a familiar and approachable popping sound. While there are a few others that are known to beatbox during this time, there is little more happening in the way of style or technique. Right now we are simply dealing with an idea, one that is forming through the cultural sound scape of authentic hip hop music, with a palate of techniques familiar to most people, that are likely heard in at least a few existing dialects.

There are two ways to create multiple layers of sound in beatboxing. It is one of the first questions a beginner beatboxer may be asking and is often one of the introductory subjects of educative forums and tutorials. Truly separate simultaneous vocal sounds happen when air is directed through the nasal airways, while the mouth creates pressure with the muscles. It requires a certain stillness in the vocal tract and makes percussive projection more challenging. ReepsOne’s 4 Levels routine demonstrates the alternative (often used in combination with former, as most complex beatbox becomes), that is the effective choice of patterns which create an illusion of layers. McFerrin actually describes this concept in interview, “if I gave them [the audience] enough of the melody, and left the melody to sing the bass line or the percussive line or something harmonically… in their own imagination they’d sing it, they’d fill in the blanks.” This idea is amplified in beatboxing and ignites a certain mystery element that was popular in the 90’s; the ability to reduce audiences to question whether they are hearing one voice, or whether some kind of electronic or recorded assistance is being utilized. Performers are lead to introduce themselves with disclaimers such as “everything your hearing in this beat, is all from my mouth”, to assure their bewildered audiences.

A Growl is an engagement of the vocal cords by a vibration of the arytenoid cartilages while exhaling. This technique was first brought to light in Jazz by singers such as Louis Armstrong, LaVern Baker and James Brown. As well as Jazz this harsh voice technique also shares connections to rock and metal vocal styles. In this video we hear metal vocalist Mike Pattons’ rendition of avant-garde composer John Zorn’s ‘Litany for Heliogabalus IV’. It contains passages of growling and passages that resemble vocal percussion. In early beatboxing the growl technique appears at a level one might describe as distortion, we can hear in Kenny Muhammads ‘Kraftwerk Numbers’ cover, an un-vocalised growl under the numbers in the intro, and often it will be used to add a bass heavy resonance to percussion.

The Inward K is a highly revered sound and it is made anywhere between the top and side of the tongue, pulling against the roof of the mouth. When sustained it sounds a short fricative, it can be aspirated or un-aspirated and ranges from a sharp high click to a deep rim shot sound. We hear JockBox in 1986 combine a prominent K consonant with a ‘CH’ fricative to give it a dense resonance. This combination of linguistically describable sounds, is where the endlessly creative and fruitful possibilities of beatbox begin. The beatbox sounds of the Old School can essentially be written in words (or at least in the International Phonetic Alphabet or similar), but the truly unique sounds come later, when less and non typical phonemes of vocal sound are not only manipulated for musical affect, but explored in combination with the remaining inactive muscles for variations.

Injective sounds are now becoming a staple feature of beatbox and are yet to become an essential part of beatboxers repertoire. While rests/silences do appear in beatboxing and can be used for regaining breath, it is heavily prominent that sounds are made continuously for an extended period of time. The patterns used in beatboxing require what may well be the most unique behavior of breathing and diaphragm movements humanity has ever imagined. Whether inhaling or exhaling, a certain level of contraction in the diaphragm is happening, to maintain the pressure required for much of the beatbox repertoire. However as many singers will tell you, a relaxed diaphragm is the key to good tone quality and breath control. So training these muscles is essential in order to perform a number of successive sounds in good quality, maintaining the balance of high pressured facial and throat movements and overall relaxed vocal muscles and diaphragm. Further details in the behavior of breathing and muscle movements may require an extensive physiological investigation., another essay title.

Kenny Muhammad established the Wind Technique, which is often associated to his Kraftwerk routine. I feel inclined to discuss this as a concept, more so than a technique, because it highlights the issue of the sound of breathing. As well as avoiding the microphone while breathing, or training all your sounds to entirely disguise any unnecessary breath sound, one can also use fricatives to accentuate breath into a musical device. Regardless of your musical pattern in beatbox, injectives and ejectives aside, the performer will have to take some fully oxygenating breaths at regular intervals. If the musical composition does not suit large gaps for oxygenation, maybe the sound of heavy breathing will be complimentary. What is clear in the Wind Technique routine and in Kenny’s style in general, is that there is no hiding the breath, instead there is a heavy artistic application of it. The conceptual development happening at this stage, seems to be the understanding of restricted and heavily breathing patterns. Breath must serve two simultaneous purposes, generating the right sound and keeping the beatboxer from passing out.

There is no evidence that the technical elements of beatboxing emerging in various ways throughout the 80’s and early 90’s were topics of discussion, yet a gradual increase in technical ability is indisputable. The fruition of more technique is inseparable from the increase in sonic repertoire, and perhaps the expansion of electronic instruments. Schloss outlines how sampling began with records created from other records, and leads to the advent of digital samplers. “Sampling allows the musician to record sounds from other instruments, nature, or even non- musical sources”. Errico states that early samplers such as Akai MPC and E-Mu SP-1200 were used to create instrumental beats and marked the ‘golden era of hip hop’, a time where the relationship of rapper and beat-maker was strong. We can see a clear parallel of electronic music production, in the Old School beatbox repertoire, beginning with the imitation of the beat box sounds in the era of records made from records, leading to the imitation of acoustic instruments and non- imitated or super-linguistic sounds in the era of sampling. Although electronic instruments and beatboxing continue to develop they do not always retain the same relationship. While beatbox may have been largely inspired by electronic music innovations, in the next millennium we see how electronics become utilized into a beatbox performance and in turn inspire the development of electronic instruments.

Early New School and Beatbox Battles.

Isolated from one another and without cultural context, the early New School beatboxers faced challenging conditions to present their art form. With the exception of the older hip hop activists, the impression made by interviews and forums online is that the majority of practicing beatboxers in the 90’s were children, unaware of their own behavior, hooked on an idea seen in a film or a short clip watched using dial-up internet. There was no audience base familiar to beatbox, performances were mainly given to friends and family interested (or at least patient) enough to listen, but this all changed in the new millennium. Gavin Tyte et al founded humanbeatbox.com in 2001, which streamlined the connectivity of a “World Beatbox Community”. They also created Standard Beatbox Notation “A simple, easy-to-learn, and consistent method of representing both human beatbox sounds and rhythms using ordinary characters on a standard English (US/UK) computer keyboard.” So a practically non existent beatbox community, had now begun to share techniques and encouragement at leisure.

Tyte explains that “beatboxers were held back by people’s perceptions of them as novelty value circus acts”. After all beatboxing in the global conscious had so far emanated from snippets of t.v programs or amongst the often bizarre plethora of acts in mainstream talent shows. But beatboxing was still, even if in small doses, being performed to audiences as an independent art form. In the U.K the world touring national champion Faith SFX became a prominent figure in Grime for his unique voice.21 Self acclaimed “Multivocalism” artist Kila Kela had released a multitracked vocal album as early as 200222 and Shockwave from Massachusetts was combining beatbox ideas into theatre, comedy and freestyle. Together and yet so far apart, they were paving a new direction in the art, with fresh perspectives on originality, advocating the study of any technique for any style. Considering the importance of authenticity in hip hop culture, the transition of beatboxing from Old School to the world wide audience, was neither smooth or guaranteed. The young artists of the 90’s, were interpreting something barely formed, into their own unique concepts and were determined to deliver this to an audience. It was considered a passed event by many, just a throwback interpretation of a commercially disseminated, recent yet distant world. The beatboxers mentioned (in this paragraph, Joel Turner and Pepool included) and the unaccountable others like them, fit into the early New School because they are not from the hip hop hot zone. Despite being isolated from the cultural context that birthed beatbox, they were not deterred by the odds to keep the beatbox spirit moving forward. They took on an entirely unique idea for music and felt compelled to fashion their own originality, as well as find audiences ready to listen.

“In the early days of hip hop in the U.S, keepin it real to the street meant doing ‘dance music’.” Dance music can be interpreted quite basically as music to dance to, yet this describes an immense variety of music spanning the globe and history of humanity. It is a primal, tribal and transcendent form of communal ritualism has evolved in Western culture throughout the 90’s in alternative dance culture, with the close aid of psychedelic enhancements. Beatbox has never expressed a relationship with chemical influences, but a tangent discussion could evolve from the increased levels of oxygen uptake/restriction generated from the rapid and erratic breath motions. We are familiar with oxygen and its relationship to the brain, higher levels of which can induce a state of high awareness which is something we find abundant in the culture, so again another study arises.

The broad aesthetic of music to move your body too, is a significant attribute in defining our understanding of Beatbox from the New School onwards. Having progressed from the innocuous and simplistic description of ‘vocal percussion’, the aesthetic of New School Beatbox around the turn of the millennium can be largely attributed to the umbrella term EDM- electronic dance music. The EDM movement has the electronic rock group Kraftwerk at its origins, with qualities of musical futurism and a re-imagined relationship between technology and music. Again we see the ‘beat box’ is an important character, “It’s hard to imagine electronic dance music without Roland drum machines”, notably the TR-808, the sounds of which have often been imitated and reconditioned for availability in sample libraries. Since we have begun imitating electronic music instruments, that carry simple characteristic sonic material, the field of electronic music (and technology in general) has been rapidly developing and may well be a large contributing factor for the inspiration behind the New School beatbox scene. An attraction towards computer influenced musical form such as Drum and Bass, Dubstep, Break Beats and Bass music begins to form as a quasi canon for Beatbox repertoire.

From the 90’s the power of commercial computers were strong enough to run DAW (digital audio workstation), audio editing software. Whereas in the past this software had been designed to emulate tape experimentation, by the release date of Ableton Live, DAW had become more accessible offering more performance and play to a wider demographic. This means a wider community can access the musical composition process and musical qualities afforded by computer software. In an interview with UKF, Reepone describes beatboxing “almost as if you had Ableton or Logic, floating around in your head”. DAW includes much more musical perimeters than our 80’s beat box’s. They enable the cutting and free editing of sound in a linear form, as well as addition of effects, layers and sound quality manipulation. Whether DAW is an instrument is up for negotiation, but it has certainly been an influential concept for beatboxers, one that offers an increased depth in musical thinking than the simple sounds and rhythms of a beat box. Beatbox in the New School is symbiotic to genres and electronic devices and may still be described as a continuing process of imitation, despite the growing depth and complexity of electronic music. But the relationship is becoming broader, more diverse and indescribable. Over the 00’s ‘imitation’ becomes less of a description and begins to undermine the principle behind the music, to great extent. The music of Beatbox begins to ween itself away from the references to outside musical concepts and gathers enough presence to form its own styles, references to its own concepts and in short, becomes less about imitation and quickly about pure creation.

The majority of beatbox music being performed and listened to in the early New School was in battles, a prominent form of entertainment in Hip Hop, while many other cultures show an interest in competitive music. In the case of Beatbox two performers are required to perform head to head under the scrutiny of an acclaimed jury. In 2005 early German hip-hop activist Beelow feels that the people need a communal beatbox event and uses his connections made as an enthusiastic beatboxer, DJ battle host and aerosol artist, to host the first of the world championship battles. “From this point of view, I saw how to create a mutli-mega event with thousands of people, t.v stations, media press, radio shows, interviews, public relations”. This resulted in mass growth of published videographic material, a physical bond for world wide beatboxers and a new ambition for the beatbox idea; technique. Those who triumph the regional battles would be invited to compete with their peers at the first World Beatbox Battle in 2005, where their interpretation of beatboxing would inform a more diverse and global audience than anywhere else. In more present battles, “Wild Cards” stimulate the contributions of beatbox videos to the internet, offering 3 places in the competition to anyone who submits a video of their beatbox capabilities online. The battles have become a staple ritual experience for progressing performers, whether they care to win or practice or simply showcase to an audience of peers, a battle is a time of community engagement and development.

There is an increasing amount of video documentation showing a large variety of beatbox material available on the web. In 2008 Pepouni joins Swissbeatbox, a company founded in 2006 aiming to start a German speaking beatbox community, they switch their language to English and quickly become one of the largest documenting organizations of the latest and greatest beatboxing talent. As well as scouting and filming, Swissbeatbox sells artwork and clothing, “Our aim is to make beatboxing an integral part of the peoples music appreciation. It’s more than just a hip-hop thing, its an impossible music movement through all genres, countries, languages and ethnicities.” FLYOTW is an Oxford based creative film studio and amongst other things they provide a number of high quality videos of some of the most exceptional beatbox skills from the U.K. These videos offer a variety of formats; studio sessions, groups or cyphers and pairs/ duos as well as battles, all of which show a different and more often that not, new side to beatboxing. This documentation is increasing in quality and as more film crews (or people with any form of camera and inclination) appear, quantity too. The benefits of this is the growing ease of which to analyze and deduce musicological and technical developments, since nearly all beatboxers present themselves with an associative country (/mother tongue), deductions of developments and techniques can be made nation by nation and language by language.

The first decade of this millennium in Beatbox has seen skill as both a primary aesthetic and ambition, New School beatbox has erupted largely from the pursuit of the impossible; the impossible sound, the impossible beat pattern, the impossible compositional, musical and orchestral qualities. While skill does not account for everything and everyone, it has been a crucial catalyst during this time of exponential growth. Skill increases the credibility of beatbox as an artform for both the public and the beatboxers. The apparent difficulty in the performance means the hard work and intelligence behind creating it too becomes more apparent and so complexity begins to equal respect. Much like the Romantic era of classical music, our New School Beatbox glorifies individual expression and the accomplishment of ones disciplined and determined practice. Much unlike the Romantic era of classical music however is the fact that New School Beatbox has a theoretical foundation amounting to nil, barely any educational resources, no proven methods of best practice, virtually nothing promised in the way of career paths and no clue of where (if there are any) the limitations and possibilities of the art form lay. Yet through the unshakeable focus and innovation of mostly young beatboxers, a plethora of inappropriate mouth noises have been refined into countless individual instruments. Technical beatboxing is extremely visionary, as it revels in a simple yet enigmatic, previously unasked question; what is sonically possible between our nose and our diaphragm? This may have been pondered over by musicians, linguistics -phonologists, but has it ever been a physically pursued quest? My furthest ponderings of human beings that explore the vocal anatomy with any equivicol determination to beatboxers, brings me to consider the earliest form of concious human evolution, in a time where language and music had only just begun.

Even in singing as Dayme explains, the research struggles to keep up with progressions in style, “It is not easy to study an instrument that lives inside a human body.” I believe Dayme’s chapter ‘New areas of potential research in singing’ may be of higher relevance to the beatbox tradition, as a more concrete understanding of the vocal anatomy and its behaviours will be crucial for beatbox pedagogy. We begin to see every muscle, flap, fold, ligament, bone, airway, cavity and more become a subject of investigation for musical repertoire. Let us explore some of the ways this is happening in New School Beatbox;

Technical Beatbox

Sounds and styles become more unique to the individual, because the variety of techniques discovered allows individuals to become more distinctive. As a new technique is hatched and explained, it cuts the learning curve for others, meaning higher attention to detail in sonic forms becomes easier for the community to recognize and relate to. This network of sounds is like a tree and it forms new branches continuously, whilst being nourished and complimented by the existing traditions of non-typical vocal styles. For every new sound created by a beatboxer, further awareness is given to the vibrant variety of existing vocal ideas, often shared and discussed throughout the internet. The aesthetic inclination toward EDM in Beatbox seems to be under going a continuing generalization. A more creative interpretation of what sounds can constitute a beat, mean that ever more unusual sounds can be incorporated into Beatbox music. This makes categorization of style a multidimensional, endlessly interweaving maze constituting overlapping vocal anatomy, sounds and technique. A surplus of structural frameworks and terminology already exist that could describe beatbox behavior, but it is deeply academic and widely segmented with roots that lay across music, linguistics and physiology and simply confuse the topic rather than clarify. The Beatbox community have been somewhat unconciously generating their own, non-conforming language for sounds and techniques and some of those terms will be used here.

The fundamentals aspects of beatbox music mentioned so far include the injectives, wind technique and simultaneous sounds. The following are the remainder of what appear to me as the fundamental techniques and concepts;

-Letters B T and K are often recommended as the go to sounds for beginner beatboxers, followed closely by PF the classic snare. The phonetics reflect the basic components of a drum kit, and the concept of BTK teaches the individual to associate a linguistic connotation to the sound. Bellatrix admits she has a small sound repertoire compared to most beatbox artists, one can assume she has prioritized training the articulation of her fundamental BTK sounds since the level of detail in her small repertoire is exemplary. I believe the importance of BTK is not entirely their relation to drum sounds, but an encouragement to consider unusual phonetics as common speech. Therefore making complex sounds more familiar to the brain, through a linguistic relationship. ‘Boots and Cats’ is an over popularized example.

In early beatboxing the beat constructions are easily interpreted. The break beat made from mixing tracks to create a new beat pattern is often employed by beatboxers from Kenny Muhammad Onwards. We’ve mentioned how many genres have influenced the musical content and aesthetics of beatbox. So it would appear that a genre associated knowledge of the structure of beat patterns and characteristics of beat/ percussion oriented genre is of importance. The ‘pattern’ is fundamental to the deliverance of sonic repertoire, the two are intimately linked as are the relationships of each sound to one another. In practical terms the consideration of breathing movements in a beat pattern, gives the beatboxer a strategy for oxygenation and endurance.

Skiller, known as ‘the fast mouth of the east’ is intentionally renowned for pushing the boundaries of speed. A lot of his routines relate conceptually to how quickly sounds can be produced in succession. Other beatboxers follow this aesthetic concept, Alem for example has a notably different style, made of fuller and less sharp sounds than Skiller, but still able to execute them at impressive speeds and raises the question of how fast can vocal production go? Beat Rhino makes a unique impression on the world of speed, filling sharp percussive sounds with smooth breathy fricatives creating what feels like an impossibly fast routine. While not everyone is particularly focused on speed, it is often the case that an aspiring beatboxer will have a competence to execute fast passages and styles, or at least fast percussion fills. Speed can take formation in the number of successive sounds or phrases, the nature of the pattern or how fast the song feels, as well as the speed one can execute a single technique in succession.

The ‘Inward Drag’ technique takes an entirely new approach to the use of the diaphragm and is revolutionary in the world of vocal music. One may retrospectively consider Buff Loves in and out vocals and Kenny’s Kraftwerk covers as primitive Inward Drag routines, however the term doesn’t appear until the later 2000’s. Essentially it requires breathing in and out rhythmically, either to the metre or particular divisions of the metre. Sounds are then made with the rhythmic breathing. It means that the injective and ejective sounds will have an intrinsic nature to the rhythm of the music and there will be no hesitation between sounds, as each will be cushioned between a continuous flow of breath. ReepsOne is a proficient advocate of Inward Drag, pushing the diaphragm to the point of a trill. It’s useful not only at high speeds, characters such as BigBen utilise the continuous, natural waves of breath to create deep throbbing bass lines (4mins in). The only historic context that relates to this technique exists in the world of Inuit singing traditions, often whereby two women face each other in a quasi-battle format.

-Using words in routines serves the same purpose as it does for the MC, it hypes the crowd and works as a signature element for the performer (Examples in Beatbox; Ultimate drop, Renegade Master, Complexify, Shadow Sumo, Lets Go, Esh, Mahnie, Get to the Point ) Beatboxers will often use their regular singing voices too, either to add tonal qualities to their music or for lyrical songs. When singing lyrics, the attention is not so often on the quality of the voice but how its being used as a sample in the beat, how well it fits around the other sounds and what the performer does to the quality of the voice and the lyrics during the performance. Falsetto is used particularly for an electronic aesthetic and often in combination with other techniques, particularly various oscillations of the lips. A very popular technique utilizing falsetto voice is the siren, an extremely authentic electronic sound that has a tinny and synthetic quality. It’s created by a resonance between the top teeth and the inside bottom lip. Tom Thum favours this sound and is able to make a crackling vinyl effect simultaneously. The incorporation of words and lyrics in beatbox music has been branching into its own aesthetic, being dubbed ‘beatrhyming’ and regularly expressed by the likes of American beatboxers Kid Lucky and Kaila Mullady.

The following is a look at the techniques of individual vocal tract areas, as explored by New School beatboxing.

-ChonkyBeats amongst others can create an astonishingly tight and popping snare, a sound that has recently been increasing in popularity. In addition to the tight lips there are rolling taps on a tight-skin drum, created by a successive lip popping sound. The lips offer a huge variety of percussive qualities, because the number of muscles controlling the orifice of the mouth provide a variety of opportunities in direction of movement and tension pressures. What is known in phonetics as a bilabial plosive is one of the most fruitful areas of instrumentation development for beatboxers.

– What can be labeled in layman terms as a ‘raspberry’, is one of the most versatile and widely applicable beatbox techniques. As well as percussive, the vibratory meeting of the lips and breath (in and out) when sustained offers an incredible diversity of sonic character. It has been used to reinforce percussive sounds from the era of Human Beatboxers and is more recently used for longer sustained bass lines and electronic sounds. This ‘raspberry’ oscillation ranges from very tight and high pitched to very loose and low and can be combined with any number of sounds from the rest of the voice. It therefore serves not only for bass lines but for high distortion sounds, Reeps One is known to have founded the ‘Wob’ Bass, a variation on a regular tight lip oscillation that uses the tongue to stop the airflow at the lips. The result is a wobble sound providing the name, and is often repeated in succession and also in combination with falsetto singing for an interesting electronic sound. The lips will vibrate in various ways on the in breath too and when high pressured it goes by the name of the Inward Zipper, with respect to its relation to the sound of a zip being pulled. When used for low sounds it is more often generated at the side of the mouth and goes by the name ‘inward bass’ or ‘lip roll’. Ball Zee’s studio session demonstrates its qualities, making patterns and combining with a inward vocalisation for extra sub bass quality. The lips continue to vibrate even against mouth pressure alone, when rapid direction change is incorporated it is more often referred to as ‘lip roll’. It has a vibrant popping sound and can be executed at high speeds. A disambiguation of terms is necessary here to distinguish this technique from the percussion fill often refereed to as a lip roll, executed by allowing the lips to rest gently against each other while ejecting tongue consonants.

-The lateral click favored by Biz Markie can be produced to a high volume with some speed as demonstrated by New School beatboxer Wawad in his GBBB 14 video. Babeli favours the alveolar click, a sound familiar to anyone whose tried to imitate a horse’s hooves on cobbled streets. He adjusts his lips to a low whistle position and applies a delicate breath movement to create a deep resonance. In addition to clicks the tongue is relied upon for the fundamental ‘T’ or HiHat in percussion terms. This can be trained to a dry authentic sound or pronounced like a tut allowing nasal airflow from the lungs. The latter applies to the fundamental letters BTK and is a useful for creating an independent theme from the percussive line, Zede shows incredible virtuosity with this concept. The tongue can be oscillated on both the in and out breath. Many will be familiar with the outward as it comes naturally to most people as ‘rolling the tongue’ which appears in some dialects. In New School beatbox it often takes the role of a bass sound, it can be honed to a very high pressured focused point. The inwards oscillation of the tongue also goes by the name Click Roll, not to be confused with the non aspirated Doug. E. Fresh style click roll, but one that uses the same retroflex click mouth position. Aspirated click rolls can be sustained as long as the inhalation and can be adjusted in pitch and layered with other sounds. It’s equally difficult to fit into routines because of the time needed to adjust the mouth position.

-By placing the tongue against the underside of the uvular and exhaling as if gargling water, a small vibration between the two will occur. FaithSFX combines this with falsetto singing and describes it as his signature sound in interview. This same position with excess pressure applied to the lower end of the throat, way under the larynx, creates an intense bass resonance that is often used in combination with inward drag for a powerful effect with relatively simple execution. Known in linguistics as the epiglottis consonant and in the beatbox community as the 808 kick or Throat kick, is a sound easily understood by those of European languages, and is simple to interpret in beatboxing, making it a common part of beatboxers repertoire. It can be utilised as an 808 snare by adding ‘CH’ or ‘F’ fricatives or a deep bongo with a ‘G’ consonant. Experts have the ability to make there 808’s unnaturally fast.

-Growl may not be as diversely applied as other sounds (so far), other than adding a deep resonance to percussion sounds. Some such as KRNFX have applied this technique to a higher vocalised growl and prove just how smooth an oscillation of the arytenoid cartilage can become with training.

-Throat singing is hundreds if not thousands of years old and was most commonly found in the naturally and politically divided regions of Tibet. It is important to distinguish at this point a difference in the broader term ‘overtone singing’ to that of throat singing, as ambiguity often arises. Overtone singing is where the mouth manipulates the natural harmonic resonance of the voice, which does not appear to be thoroughly revised technique by beatboxer’s, as it occasionally appears in its pure form and can be approximately related to the frequent use of unorthodox mouth positions beatboxers apply for affecting their voice quality. Throat singing however is strictly a matter of constricting the throat, a style no as khoomei. Khoomei is in fact a widely favored sound in beatbox, it has a much cleaner resonance than a lip or tongue oscillation and growl, and offers varieties in harshness and harmonics. It’s origins lie in the daily life of Nomad culture, it is typically not desirable for woman of this culture to attempt this style. The technique is applicable to all ranges from falsetto to very low and deep bass lines, going by the name throat bass in beatbox and at low ranges dark bass. This technique in particular is a shining example of the exploratory and fearless nature of beatboxers and vocal sounds, since the technique is a very powerful, difficult and often highly spiritual and sacred sound used for meditative and sacred purposes, yet in the realms of beatbox has been mastered and applied for jaw dropping bass lines and electronic music melodies. This technique has been adapted in multiple ways by beatboxers, including a version that happens through inhalation rather than exhalation, quite possibly another entirely new vocal sound for human beings.

Alternative Aesthetics.

Despite the powerful displays of experimental vocal-hyper-styles reminiscent of a Romantic virtuosity, there may be something far simpler to the core nature of beatbox that is often missed from outside the community. Recently there has been a recline in the attitudes toward technique, it seems that while all very exciting, it too often leads away from musicality, which may be more at the heart of such an impromptu art form. It would be wrong to label beatbox simply a matter of showmanship too, this point can be further reflected in the work of a multi instrumentalist and ‘vocal adventurer’. Again not a beatboxer by definition, the notably gentler vocal style of Mal Webb results in playful multi tracked songs and often looped performances, not to mention, the discovery of sideways yodelling. It’s the discretion of the individual that is really key here, more so than the vocal technique or style involved. A playful, intimate and imaginative idea that beatbox largely encourages in a musical context, is that one can make any sound they please (contrary to typical social standards) for any music they please.

Beatboxing having been deemed a ‘gimmick’ for a period of time has felt compelled to prove itself and in doing so the approach has much become about long, hard practice in the pursuit of complex and bewildering music. Has this created a quasi-cultist agenda for the music, an in-crowd that segments itself from other music? It may be likely that the immensely energetic, high octane aesthetic that many beatboxers portray and enable, has generated an underground hip hop youth oriented following, but this is not to be mistaken for the full picture. While the first results in an online search of ‘beatbox’ may be fairly viral, ‘greatest in the history of the world ever’ type videos, if one digs a little deeper they see that the depth and antiquity the techniques these artists are implementing are for more than a passing craze. Beatbox entails a large amount of internal physical exploration into the voice and as any other form of vocal music will show you, this is inseparable from an exploration of mental, characteristic and spiritual discovery. Due to its cultural heritage beatbox has often shared aesthetics with hip hop and EDM, but the techniques themselves and the nature of vocal creation are heavily associated to sacred and cultural practices. Beatbox can potentially therefore be considered not only musically, but as a process of raising awareness of oneself and the human condition, while building a vibratory behavioral connection with a global community. This suggestion may risk appearing as a supernatural idea, but it can be quite simply explained in physiological and cultural frameworks, when one considers the impact of vocal practice has on the brain through fluctuations in oxygen levels and the integrity of community vocal musics place in building communities and cultures.

Outside of battles there have been countless collaborations occurring around the theme of beatbox and hyper-experimental vocal music. Many of which extend and strengthen the relationship of beatbox to more established musical traditions, informing their developments respectively. Many acappella groups are forming that combine vocal beats, sounds and singing to different extents. Dharni for example makes a number of appearances in duo with pop singer K-Leah, which can be easily related to the beatbox rapper duo tradition of hip hop culture. While Southbank resident Shlomo collaborates with composer Anna Merideth to create the first composed Concerto for Beatbox and Orchestra. This is a first for a classical compositional approach to beatbox and the idea has been continued by Tom Thum, which begins to relate beatboxing further to the more established world of modern and post modern choir music, such as Simon Thorne’s ‘Neanderthal’. As well as strengthening the credibility of beatbox, the comparisons here also further complicate the plausibility of defining the art form.

As well as collaborations with people, beatboxing is all the while being put through a number of acoustic and electronic instrument extensions, meaning; people beatbox into things. The first of course is the microphone, perhaps easily overlooked, the design of common stage microphones known as cardioid is most sensitive from an onward projection, but this is not the only method. Tyte outlines a number of techniques developed solely in regard to how the microphone is held. Later beatbox is combined with a number of instruments for different effects, Herymoonshaker for example will often perform with a harmonica and it appears to be a popular choice for others. Some beatboxers also utilise their skills with flute’s and even didgeridoo’s, but this is yet to become something of a category in the community. Hands are sometimes used for certain techniques or for generally creating filters either with microphones or without. The use of the physical body introduces another paradigm from which defining beatbox becomes more enigmatic, to what extent does beatboxing have to made from the inside of the body? And to what extent should beatbox technique take into consideration the body outside of the vocal anatomy? Whilst no acoustic instrument has been designed specifically for beatbox, electronic ones have. Audix Fireball V is a microphone designed for the quality and comfort of beatbox and harmonicas. While the RC-505’s tabletop and finger-rather-than-foot design, becomes the standard equipment of the loop category in major beatbox battles.

Beardyman’s investigations into the possibilities of voices interaction with electronics, is equally expansive as his testament to spontaneity. A quest to narrow the distance between the music in his head and that which emerges from his mouth and finger tips, leads him to develop the Beardytron-5000-mkii after collaborations with Sebastian Lexer and Dave Gamble. This level of electronic adaptation marks a distinctive aesthetic when compared to the ‘all from my mouth’ mantra of amplification-only styles, effects are favored to varying degrees even by the RC-505 loopers. As well as the technology what really characterizes Beardyman’s performances is the spontaneity and comedy, an area favoured by Shockwave as mentioned. Continuing this trend into comedy, we meet the equally funny ‘disinformationist’ Reggie Watt’s, a “comedian/musician” who incorporates beatbox related ideas into his performances. As well as keyboard and loop pedals he utilities an incredible combination of accents, dialects, nonsense, singing styles, gesture, theatre and general rhetoric, to entertain his audience. This ability to move seamlessly between different forms of entertainment is not restricted to, but can be heavily catalyzed by the involvement of beatbox. If one can simply say the words, ‘boo, ti, boo, ti’ to a vague rhythm and receive a genuine understanding of musical intention from an audience, how are we to approach categorization of the art form between music and language? Is the communication a linguistic one that implies music, or a musical one formed of language?

Beatbox can happen with just the voice, but that does not restrict it from being a part of bigger themes. It is these themes that allow us to examine the world of beatbox and the individual beatboxers. Without official terminology we can say ‘comedy beatbox’, ‘technological beatbox’ or ‘technical beatbox’ etc. for a more specific description of a performer, but still we are left with a plethora of categories, that give very little description of sonic or technical content. Will we be stuck in a continuum of increasingly stretched and overlapping terminologies, or are we faced with an entirely indistinguishable artistic movement? After all every beatboxer provides a totally new combination of musical, cultural and technical qualities, subject to their own personality, preferences and physical attributes. Each has had a hand at interpreting what beatbox is since analytical definitions are non existent. Beatbox in a short space of time has proven to be effortlessly transitory into multiple art forms and contexts and shows no sign of slowing down, as if its growth is intrinsically related to the evasion of definition and categories. As the beatboxers continue their work, could the answer to the definition of beatbox lay not in more specific and defining categories, but broader and more inclusive ones?

New Found Territory.

One area of investigation that has been more thoroughly researched than any other is in the brains behavior while beatboxing and has included taking MRI imagery of the brain while beatboxing and para-linguistic studies into the mechanisms of beatbox production. The latter makes a detailed analysis of beatbox in comparison to its phonetic structures and concludes that MRI may be a viable way of deepening the understanding of beatbox repertoire. As if beatboxing was a subject of overwhelming musicological and cultural research, it has come under the scope of scientists who are broadly categorizing the basic sonic data, with arguably incompetent descriptive terminology. Perhaps this highlights a very counter intuitive aspect about beatbox, something which addresses the very nature of how we interpret it and why it seems to transcend disciplines and cultures but cause reactions often amounting to mere amusement.

Reeps One in interview describes himself as someone who “speaks music”. The implications of the word ‘speak’ are a tapestry of thought for the existing investigations into the boundaries of language and music. The linguistic nature in Beatbox has multiplicity in its technical approach, but also in the culture itself. In the technical sense this can be paraphrased by the fundamental concept discussed earlier; BTK, where the beatboxer benefits from thinking phonetically about the sound their making. But it is not simply a case of technicality, as often the nature of musical communication between beatboxers represents a high sensitivity. The culture of beatbox is reported to be immensely nurturing, supportive and loving, a world where people ‘speak’ music more than words and emphasize communication through expression over semantics. This inspires questions of a philosophical nature about the relationship of musical and linguistic communication and expression, that cannot be investigated any deeper here, but certainly implies that a form of art has developed whereby the nature of human communication on a fundamental and primal level, is not only called into question but actively investigated by a strong global community.

Gesture, movement and facial expression are concepts studied in varying disciplines including music, but are yet to be looked at in the context of beatbox. The subject shares a key relationship to all music, language and communication and the movement and facial expressions of beatboxers are of fruitful and often astonishing variety. One form of gesture in beatbox reinforces the concept of the vocalists sound and are self explanatory in their nature, for example joining the fingers in one direction and flicking the wrist forward and backward to indicate the movements made on vinyl on a turntable, while making the scratching noises. While these movements may be easily interpreted, as beatbox develops the performers gestural responses become less about air-instruments and instead express the response of beatboxers to their levels of mental focus. Arms will wave, fingers point and curl, legs unconsciously stomp and twitch, often without a logically perceivable relationship to the music. “Vocalizations reflect the motives and effects of the whole body in action. We hear how inner and outer body parts may come into action in harmonious combination under the control of the motives and experience, or fall into clumsy disorder.” Beyond the high focus muscle reactions we see many beatboxers who will utilize movement at all times as performnace technique, taking into consideration the entirety of their performance space, posture and facial expression. ‘Pass the Sound’ by the Beatbox Collective highlights the most intuitive aspects of this concept, the group focus (/imagine) their sounds into physical spaces which become the subject for sonic/ gestural play.

There has been a growing requests for beatbox education, highlighted hugely by the number of online video tutorials. The first were created by Tyte along side humanbeatbox.com, now tutorials are plentiful, produced by amateurs and professionals a like and not only online. Aside from the many beatboxers who engage in workshops and interactive events, there is the Beatbox Academy, a co-production from Shlomo and the Battersea Arts Centre offering beatbox education to young people. Guildhall and the Barbican have co-developed the “Performance and Creative Enterprise Degree including musicians, composers, theatre makers, devisors, spoken word artists, beatboxers and poets.” But perhaps Beatbox could be of significance to mainstream educational institutions? Nicholas Bannan’s booklet ‘The Voice in Education’ is a heartfelt recognition of a decline, beginning in the 1970’s, of singing in education and communities. “The point is that to let down a generation of school children by effectively withdrawing the opportunity to participate in singing is to let them down for life.” Vocal music is a fundamental aspect of almost all societies, but is hugely lacking in Western cultures compared to less ‘developed’ cultures. While the issues of social engagement between trained and untrained musicians may still play a role in the West, I think what makes beatbox refreshing is how it points to a way back to the voice for those who have missed out from their cultural background. Vocal traditions are of importance to all cultures and we are used to them being old and some what concrete. However many beatboxers around the world are beginning a new tradition, in developed countries, that encourages vocal music and participatory group vocal music.

Within 40 years, what may have been less than a thought in the mind of an MC, has mapped into 55 countries of the world. Beatbox has been lifted from its primordial realm of hip hop and through relations to EDM, technology and the internet, has opened itself to include an immensely diverse range of practices. Its people show fearless pursuit toward exploring and combining vocal ideas both new and old from around the globe. It has introduced vocal technique unbeknown to the world before it and by doing so revitalizes interest in vocal virtuosity, community participation and the personal well being and self discovery entwined with vocal practice. Freedom of individual expression has always been at its heart much like original Hip Hop culture, it has been treated with the same uncertainty but continues to show the purest intentions. The beatbox family speak a language of music, choosing to communicate through expression and are always united by their fascination for the voice.

Beatbox may come to accomplice philosophical critiques of the voice, vocal composers looking for more orchestral possibility and instrumentalists attempting to embody the sound of their instrument. We may see it grow further into comedy, theater and all performing arts and continue to reflect itself in technological innovations. We may discover yet more techniques, further establish more styles and to this day nobody can claim any boundaries to this adventure. I believe at least at this present day, that beatbox is pointing toward a hyper intermedium of art and expression, an omni-voice that is unbound by traditions and ideology. It seems to me containable only within definitions that indicate its limitless boundaries, its ever evasive styles and interpretations. Without analytical documentation and a better understanding of the core nature of Beatbox, it may take time before it can become a commonplace vocal practice accepted by Western cultures. But its potential in education and communities to induce a powerful sense of connectedness, intellectual and creative discovery is proved immense by the impact that has been made on the lives of individual beatboxers.

One thing the beatbox certainly is, is positive. It is a huge encouragement for people to vocalise, express and communicate.

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– “Beatbox Academy – Battersea Arts Centre.” Last Accessed 28/04/2015https://www.bac.org.uk/content/35713/see_whats_on/whats_on/events_and_workshops/beatbox_academy

VIDEOS

–Bram Van Splunteren. “Big Fun in the Big Town.” Last Accessed 28/03/2015 1986 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kSsqWNSQqs

-“Eli Compu Rhythm CR7030”. Last Accessed 29/03/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx8F_LwtwEg

-“Mr. Scratch Beatbox”. Last Accessed 28/04/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dk16X-Wb1E

-“Beardyman @ BBC Comedy Proms 2011, Royal Albert Hall.” Last Accessed 27/04/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N02t6UmDps4

-“The Fat Boys-Stick.” Last Accessed 28/04/2015. ‘Em https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8yHRapdrQE

-“Tim Westwood and Biz Markie Live on TV Show N Sign Radio 1988.” Last Accessed 24/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKsUcq5u8dk

–Skinny Boys- Jock Box ‘Weightless’. Last Accessed 26/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYGD9bGaW14

-“Kenny Muhammad in the Human Chamber Orchestra.” Last Accessed 28/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFa_jfW8svM

-“Beatboxing – Lesson 3 – Breath Control.” Last Accessed 27/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AupX4u-0jeg

-“Fresh Prince: Glass Beatbox/ Rap Prayer.” Last Accessed 25/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnvNESzCVxs

-“Amazing Beatboxing, You Won’t Believe it!.” Last Accessed 20/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0abzD7hBTRk

-“Joel Turner Australian Idol.” Last Accessed 25/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRGYAhfmQUs

-“Michael Winslow – Interview – Special FX Sounds.” Last Accessed 27/04/2015 http://beatboxbattle.tv/interview/michael-winslow-2013/

–“Bobby McFerrin – Interview – Legend Talk” Last Accessed 25/04/2015.. http://beatboxbattle.tv/interview/bobby-mcferrin-2010/

– “Rahzel Beatbox – Four Elements.” Last Accessed 24/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08NQ6Yoj2Jw

-“Rahzel – If Your Mother Only Knew.” Last Accessed 28/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaC5418WTUg

-“2Nd To None (Kid Lucky Beatrhyme Freestlye.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sILdE34mSXA

-“Beatbox Tutorial – Humming Whilst Beatboxing” Last Accessed 24/04/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxsprXrOANw

-“Faith SFX Oh My.” Last Accessed 23/04/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O_hJiC7zyc

– “Moonchild, Mike Patton Solo.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPsXRiV6yo4

–“Kenny Muhammad Wind Technique.” Last Accessed 03/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D21CNg3Xwbs

-“Rahzel Live ‘If Your Mother Only Knew’.” Last Accessed 28/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifCwPidxsqA

-“UKF Meets Reeps One.” Last Accessed 20/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6pc4kM2eqA

–“Interview with Bee Low of Beatbox Battle Network Emperor of MiC 2012.” Last Accessed 28/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqGTWZ0osy4

-“Bellatrix: The Art of Noise.” Last Accessed 28/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIosIx6O2fw

-“Skiller & Alem: The Faster Going Way.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfU9hqDGPCc

– “Beat Rhino Speed Only.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWUGIudqO58

– “Reeps One Inward Drag.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uJw84DTVqk

– “Big Ben Beatbox All-Stars Show Battle ’15 Final.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMqAnIlzbHc

-“Chonky Beatz – UK ‘Blend’ Beatbox BHTB Venture Sessions.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1UcebA8YRc

-“Beatbox Tutorial – Bassy Lip Oscillation.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMw80reBTww

– “B-Art / Take 1 – GBBB 2014.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KSH7R-fhrk

– “The Fake – Grand Beatbox Battle Wildcard 2015.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKQ-I4TMFKo

– “Reeps One, Big Ben, K.I.M. – The Bassline Bombers.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcgGQliRXLE

–“Ball-Zee – UK Finest Beatbox BHTB – NE40° Series (Original).” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=776HmgitPJo

– “Ibarra Finally Liprolls.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMHrOE7ZcHM

– “Wawad / Animals – GBBB 2014.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOsigcADrJg

– “Babeli ‘Landing’.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89j0QtkTm0o

– “Contrix UK Beatbox Champion.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kZ8nz2gxOA

– “Heartgrey Grand Beatbox Battle Studio Session.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OY2ohltZFw

– “Faith SFX Interview 2005.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7IurBIgo48

– “Babeli Grand Beatbox Battle Studio Session ’13.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTPOQNDnex0

– “Dharni – Grand Beatbox Battle – Studio Session.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9jf1_kpksY

– “Beatbox Brilliance – Tom Thum – TedxSydney.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNZBSZD16cY

– “Big Ben / I’m a Big Boy – GBBB 2014.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9jf1_kpksY

– “KRNFX Finest Beatbox Routine.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQxb-ECHfAA

– “Beatfox – UK Bass Music Beatbox BHTB – Noire Series.” Last Accessed 29/04/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmreXqXHc9g

-“Inuit Throat Singing: Kathy Keknek and Janet Aglukkaq.” Last Accessed 01/05/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGM0BlA95I

– “Mal Webb Sideways Yodelling.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_6nNWX7TTI

– “Heymoonshaker – London- Part 2.” 29/04/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTXtOVaCaOU

– “Reggie Watts – Why Shit So Crazy (Full Show).” Last Accessed 01/05/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MRMxS-QC8

– “Beatboxing on The Brain.” Last Accessed 01/05/2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq1-ajXvMHM

–“EOM All Stars Life is a Freestyle.” Last Accessed 01/05/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbsPMIW64EM

–“The Beatbox Collective – Pass the Sound.” Last Accessed 01/05/2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4wBj8eC3Mg

FILM

-Bram Van Splunteren. “Big Fun in the Big Town.” 1986.

-DJ Organic. “Freestyle. The Art of Rhyme.” 2004.

-Doug Pray. “Scratch.” 2001.

-Klaus Schneyder. “Beatboxing: The Fifth Element” 2011. – This seems like a valuable resource but even after contacting the website, I was unable to find any information on screening dates or published availability.