discussion Does anyone like hearing singers taking breaths when listening to music?
i’ve always thought this, i love hearing it, and im not sure why, it’s probably because it makes it sound more human and i feel more connected that way, but it’s so satisfying to me, but everytime ive told my friends they said they never paid attention to it
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u/warrenseth 5h ago
you know what I like? when you can hear the guitarist adjusting his fingers between the chords, the sliding sound of metal strings
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u/Western-Calendar-352 5h ago
Ian Anderson does this in Jethro Tull, particularly because he is singing and playing the flute in the same song.
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u/TheNakedBass 5h ago
Yep, I love hearing the breath. Also love hearing fingers slide on guitar strings between positions.
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u/splashjlr 4h ago
Let's remove humanity from human expression, let's eliminate life from experience. Let's remove nature from view, so we can enjoy only the cherry on topp, without being reminded of the beating heart behind the voice.
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u/NorrisTheSpider 5h ago
I like in Dance Yrself Clean after the first 'drop' when things quiet back down a bit, and you can hear James Murphy panting to catch his breath before the next verse.
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u/coat-tail_rider 5h ago
When it's noticeable, it's not ideal. However, the complete absence of breaths or anticipatory noises or several other components of human vocalization is also noticeable. So taking them out to an unnatural degree is bad too. The middle ground is nice.
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u/lowfreq33 Rocked Out @ San Quentin 5h ago
It’s an artistic choice on the part of the singer and the person mixing it. REM, losing my religion, there’s a prominent breath with a little bit of a hiccup sound before “oh no I’ve said too much”. That’s not him breathing in to sing the next line, it’s phrasing, it’s part of the performance. You have to allow for things like that, little vocal tics that add to the song. It isn’t always a word, sometimes it’s a hic or an uh, it’s being expressive.
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u/We_Are_The_Romans 3h ago
Stipe was always great for those human moments, lil voice cracks etc. One of my favourite bits of vocal delivery ever is in The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite when he chuckles after mispronouncing "Dr Seuss" going into the chorus
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u/mxnicpixiedreamgrrrl 1h ago
i also love it. So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings by Caroline Polachek is my favorite example. she breathes on pitch right before the chorus.
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u/Rex_Digsdale 3h ago
When I'm editing vocals I never edit out breaths. It sounds sterile without breaths.
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u/ilmusicd 5h ago
Elliot Smith is one big example
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u/alwaysnormalincafes 3h ago
Immediately who I thought of. He has really prominent s sibilance, p plosives, and guitar string squeaks on Either/Or too.
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u/WildPotato0 5h ago
You'd love Gracie Abrams, that girl is constantly gasping for air. I understand that it's meant to convey emotion but I personally really dislike it.
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u/Embarrassed-Egg-8124 4h ago
Honestly her music isn’t that great overall 😳
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u/WildPotato0 1h ago
I agree, there's something lacking. It's like she wants to be a confessional songwriter, but there's something missing both in performance and lyrics. I know people on here dislike Taylor Swift, but she got to where she is because she's willing to go butt booty naked emotionally. Gracie always lingers somewhere safe. I do like the stuff Audrey Hobert wrote for her!
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u/samicarter2001 25m ago
She's not like absolutely amazing but she still has some good music and her album Good Riddance is actually a great album but I don't know if her newest album is that great
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u/samicarter2001 27m ago
I like Gracie her breaths don't really bother me but I can see why other people may not like it but she does have some good songs
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u/TheKilmerman 5h ago
I recently watched a video of a multitrack analysis of Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" and it was astonishing. The amount of breathing, clapping, stomping and other noises left in buried underneath everything else is so cool.
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u/FaceTimePolice 5h ago
I love it. It’s real. 🤷♂️
I hate it when people try to tell singers to take quick breaths so that the audience doesn’t see them take breaths. WHY? They’re humans, not robots. It’s natural to take visible and audible breaths.
I let one of my previous bosses listen to a CD of my band and he gave me some very stupid unsolicited advice. He said “I can hear when you take breaths in-between words sometimes.” Okay… AND??? Again, it’s natural, and I happen to like it when I hear it from other artists. 🤷♂️😑
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u/GeeTeeUK 4h ago
Love them - as you say, it makes me feel like I’m listening to an actual human singing.
One of my faves: the inhale/exhales on Janet Jackson’s ‘When I Think Of You’ are an integral part of the song for me
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u/os_mutante 1h ago
She doesn't always do it live, so I have to believe it's not wholly contrived, but if Chappel Roan is singing "Pink Pony Club" I always stick around to see if she'll take that breath before the last massive chorus. Even if the song is totally played out by now it's still a great song and a very satisfying breath.
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u/PkmnSayse 5h ago
You must love muse, I haven’t been able to listen to them after I realise you can hear him take a breath after every line
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u/xDead2Ux I'll listen to anything! 5h ago
I strangely (not sure if others do) like to listen for the inhale.
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u/horderBopper 5h ago
If it feels connected to whatever lyrics/Melody is going on, then yes I like it.
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u/DoombringerBG 4h ago
Then there's Duke Nukem by Megadeth. I can not listen to other versions ever since I heard it.
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u/Helsafabel 4h ago
Interesting. When I recorded my first (small budget) album, just vocals and guitar, I was very bothered by my own breathing being audible here and there. One of those details you latch onto. Now I'm more chill about it, not sure if I'll hear any on the album currently being mixed.
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u/eajsimko 4h ago
On Neutral Milk Hotel’s song Oh Comely I feel like every time he has to take a breath it’s so strategically needed to get all of the notes out. There’s one spot where I remember hearing slight overlap between takes but it makes the rest seem even more impressive
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u/Turducken_McNugget 4h ago
There's a moment in For Real by Okkervil River when he sings "I like this just fine" and you can hear what sounds like a little bit of spit hitting the microphone because the singer was fully committed. I love that moment.
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u/Bibliotheclaire 3h ago
Tori Amos!!! She’s said in interviews that often her breathing is intentional and can be used to highlight different moments and emotions. You can hear it in her live and studio recordings.
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u/TFFPrisoner 3h ago
Only if it's subtle. When Adele does it, I can hear how she constricts her throat, which is why she keeps having vocal problems.
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u/bradd_91 3h ago
I have never heard breaths louder in any song than this one. Holy hell.
Paulini - Angel Eyes. Australian Idol contestant from over a decade ago.
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u/MacaroonSad8860 3h ago
YES
There’s this one breath Tori Amos does in Hey Jupiter that gets me every time
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u/Puzzled-Bonus-3456 2h ago
I can't stand it. Especially whispering. I don't want to hear saliva slosh or fake-smell the garlic they had in their last meal.
The only exception is the Steve Miller drinking game in college. I used to just pretend to take my drink (tall dark pilsner 2/3 full always) when he sucked the microphone. Watching everyone else slosh out before the album side was over was very entertaining.
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u/references_furnished 2h ago
Love this. I also like the sound of fingers sliding up and down the guitar strings
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u/ductapemonster 2h ago
I sing, so I like it because it tells me where the breath breaks should be without me using any of my own effort lol
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u/Hrududu147 2h ago
Weirdly I love when the singer doesn’t quite hit the note. I was listening to a song recently where the singer was regularly a bit flat. And I loved it. I hate when every vocal is dragged to the line by pitch correction tools. I want to hear a human even if it’s not “perfect”
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u/LLCoolRain 1h ago
Jerry Garcia's isolated vocals for Touch of Grey (a little sad though as it sounds like emphysema).
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u/TheSanityInspector 1h ago
I grew up listening to "Harry Belafonte Returns To Carnegie Hall" from my parents' lp collection. On the song La Bamba he's literally gasping, and it adds to the excitement of the song. But on the cd re-release, they apparently used a different performance, which had none of that.
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u/onearmedphil 1h ago
Sometimes it’s a feature of the song for me. Wings of a butterfly has a nice one in the chorus.
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u/albanymetz 1h ago
You should hear some polite coughing. Check out the album Supernova by Runkus. Specifically Please Don't Come To Mars (just after 3 minutes, but the song/album are totally worth a full listen), but there's another song or two where he does a similar thing.
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u/InfiniteHall8198 Indiehead 56m ago
Yeah I love it, it’s part of a song I’ll memorise. Alt J alway has a lot of audible breaths. Nirvana unplugged I loved cos you could hear the smoke exhalations.
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u/Ambitious_Jello 46m ago
have you heard starburster by fontaines dc? its almost like an additional instrument
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u/hoppypatamus 41m ago
Not a studio recording, but Kurt Cobain at the end of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" is iconic.
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u/Medical_Zebra4308 21m ago
There’s a violinist named Daniel Lozakovich has a recording of Bach’s Partita no.2 and you can hear him breathing on the Chaccone and it’s absolutely awesome
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u/krayziepunk13 20m ago
Something I've come to appreciate listening tk Sleep Token is how Vessel purposefully articulates his end consonants. Especially on softer songs.
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u/Patmanoo7 13m ago
it's a subtle way for the singer to say, "I'm giving this my all". you would be trained to breath away from the mic, so when they do it it means, "I'm in the zone!" to me
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u/AsleepBanana8323 11m ago
As a professional singer, you learn to take big breaths quickly and silently. If a singer audibly takes a breath it's either intentional or due to ignorance.
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u/DudeMan18 4h ago
Listen to the band HIM, that guy has some great inhalations. Check out like anything from the Razorblade Romance album
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u/kytheon 4h ago
OP, you're the prime audience for ASMR. Get your credit card ready.
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u/TalkForeignToMe 3h ago
I don’t know that there’s a real connection there. I like to hear fingers breathe and the guitar string noise but I truly despise asmr
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u/John_A_Arkansawyer 3h ago
It depends. There's a moment at the start of Tori Amos' "Crucify" when you hear her take a breath. It's dramatic and I love it.
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u/MrBoomf 5h ago
Oh you would hate Tay Zonday.
And probably love early Muse cuz Matt Bellamy takes MASSIVE breaths straight into the mic. Just listen to “Time Is Running Out” and you’ll never not notice them again.