An analytical framework and model for de-racializing vocal perception

Abstract

Based on 20 years of research into vocal techniques, vocal styles, pedagogy, and history with reference to opera, popular music, and music synthesis software, I have developed a framework that seeks to explain racialized perceptions of the singing voice. On one hand, my model accounts for voice as an ever-developing instrument affected by age, hormones, environment, culture, and vocal training (whether through formal voice lessons or everyday encounters’ largely tacit feedback). On the other hand, it also accounts for perception as equally dynamic and culturally dependent. It recognizes that the voice and its perception together constitute a “thick event,” and that the complexity of the vocal signal and the ways in which listeners interact with voices are so numerous and so complex that a speaker’s race cannot be defined by the signal. In other words: Voice is not singular; it is collective. Voice is not innate; it is cultural. Voice’s source is not the singer; it is the listener. By applying this analytical model to musical case studies, this paper argues that voices are racialized when they are believed to sound a person’s essence or true identity.