Journal article
Acoustic Analysis of Blues, Country, Folk, Italian Opera, and Rock Singing
Journal of voice
06/24/2025
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2025.05.018
PMCID: PMC12221228
PMID: 40562602
Abstract
This study uses acoustic and nonlinear dynamic analysis metrics to investigate the distinct vocal characteristics of five music genres-blues, country, folk, Italian opera, and rock. This research uses cepstral peak prominence (CPP) and correlation dimension (D2) values to quantify the levels of chaos and aperiodicity in the singing voices across these genres, providing insights into the acoustic makeups and vocal behaviors unique to each singing style. The aim is to determine if these measures are sufficiently sensitive to develop a comprehensive Voice Type Component Profile (VTCP), a measure of the portions of voice types in an acoustic signal, for each genre.
Fifty voice samples of the vowel /i/ from the Saarbrucken Voice Database were collected and analyzed as a control group representing healthy and typical phonation. These samples were compared with vocal samples extracted from performances in five musical genres: twenty nine from a popular blues music song, 29 from a popular country music song, 24 from a popular folk music song, 23 from a popular Italian opera song, and 29 from a popular rock music song. In addition to being compared to speech phonation, each musical genre was also compared to the others to explore genre-specific vocal characteristics. The singing samples were randomly selected from YouTube and analyzed for CPP, D2, and VTCP.
Many significant differences in acoustic metrics between the genres were found. Rock singing exhibited higher D2 values and lower CPP values compared with blues, country, and folk singing, indicating greater levels of aperiodicity. Blues singing had lower CPP values than the other genres. VTCP analysis revealed that rock singing had the lowest proportion of Type 1 signals and the highest proportion of Type 3 signals.
The findings highlight the unique vocal demands associated with each genre. Understanding these acoustic differences can inform singing instruction and strategies for optimizing vocal health, particularly for genres that exhibit higher levels of chaos (eg, rock). Future research should involve controlled studies with trained singers and advanced vocal analysis techniques to validate and refine these findings.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Acoustic Analysis of Blues, Country, Folk, Italian Opera, and Rock Singing
- Creators
- Grayson J Bienhold - University of Wisconsin–MadisonDavid P Meyer - University of IowaOwen P Wischhoff - University of Wisconsin–MadisonTaylor J Chumbley - University of Wisconsin–MadisonElle O Heimer - University of Wisconsin–MadisonElise A Moreira - University of Wisconsin–MadisonJack Jiang - University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of voice
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jvoice.2025.05.018
- PMID
- 40562602
- PMCID
- PMC12221228
- NLM abbreviation
- J Voice
- ISSN
- 1873-4588
- eISSN
- 1873-4588
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 06/24/2025
- Academic Unit
- School of Music; Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Record Identifier
- 9984833488202771
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