History Main / PerishingAltRockVoice

* {{Deftones}}' Chino Moreno, when he's not screaming.

* Alice Glass of CrystalCastles does this on "Celestica" and "Tell Me What To Swallow", the latter used to TearJerker effect once the [[AbusiveParents meaning of the lyrics]] becomes clear.

* Remarkably early example (of the ennui/snark variety) in ''{{Bedazzled}}'' (1967) - Stanley (Dudley Moore) wishes to be a pop star and is instantly in a ''Ready, Steady, Go'' style show, passionately singing his heart out. His thunder is immediately stolen when the Devil (Peter Cook) does a droning number, dismissing his backup singers' praises in a robotic monotone[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1OHlLICfEk]].
* Jack White with his TheWhiteStripes, side project bands and solo careers. ''Especially'' live. One moment he's droning in monotones, the next he's screaming with the utmost control, the next moment he could ''start preaching to the crowd''. Also count his guitar; he's wrings out every note worthy of being in the song.

Or Perishing Indie Voice [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage for British (and European) audiences]].

* [[NineInchNails Trent Reznor]] sounds like this a lot of the time.

* [[ThePixies Black Francis]], some of the time (mostly when he's not [[CarefulWithThatAxe screaming]]. [[ThePixies Kim]] [[TheBreeders Deal]], most of the time.

** "[[{{Gorillaz}} I'm happy, I'm feeling' glad/I've got sunshine in a bag...]]"

Big thing in TheNineties, though with a few precursors in the late Eighties, and still more in the Sixties and onwards, this is singing in the voice of somebody who 1) sounds as if they're wasting away and can hardly find the energy to vocalize, with 2) attendant flattening of the emotional tone [[hottip:* :In bad cases, it ''can'' be the musical equivalent of DullSurprise]]. Comes in a number of flavours, from ennui and [[DeadpanSnarker snark]] to sexed-out bliss to severe burnout. Sonically ranges from wispy to droney, though a fair number of Perishing Singers occupy less easily defined in-between territory, e.g. Lou Reed, Jarvis Cocker, and (depending [even] more on the song) Thom Yorke.

* The as-yet-unnamed main singer from ''HomestarRunner'''s FakeBand, "sloshy".

* Geoff Rickly of Thursday loves to use this when he's not [[CarefulWithThatAxe screaming]]. More evident in the band's later albums.

* Remarkably early example in ''{{Bedazzled}}'' (1967) - Stanley (Dudley Moore) wishes to be a pop star and is instantly in a ''Ready, Steady, Go'' style show, passionately singing his heart out. His thunder is immediately stolen when the Devil (Peter Cook) does a droning number, dismissing his backup singers' praises in a robotic monotone[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1OHlLICfEk]].

While this trope is definitely a case of YourMileageMayVary, it [[TropesAreTools is not necessarily a bad thing]] and this vocal style has provided quite a few [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome crowning moments of awesome]].

* Anders Friden from InFlames, when he's not [[HarshVocals growling]] uses a vocal style that is very reminiscent of this trope despite InFlames being a MelodicDeathMetal band. (although their later work incorporates greater levels of AlternativeMetal.

* Anders Friden from InFlames uses a vocal style that is very reminiscent of this trope despite InFlames being a MelodicDeathMetal band. (although their later work incorporates greater levels of AlternativeMetal.

* Probably the most perished example of this trope is Mark Kozelek from RedHousePainters and Sun Kil Moon. The complete lifelessness in his voice in every song he sings just makes the music all the more depressing.

The PerishingAltRockVoice may be interspersed with {{Metal Scream}}s and Stuttering Wailing; it also frequently leads to {{Mondegreen}}s and IndecipherableLyrics, as well as SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein. A staple of {{Grunge}} and ShoeGazing, as well as the bread and butter of DreamPop, with a tendency to make surprise appearances in {{Industrial}}. May overlap in use with Emo Whispering and NoseYodeling: while it's easy to sound perishing if you're singing nasally (engage pedant mode: because you're actually blocking the nose and thereby getting less air — /pedant mode off), a lot of perishing singers (like MyBloodyValentine, or Thom from {{Radiohead}}) aren't nasal at all, and (as per above) they're usually far from emoting overtly. Not infrequently crosses over into CreepyMonotone or DissonantSerenity. Related to ThreeChordsAndTheTruth, in that the more fanatical ones regard polished, full-bodied singing as fake and scratchy singing as authentic.

* MyBloodyValentine, collectively.

* For {{Can}}, both their first vocalists sound like this at times, with a tendency to Stuttering Wailing on the part of both, and (primarily) to Emo Whispering on the part of Damo.

* For the VelvetUnderground, there's Lou's dry version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xcwt9mSbYE ) and Nico's Euro-dirge one (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KiU5P4ihIQ ).

* David Usher from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moist_(Canadian_band) Moist]].

* Black Moth Super Rainbow later became known for running all of their lead vocals through vocoder, but their first album, ''Falling Through A Field'', more often featured vocalist Tobacco singing in a hoarse, monotone whisper through some light distortion instead. Arguably, he sounded more like he was from the UncannyValley ''before'' he started using a vocoder.

* Billy Corgan of the SmashingPumpkins.