Beatboxing - A History

The multi-facited Yuri Lane 

As you may of noticed, the 76 Seconds soundtrack is made up of beatboxing including the man in the picture above, the art of making sounds from your mouth alone. So in tribute, the 76 seconds blog presents: A Short History of Beatboxing.




It's generally known that Beatboxing originated from the city streets of The Bronx in New York along with the rise of hip-hop, Chicago and Los Angeles and this true to some part but its origins stretch way back to the age of Jazz back in 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s. When the more improvisational "Bebop" arrived in reaction to the more tightly arranged swing bands, it became normal for jazz and blues singers to "scat" over the track, making up words as they went along.

Going even further back around 1200s and 1300s, in France, troubadours (poet-musicians) would go around singing with or without an instrument. By the 1400s and 1500s would sing together, harmonising as single voice.

African ritualistic music had traditionally used body sounds to maintain rhythm, such as clapping and stamping. In the 17th Century, African slaves were taken to plantations in Jamaica and the Americas where the African music was blended with European folk and brass band music to spawn new forms of music - namely jazz and blues.

In the late 1880s, black groups (usually quartets) would sing a capella, that is, using only their harmonized voices to make music. They would hold long, low notes that resemble what we hear as bass sounds in modern beatboxing. Vocal percussion was used by these quartets to help their music keep time, such as clicks of the tongue and taking a sharp breath in.

When blues was brought about by black slaves telling the heart ache of life, there wasn’t usually instruments at hand. Musicians would improvise with what little they had, their body and their voices. Claps and clicks became the drums, and low hums became the double bass; the two back bones of blues and jazz music.

Going into the early days hip-hop icons like Biz Markie (featured in the video below) and Doug 'E' Fresh showed the way for others as used their mouths  to recreate the sound effects and rhythms of the hip-hop music that was around them.

These days beatbox is very much part of the popular music landscape with producers like Timbaland and  The Neptunes bringing in numerous beatbox sounds in as part of their studio techniques. While others like Yuri Lane continue to astound and impress with their inventive refreshing take on the skill that has been embraced the world over.