Lately, I've had to answer the following question in reference to my taste for loud, sometimes abrasive music with increasing frequency: "How can you enjoy listening to someone scream?" The answer to that question is long and complex; one that I'm not able to give within the expected time frame of everyday pass-the-time conversation.
Here, today, one time only, is the opportunity for anyone who has ever asked his or her metal-head friend this question to understand how another person's scream can bring pleasure in the form of music.
The nature of the scream is somewhat complex. Some believe in screaming only when under extreme duress, such as when in violent emergencies. Others believe it can be used as a form of celebration. It is, of course, common - even expected - to scream when one's favorite sports team scores a point, goal, touchdown or what have you.
There are screams of orgasmic or delight, screams of fear, screams of hatred, and screams of funeral parlor despair. Basically any emotion, when brought to its absolute maniacal peak, can be summed up with a shredding of the vocal chords.
Most people choose to live life in as relaxed a state as possible. Staying cool, calm and reserved is a staple of the social norm. People are expected to show emotion only when it's unanimously appropriate. Entertainment, however, often involves displaying people reacting to extraordinary situations.
Somewhere along the line, someone - it's impossible to determine who - thought to incorporate extreme emotion into something meant to entertain. Shakespearean plays involved displays of emotion so intense, it was necessary to create comic relief. Doubtless that Shakespeare was neither the first nor the last to use a scream in his pursuit of dramatic entertainment.
The acceptance of the musical scream has been a long slow process. Roger Daltry and Robert Plant made falsetto screams popular, and punk shouts have appeared in music at increasing intervals since its origination. It has reached a point at which some artists have grown so attached to the sensation that coursed through their veins, that they use the scream full-time.
An analogy can be drawn between a scream and the sound of a distorted guitar. Think of the silky smooth sound of a tenor compared to the pluck of a single acoustic guitar's string. Now think of Chris Cornell's epic 15-second scream in Audioslave's "Cochise" compared to the strum of a power chord bent through heavy distortion. (My heart beats faster just thinking of it.)
When certain artists switched from their acoustic guitar to the harsher sound of an electric, they met stern resistance from their fans. Bob Dylan was nearly booed off the stage when he first introduced his electric.
Screaming is used to express the most intense version of any singular emotion. Hardcore or metal music may not be for those who choose to put emphasis on having a consistently low heart rate. However, neither are shocking or horrifying movies that involve similar use of the actor's voices.
When Jennifer Connelly screams as hard as she knows how while playing a junkie who had just done the unspeakable for her fix in "Requiem for a Dream," no one comments that her scream was too harsh and unpleasant. It is understood that she was getting a point across to the viewer. The same can be said for singers who implement the scream.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
