| I coined this phrase in the 1990's based on the debate over "gratuitous violence" in movies and video games at the time to apply to the vocal styles of Janet Jackson, Whitney Huston and Marriah Cary, still prevalent in the stream of talented and not so talented amateur singers of "American Idol" where it seemed to me that the ornamented singing style, which often became screechy, as in "Body Guard", was used without any thought or nuance. I admired the vocal talents of some of Carry in particular, her vocal range, but tired quickly of the style.
There is a parallel in the history of serious music of a similarly decadent style of over ornamented music that died out rather quickly and maybe with the head of Henry XVI. It is the so-called French Style of Baroque music. And yet in the hands of a master, the over-used becomes substantive, when careful thought is brought back to bear on the use of the atriface. I am thinking of the Fugue in The French Style ( Contrapunctus 6) in J. S. Bach's "Art of Fugue" in which the ornament is an effective and essential part of the counterpoint. I so admire music in which every note has a vital role and in which changing even the single note is obvious and alters the whole.
| |
