What Do You Call This? – Bobby McFerrin and Expectations

The potential for interesting performances by singers is endless, and we must expand our definition of what it is to be a singer. Take this video for example. What do you call this type of performance?

Here’s the run-down of what you’re about to see:

Bobby McFerrin starts with an African sounding performance that involved some –call it what you will– beat boxing or mouth percussion, and then there’s a silent period. Don’t stop during the silent period on the video!

Then there will be a visual of a group of scientists and Bobby McFerrin talking about “expectations”. What follows is classic Bobby McFerrin:

What do you call that?

Perhaps we as singers need to move away from adhering so rigidly to genres (“I do musical theater”, “I do opera”, “we do ‘art’ music”) and create something that defies naming from time to time.

Thanks to Ken at Mildly Creative for finding this clip.

[Photo by Erinc Salor]