‘Ga, ga, ooh-la-la’: the childlike use of language in pop-rock music

Abstract

In this paper, I examine several aspects of pop-rock music that are characterised by the childlike use of language. Relying on the theoretical work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari – particularly on their concept of ‘becoming-child’ – I locate, describe and analyse three distinct childlike strategies common in pop-rock: the use of gibberish and nonsense that unbinds language from sense, enabling it to release its own expressive intensities; the utilisation of baby talk and other childlike vocal mannerisms, drawing attention to the physical properties of the act of singing as bodily experimentation; and different forms of repetition that ‘shake’ sense out of words, allowing them to draw their own lines of flight. Foregrounding these strategies, I ultimately claim, expands our understanding of pop-rock music while problematising its traditional interpretation as ‘rebellious’ music, offering its positive, productive qualities and ‘minoritarian’ politics as an alternative to the restricting dichotomy between oppression and liberation implied by the concept of rebellion.

Sonic affinity

“… 7. It makes sense to seriously consider that some very free ways of adult singing based on nonsense syllables might have a ‘motherese revived’ or occasional regressive root, like the scat singing popularized by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald in their intimist improvisations. Underpinning on the philosophers Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of becoming child , Appel (in ‘Ga, ga, ooh-la-la …’) describes childlikeness as ‘an immanent component of pop-rock,’ against the rebellious and aggressive traits usually embedded in the assumption of the genre (2014, p. 91). …”

Relating Musical Genre and Lyrical Repetition

“…For example, Nadav Appel (2014) identifies many examples in which pop-rock music uses nonsense words, gibberish, baby talk, and similar childlike speech patterns expressively, such as to shift attention to the physical and bodily aspects of singing. Appel (2014) even notes that various forms of repetition can make nonsense words somewhat make sense. Genres can also have characteristic lyrical features in that artist of certain genres, such as folk and rock, write lyrics after instrumentals, matching words to the mood or feel, while artists of other genres compose instrumentals after lyrics, translating stresses and meter-the "shape of the lyric"-to rhythm (Negus & Astor, 2015).…”

Sigur Rós: reception, borealism, and musical style

“…Sigur Rós is unique in its use of the Icelandic language, but the band is equally renowned for the moments when they are not using any language at all: ‘Svefn-g-englar’ features both Icelandic lyrics (on the verses) and non-semantic vocalization in the chorus sections. The use of non-semantic vocalization in many Sigur Rós songs has been studied in terms of its lineage to dada and surrealism (Petersen 2008; Hayden 2014) as well as its nostalgic qualities and childlike playfulness (Richardson 2012; Appel 2014). It is frequently misconstrued as an invented language, as the band gave it the name Vonlenska (‘Hopelandic’), after the first recorded song (‘Von’, or ‘Hope’, 1997) featuring this type of vocalization.…”