Page - 63 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

Voicing the Technological Body | 63www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 49–69 in his seminal study on the development of African American music from jazz to hip hop and house, African American musical culture characteristically has made particu- lar use of technology.45 With regard to technologically transformed voices, Alexander Weheliye emphasises that in African American culture the notion of humanity rather draws a blank because of the long experience of slavery, discrimination, and margin- alisation, which implies a lack of being regarded humanely.46 In fact, not only hip hop and house artists, who may represent particularly technological ways of music pro- duction, but also rhythm and blues artists make extensive use of technological voices and were already doing so in the context of the Motown Sound phenomenon. Wid- ening Eshun’s gaze, Weheliye pays particular attention to human-machine voices in rhythm and blues, including an exemplary analysis of the ballad “Computer Love” by the band Zapp, a track that according to Weheliye contributed to “the reemergence of the vocoder in R&B” after the early 1980s, when the popularity of the vocoder had first peaked.47 “Computer Love” (1985) alludes to Kraftwerk’s earlier track with the same name (in German: “Computerliebe”) in Computerwelt (Computer World, 1981). However, in contrast to Kraftwerk, Zapp not only emphasises the machine-like sound of the voice but also underlines the “human” aspect by combining a “vocoderised voice” (that of Roger Troutman) with two “ordinarily” produced voices, one male (Charlie Wilson) and one female (Shelley Murdock).48 In one technical aspect Weheliye might be wrong, for according to Tompkins, Zapp’s frontman Roger Troutman (1951–1999) used not a vocoder but a talk box. This device directs an acoustic signal, usually that of an instrument, via a tube into the mouth of a musician, who can make the instrumental sound “sing” by articulating without even using his or her own larynx. Thus, the blending of instrumental and bod- ily sounds happens within the body or, more precisely, in the mouth; from here the mixed sound can be amplified via microphone. Troutman’s virtuosic use of the talk box has often been attributed to the vocoder: according to Topkins, “Roger Trout- man is the most famous vocoderer to never use a vocoder. Talk Boxes and vocoders are confused more than bad for good.”49 Yet, whatever machine Troutman used, it still seems to have incited a new popularity for the vocoder. Whatever the case, We- heliye’s observations on the extensive use of technologically transformed voices in African American music remain true. The hegemonic stereotype of the natural “hu- man” black voice is clearly challenged by tracks like “Computer Love”. That stereotype is obviously hegemonic, because it is based on a dichotomy: on one side there is the association of the allegedly natural/bodily voice with black and/or female singers; on the other side we find technology and hence machine-made voices 45 Eshun 1998. 46 Weheliye 2002. 47 Weheliye 2002, 35. 48 Weheliye 2002, 35–36. 49 Tompkins 2011, 138.