Abstract
This is a book about the human voice and although the title focuses on singing, the book itself has a much broader scope. Paddy Scannell’s starting point is his historical work on British broadcast radio. He argues that ‘talk is a thing in itself, and should not be thought of as spoken language or oral communication’ (p. vi). He defines talk as ‘primarily a sociable phenomenon, and as such is (humanly) universal’ (p. vii). Scannell goes as far as to claim that ‘communication (talk) and language are nonidentical’ because ‘writing is the medium of language and its primary function has nothing to do with communication and talk’ (p. vii). The book is split into four chapters. In Chapter 1, ‘The Voice of the Friend’, Scannell focuses on talk and what makes talk special. Chapter 2, ‘Talk, Radio and Television’, traces the development of talk first on radio in the United Kingdom and then on TV in the United States. Chapter 3, ‘Technologies of Record’, explores the technologies of recording. The final chapter goes by the same title as the book: ‘Why Do People Sing?’ In it, Scannell argues that singing is not a necessity but it is more a form of escapism. He writes, More than any other “moment,” the moment of singing – wherein we encounter the play of the human voice as such, liberated from any communicative sociable intent or necessity, released from the obligations and burden of language – is a moment of pure expressed, expressive human freedom. (p. 138)
The book is not written primarily for an academic audience but the author hopes that it would appeal to a broader readership.