beatboxing

Beatbox and Beat box redirect here, for other uses see Beatbox (disambiguation).






An example of modern beatboxing

Biz Markie beatboxing

Shlomo beatboxingBeatboxing is a form of vocal percussion which primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing today is connected with hip hop culture, being one of "the elements", although it is not limited to hip hop music.[1][2] Also, due to the intense amount of breath support required to beat box, it is also considered a sport in 29 countries, including the U.S.



Contents [hide]

1 History of beatboxing

1.1 Prehistory

1.2 Hip hop origins

1.3 Modern beatboxing

2 Notation

3 Selected beatbox discography

3.1 1980s

3.2 1990s

3.3 2000s

4 See also

5 References

6 External links





[edit] History of beatboxing

[edit] Prehistory

Vocal imitation of percussion sounds has existed for a very long time. Scat singing, associated with Jazz music, and puirt a beul, which originated in traditional Scottish music and was incorporated from there into American Roots music and Blues, are two of the other forms found commonly in North America. While scholarship on the origins of Beatboxing itself is sparse, we do know that Rapping has strong ties to the Talking blues, and Grammy-winning blues musician/historian Elijah Wald and others have argued that the blues were being rapped as early as the 1920s.[16][17] Wald went so far as to call hip hop "the living blues."[3] Jazz, which developed from the blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced hip hop and has been cited as a precursor of hip hop. [4]. Based on this it is reasonable to infer a connection between Beatboxing, Scat, and Puirt a Beul. Additional influences include forms of African traditional music where use performers' bodies (clapping, stomping) to make musical sounds to maintain a steady musical pace and make sounds using their mouths by loudly breathing in and out, which is done in beatboxing today.



Globally there are several other similar techniques including bol, which originated in India several thousand years ago; and the Chinese Kouji, a type of vocal performing arts. These had little or no relation with hip hop, however, and have no direct connection to modern Eastern Hip Hop.



[edit] Hip hop origins

Beatboxing in hip hop originated in 1980s. Its early pioneers include Doug E. Fresh, Scott (swifty) Ference, Buffy from the Fat Boys, and Wise (Stetsasonic). Credits of the four include Doug E. Fresh for being the self proclaimed first "human beatbox"[5], Swifty for implementing the inhale sound technique, Buffy for helping perfect the art & Wise for taking it to a level that inspired other individuals to want to be a human beatbox. Wise with his human turntable technique inspired a whole new fan base of human beatboxers. The term "beatboxing" is derived from the mimicry of the first generation of drum machines, then known as beatboxes.



[edit] Modern beatboxing

Beatboxing's current popularity is due in part to artists such as Rahzel, Kenny Muhammad, and Matisyahu, who have promoted the art form across the world.[6] Websites also contribute substantially toward raising the profile of beatboxing.



Many a cappella singing groups have one or more members using this technique, especially when performing songs which have a heavy percussive element, in order to closely mimic or duplicate the original sound.



One of the modern singers and musicians who started to add his own sounds to his music was Michael Jackson in songs like Billie Jean, Tabloid Junkie, and Who Is It. Most of the time, he admitted that he needed a tape recorder to record this sound that came to his mind just to not forget them and around that base built the rest of the tune.



Sometimes, artists will use their hand or another part of their body to extend the spectrum of sound effects and rhythm. Some have developed a technique that involves using their hand to produce very realistic scratching effects, which they use in beatboxing. An 18-year-old boy from Japan, Daichi, did just that in his video during the Beatbox Battle Wildcard contest on YouTube. Another artist from Belgium cupped his hands to make bird and ocean sound effects in his beatboxing, and so forth.



In 2001, Gavin Tyte developed the first audio and text tutorials on the Internet, then in 2002 he produced the first video tutorials on making beatboxing sounds and rhythms.



In 2002, Humanbeatbox.com went online and quickly became the hub of the online beatbox community.



In 2003, the first International Human Beatbox Convention (Boxcon) was held in London. Hosted by Alex Tew, Gavin Tyte and Mark Splinter from humanbeatbox.com, beatboxers from all over the world gathered to jam, listen to talks and share tips.



In 2005, the world championship of beatboxing was organised in Leipzig, Germany. The participants came from all over the world, and included Tom Thumb, and Joel Turner (Australia), White Noise (Ireland), RoxorLoops (Belgium), Poizunus (Canada), and Faith SFX (UK). After several heats of beatbox battles and contests, the final between RoxorLoops (Belgium) and Joel Turner (Australia) was decided. The five judges had a difficult time picking a winner and called for two extra rounds after which Joel Turner won the world championship.



The first UK Beatbox Championships took place in 2005 with Faith SFX taking the national title.



Also in 2005, Beatbox Battle TV was founded September 2005 at the 1st Beatbox Battle World Championship event by Bee Low, B-Film and Philibox. Today, it has become the largest beatboxing film archive in the world.[7]



In July 2009, The World Beatbox Association (WBA) was founded, and set about organizing the first American, and the first Canadian Beatbox Championships.



Recently, a 2009 beatboxing world championship took place where over 52 beatboxers and many female beatboxers competed for the title. The female British winner Bellatrix (UK), the male Swiss winner, ZeDe (SUI), and the band Under Kontrol (FR) are now the holders of the largest beatboxing title.



The first ever American Beatbox Championships took place in 2010, and took place as the centerpiece of the 2010 International Human Beatbox Convention in Brooklyn, New York.











Modern beatboxer Layth performing at Audio club, Brighton[edit] Notation

As with other musical disciplines, some form of musical notation or transcription may sometimes be useful in order to describe beatbox patterns or performances. Sometimes this takes the form of ad hoc phonetic approximations, but is occasionally more formal.



Standard Beatbox Notation (SBN) was created by Mark Splinter and Gavin Tyte [8] of Humanbeatbox.com in 2006[9] as an alternative to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription, which had been used sparingly before then.



In 2010 the UK beatboxer Shlomo worked with composer Anna Meredith on a "concerto for beatboxer and orchestra", and developed a simple phonetic notation in order to create a score for the beatboxer [10].



[edit] Selected beatbox discography

This list is a selected discography of commercial releases which are mostly/entirely beatbox-based or are otherwise notable/influential records in the history of beatboxing and its popularisation.



[edit] 1980s

The Fat Boys - Fat Boys (1984)

Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick - The Show, b/w La Di Da Di (1985)

Just-Ice (featuring Davy DMX on beatbox) - Back to the old school (1986)

Wise (Stetsasonic) - Just Say Stet (1985), Faye (1986) & Stet Troop 88 (1988)

Biz Markie - Goin' Off (includes beatbox track "Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz") (1988)

Vanilla Ice - Havin' a Roni - from To The Extreme (1990)

[edit] 1990s

Rahzel - Make The Music 2000 (1999)

[edit] 2000s



D.R.E.S. performing in AtlantaAndre "D.R.E.S. tha BEATnik" Lett - Have Mic... Will Travel: The EP (2001)

Kyle "Scratch" Jones - The Embodiment of Instrumentation (2002)

Killa Kela - The Permanent Marker (2002)

Rahzel - Rahzel's Greatest Knockouts! (2004)

Marcelo D2 - Acústico Mtv[citation needed] (2004)

Björk - Medúlla (2004)

Joel Turner - These Kids (2004)

Biz Markie - Make the Music with your Mouth, Biz (2006)

Poizunus - A.D.D. (Active Dreaming Disorder) (2007)

Kid Beyond - Amplivate (2004)

Blake Lewis - A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream) (2007)