FOR SURE FOR SURE - LIKE LITERALLY AWESOME - ERRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH

I was listening to National Radio in the car this morning and a woman talking about the new 'working from home' option for employees  and promoting her book - Out of Office - rendered herself almost unlistenable due to what I call 'California Creak' in her voice. In the US this is called Vocal Fry.

Vocal fry involves dropping the voice to its lowest natural register, which changes the way a person’s vocal folds vibrate together. Those changes create inconsistencies in the vibrations and lend the speaker’s voice a subtly choppy or creaky quality—which is why vocal fry is sometimes referred to as “creaky voice,” says Casey Klofstad, an associate professor of political science at the University of Miami.

There’s some evidence that people respond negatively to vocal fry. In a 2014 study Klofstad and colleagues found that recordings of speakers who used vocal fry were judged harshly by listeners, compared to recordings of people speaking normally. These negative judgments were strongest when both the speaker and listener were women. “Young adult female voices exhibiting vocal fry are perceived as less competent, less educated, less trustworthy, less attractive, and less hirable,” Klofstad and his colleagues write.

From Markham Heid, TIME 2/11/2017


Remember in the 1980s when 'Valley Girl' speech arose in USA, particularly in California and became not only a way of speaking but a ditzy, shallow and dumb way of acting - now made famous and unfortunately more endemic by the curse of the Kardashians.

it inspired the 1982 Moon Zappa 'song Valley Girl in 1982.

VALLEY GIRL - MOON ZAPPA

Vocal Fry or California Creak is, to me, way, way worse. I can't listen to it. This morning I stopped the car, got out my cellphone and sent a text to National Radio programme (Kathryn Ryan) complaining of it. I said that the author of 'Out of Office' was interesting but unlistenable due to the affectation in her speech.