Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, and the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing today is connected with hip-hop culture, being one of "the elements", although it is not limited to hip-hop music.

The term "beatboxing" is sometimes used to refer to vocal percussion in general (see vocal percussion for details).

History of beatboxing

Prehistory

Two examples of primitive vocal imitation of percussion sounds are bol, which originated in India several thousand years ago, and the Chinese Kouji, a type of vocal performing art. These had little or no relation with hip hop, however, and have no direct connection to modern Eastern Hip Hop.

Other vocal imitative styles may have had some influence on the development of hip-hop, although this idea is difficult to prove. Significant examples include scat singing, associated with Jazz music, and puirt a beul, which originated in traditional Scottish music. Jazz, which developed from the blues and other African-American and European musical traditions and originated around the beginning of the 20th century, has also influenced hip hop and has been cited as a precursor of hip hop.

Additional influences may perhaps include forms of African traditional music, in which performers utilize their bodies (e.g., by clapping or stomping) as percussion instruments and produce sounds with their mouths by breathing loudly in and out, a technique used in beatboxing today.

Origins in hip hop

The term "beatboxing" is derived from the mimicry of the first generation of drum machines, then known as beatboxes. "Human beatboxing" in hip-hop originated in 1980s. Its early pioneers include Doug E. Fresh, the self-proclaimed first "human beatbox", Swifty, the first to implement the inhale sound technique, Buffy, who helped perfect many beatboxing techniques and Wise, who contributed significantly to beat boxing' proliferation. Wise inspired an entire new fan base of human beatboxers with his human turntable technique.

Modern beatboxing

Beatboxing's current popularity is due in part to artists such as Rahzel of the Roots, Kenny Muhammad, and Matisyahu who have promoted the art form across the globe. Websites also contribute substantially toward raising beatboxing's profile including HumanBeatbox.com and Beatbox Battle TV.

Michael Jackson was known to record himself beatboxing on a dictator tape machine as a demo and scratch recording to compose [songs] Billie Jean, Tabloid Junkie, Who Is It, and others.

Sometimes, artists will use their hand or another part of their body to extend the spectrum of sound effects and rhythm. Some have developed a technique that involves using their hands to produce very realistic scratching effects, which they use in beatboxing. Another artist from Belgium cupped his hands to make bird and ocean sound effects in his beatboxing, and so forth.

In 1969, John Mayall recorded "Room to Move" live on his Turning Point album, which utilized mouth drumming from 1:48 to 3:00.

In 1998, Wes Carroll developed "Mouth Drumming," the first vocal percussion video instructional series (first on VHS, and later DVD). Many beatboxers credit this series with their entry into beatboxing.

In 2001, Gavin Tyte developed the first audio and text beatboxing tutorials on the Internet, then in 2002 he produced the first video tutorials on making beatboxing sounds and rhythms.

In 2002, Humanbeatbox.com went online and quickly became the hub of the online beatbox community.

In 2003, the first International Human Beatbox Convention (Boxcon) was held in London. Hosted by Alex Tew, Gavin Tyte, and Mark Splinter from humanbeatbox.com, beatboxers from all over the world gathered to jam, listen to talks, and share tips.

In 2005, the World Beatboxing Championships was organised in Leipzig, Germany. Participantsincluded Tom Thumb, Joel Turner (Australia), White Noise (Ireland), RoxorLoops (Belgium), Poizunus, (Canada), and Faith SFX (UK). After several rounds of beatbox battles and competitions, the finals between RoxorLoops (Belgium) and Joel Turner (Australia) was decided. The five judges had a difficult time picking a winner and called for two extra rounds, after which Joel Turner was declared World Beatbox Champion.

The first UK Beatbox Championships took place in 2005 with Faith SFX taking the national title.

Also in 2005, Beatbox Battle TV was founded September 2005 at the 1st Beatbox Battle World Championship event by Bee Low, B-Film, and Philibox. Today, it has become the largest beatboxing film archive in the world.

In July 2009, The World Beatbox Association (WBA) was founded, and set about organizing the first American and Canadian Beatbox Championships.

Recently, a 2009 Beatboxing World Championship took place wherein over 52 beatboxers, including many females, competed for the title. The female British winner Bellatrix (UK), the male Swiss winner, ZeDe (SUI), and the band Under Kontrol (FR) are now the holders of the largest beatboxing title.

The first-ever American Beatbox Championships took place in 2010 as the centerpiece of the 2010 International Human Beatbox Convention in Brooklyn, New York. Many Americans are emerging on the world beatbox scene such as Matisyahu, Dachi Johnson, Billy Gillette, Blake Lewis, and many others.

thumb|Modern beatboxer Layth performing at Audio club, Brighton.

Notation

As with other musical disciplines, some form of musical notation or transcription may sometimes be useful in order to describe beatbox patterns or performances. Sometimes this takes the form of ad hoc phonetic approximations, but is occasionally more formal.

Standard Beatbox Notation (SBN) was created by Mark Splinter and Gavin Tyte of Humanbeatbox.com in 2006 as an alternative to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription, which had been used sparingly before then.

In 2010 the UK beatboxer Shlomo worked with composer Anna Meredith on a "concerto for beatboxer and orchestra", and developed a simple phonetic notation in order to create a score for the beatboxer.

World records

According to the Guinness World Records™, the current record for the largest human beatbox ensemble involved 1,246 participants and was achieved by Vineeth Vincent and Christ University (India) in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, on 5 February 2011.

Selected beatbox discography

This list is a selected discography of commercial releases which are mostly/entirely beatbox-based or are otherwise notable/influential records in the history of beatboxing and its popularisation.

1970s

Marcos Valle, is of the Brazil and is the father of Beat Box - ''Mentira'' (1973)

1980s

The Fat Boys - ''Fat Boys'' (1984)

Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick - The Show, b/w La Di Da Di (1985)

Just-Ice (featuring Davy DMX on beatbox) - ''Back to the Old School'' (1986)

Wise - Just Say Stet (1985), Faye (1986) & Stet Troop 88 (1988)

Biz Markie - Goin' Off ''(includes beatbox track "Make The Music With Your Mouth, Biz")'' (1988)

Vanilla Ice - Havin' a Roni - from To The Extreme (1990)

1990s

Rahzel - Make The Music 2000 (1999)

2000s

Andre "D.R.E.S. tha BEATnik" Lett - Have Mic... Will Travel: The EP (2001)

Kyle "Scratch" Jones - The Embodiment of Instrumentation (2002)

Killa Kela - The Permanent Marker (2002)

Rahzel - ''Rahzel's Greatest Knock Outs'' (2004)

Marcelo D2 - ''Acústico MTV'' (2004)

Björk - ''Medúlla'' (2004)

Joel Turner - "These Kids" (2004)

BEATBOX BATTLE® - "Beatbox Battle Express" (2005)

Biz Markie - ''Make the Music with Your Mouth, Biz'' (2006)

Poizunus - A.D.D. (Active Dreaming Disorder) (2007)

Kid Beyond - Amplivate (2004)

Blake Lewis - ''A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream)'' (2007)

Logan Henderson - "Big Time Rush" (2009–present)

See also

List of beatboxers

List of American beatboxers

Hip hop music

Konnakol

Scat singing

Puirt a beul

Breath Control: The History of the Human Beat Box

Michael Winslow

References

External links

Community Websites:

Beatbox Türkiye

Humanbeatbox.com

VentBBX

Beatbox Spot

World Beatbox Association

Beatbox Battle® TV

www.beatbox.tv Beatbox.tv

Beatbox Belgium

Beatboxperu.com

Websites:

Learn How To Beatbox

Beatbox Canada

www.ibeatbox.com "Breath Control: History of the Human Beat Box" official web site

International Beatbox Association

mic(ism) Sported and supported by beatboxers worldwide

videojug

Championships:

Worldwide Ventrilo Beatbox Battle Championships

UK National Championships

USA National Championships

Canadian National Championships

Beatbox Battle World Championship

Scholar research on Marcos Valle:

Events:

International Human Beatbox Convention

Human BeatBox Festival in Dijon (FR)

Category:Vocal skills

af:Beatboxing be:Бітбокс be-x-old:Бітбоксінг ca:Beatboxing cs:Beatbox da:Beatboxing de:Beatboxing et:Beatbox es:Beatboxing fr:Human beatbox ko:비트박스 hr:Beatbox id:Beatbox it:Beatboxing he:ביטבוקסינג lv:Bītbokss mk:Бит бокс nl:Beatbox ja:ヒューマンビートボックス no:Beatboxing pl:Beatbox pt:Beatbox ro:Beatbox ru:Битбокс sk:Beatbox fi:Beatbox sv:Beatboxing th:บีตบ็อกซ์ tr:Beatbox zh-yue:Beatboxing zh:節奏口技

name	Lasse Gjertsen
birth date	July 19, 1984
birth place	Norway
known for	"Hyperactive" and "Amateur" videos on YouTube
occupation	animator, musician, and videographer }}

Lasse Gjertsen (born 19 July 1984) is a Norwegian animator, musician, and videographer known on YouTube as ''lassegg''. He is best known for his short pieces "Hyperactive" and "Amateur", which string together short clips of video to create a unique form of video akin to stop-motion animation. His "Hyperactive" video has over 7 million views and his "Amateur" video has over 13 million views.

Biography

Gjertsen was born in Larvik, Norway. He studied animation at Kent Institute of Art & Design in England, and at Volda University College in Norway. His time at Kent Institute ended with his teachers failing to appreciate his work, specifically ''Hyperactive''.

YouTube

Lasse originally submitted ''Hyperactive'' to YouTube after seeing a copy uploaded by another user with poor sound quality. Over the next six months Lasse uploaded 16 more videos, many created during his animation course. As of May 12, 2007 he has the 31st most subscribed channel, and four videos have been featured on the YouTube front page, ''Hyperactive'', ''What The Fuck?'', ''Amateur'', and ''Sogno ad Occhi Aperti''. While ''Hyperactive'' has been the most popular, ''Amateur'' was featured in an article in the online edition of the ''Wall Street Journal''.

Another video by Gjertsen has also been featured on YouTube; "Hva faen, Speil?" in which he is looking into a mirror while some of the effects of LSD become apparent through very clever video and audio editing.

Lasse Gjertsen's video ''Hyperactive'' was nominated in the category Most Creative video in YouTube's 2006 Video Awards. The video achieved third place.

Hyperactive was copied by Cartoon Network in an advert for the show ''Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends''. Lasse initially considered legal action but after talking to a lawyer decided it would be too arduous.

It was also spoofed in an advertisement for the 3rd season of the FX TV show ''It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia''. Whether this was done with or without Gjertsen's permission is unclear.

Lasse Gjertsen is also the creator of the soundtrack of the Chaplin Snakker videos on YouTube. Chaplin Snakker is one of his electronic songs, in which the freedom- and awe-inspiring speech of Charlie Chaplin from his movie ''The Great Dictator'' (1940) is elevated by the use of music.

Beyond YouTube

The YouTube success has resulted in offers from international companies like Chevrolet and MTV. However, Gjertsen publicly denounces the concept of advertising, considering it below prostitution, and has refused all such offers.

In addition to his video work, Lasse has a self-produced album of electronica music.

In 2007 Lasse worked on a two-part music video collaboration, named ''Sogno ad Occhi Aperti'', with the Italian Cellist Giovanni Sollima. This was presented at the 8th International Fringe Film Festival in Marzamemi, Italy. In the same year he directed the music video for the Swedish rapper Timbuktu's song "Get Fizzy".

Software

Lasse has stated he uses the following software in the creation of his videos:

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe After Effects

Debugmode WinMorph

FL Studio

Music

Lasse uses FL Studio to create original compositions in his videos. Although he claims not to have much skill with instruments, he has sampled himself using Drums, Piano, Guitar, Harmonica, and singing.

The only videos without original compositions are the two music videos, ''Home Sweet Home'' by Norwegian Rapper Sirius, and ''Sogno ad Occhi Aperti'' by Italian Cellist Giovanni Sollima.

YouTube video chronology

2006

! Title	! Release Date	! Length	! Notes
				(the same video uploaded by user champaR has 14,366,600 views )

2007

! Title	! Release Date	! Length	! Notes

2008

! Title	! Release Date	! Length	! Notes
				Lasse had his profile temporarily deleted after uploading the video, and was asked to add a disclaimer when his account was re-instated. It was thought to be real, but it was heavily edited yet still realistic.

2009

! Title	! Release Date	! Length	! Notes

2010

! Title	! Release Date	! Length	! Notes

See also

YouTube celebrities

References

External links

Lasse Gjertsen on YouTube

Lasse Gjertsen on Myspace

Lasse Gjertsen Exclusive content created for E4

Category:Norwegian film directors Category:Norwegian animators Category:Norwegian comedians Category:Internet memes Category:1984 births Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of the University for the Creative Arts

de:Lasse Gjertsen fr:Lasse Gjertsen it:Lasse Gjertsen ja:ラッセ・イェルツェン no:Lasse Gjertsen pl:Lasse Gjertsen fi:Lasse Gjertsen sv:Lasse Gjertsen