Why are guitar bands speaking instead of singing?
7digital Creative have produced a new episode of BBC World Service’s Cultural Frontline, exploring a trend in the latest guitar music.
Presenter Gemma Bradley asks: why are bands choosing to speak, instead of sing?
Fontaines D.C., Dry Cleaning and Yard Act, as well as solo artists including Billy Nomates and Sinead O’Brien are just some of the acts using speech prominently in their music. And it’s not just vocal performances that have been noticed; many emerging bands also share a ‘post-punk’ guitar sound, as well as lyrics rich in social commentary.
Irish musician and presenter Gemma (BBC Introducing, BBC Radio 1) and producer Lorna met bands and producers to find out.
7digital have produced hundreds of hours of factual and arts audio for BBC platforms. Recent commissions include:
Why Time Flies (And How to Slow It Down) with Armando Iannucci
Mother, Nature, Sons with Nell Frizell
Gone but not forgotten: Syria's missing persons
Recall of the Rock with Helen Mort
Thought Pattern, Pattern Thought with Joanne Limburg
In The Child’s Best Interests with Fergus Walsh
So Many Books, So Little Time with Mark Hodkinson
Award-winning series Michael Morpurgo’s Folk Journeys
