History Main / Scatting

** Doughty's live album ''Smofe + Smang'' features an early version of "Grey Ghost" where he admits he didn't write any lyrics for the bridge yet, so he has to sing "fake words". The title of the album actually comes from part of that very same scatting bridge.

* ''WesternAnimation/CentralPark'': In Season 3 "[[Recap/CentralParkS3E02PaigesNextChapter "Paige's Next Chapter]]", with Bitsy's piano lounge player's arm broken, he has his wife, Devora, fills his spot as the lounge singer. But once she starts performing, all she does is scat the whole time saying any letters or syllables she can think of. Despite how long it goes on, the audience is actually impressed by it, especially after Helen accidentally gets roped into the performance.

* In ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'', most of the background music heard during battles has lyrics in the in-universe languages (mostly Inkling), which aren't actually well-defined {{Conlang}}, but is simply the real-life musicians singing nonsense syllables and then running it through some audio distortion filters to give it a more wet and burbley sound befitting squid and octopus people.

* The refrain of O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei": "Maya hi, maya hu, maya ho, maya ha ha". [[RefrainFromAssuming Often mistaken for the title]], as is "Numa Numa".

Compare IndecipherableLyrics and WordSaladLyrics. Many {{Lyrical Tic}}s are this.

* Music/TheRollingStones had a couple:

* Music/JeanMichelJarre's song 'Zoolookologie'.
** The whole "Zoolook" album, for that matter, what with all those voice samples.

* "Mah Na Mah Na".
** Doo doo, doo-doo-doo!

* Music/MichaelJackson was known for his impressive beatboxing skills, and not only was it prevalent in his material as an adult (a great case is the outro to "Man in the Mirror"), he also used beatboxing to create rough demos of his songs, before giving them to his producers to flesh out; "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZeYw1bm53Y Beat It]]" being a well known example. This particular skill actually helped him win a plagiarism lawsuit because he was able to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkjYcgpaS4w demonstrate how he composed his songs in such a way]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' and [[VideoGame/Splatoon2 its sequel]], most of the background music heard during battles has has lyrics in the Inkling Language, which is not actually a well-defined {{Conlang}}, but is made simply by recording people singing nonsense syllables and then running it through some audio distortion filters to give it a more wet and burbley sound befitting a squid-person.

* Music/{{Journey}}'s song "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" has "na na na na na" sung over and over at the latter end of the song, which has [[MockingSingSong a sing-songy tone to it]] given that it occurs right after "Now it's your turn, girl, to cry."

** Taken UpToEleven in the parody video "[[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi8gdvUgd7SAhWN3oMKHQPBDJMQyCkIHjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D66gSvNeqevg&usg=AFQjCNGhpN9dxGKQi-68tMKxHyaupFGeSQ&sig2=AFo03-yKZj5rgXjuTJp45A The Greatest Hit of Disturbed]], where ''all'' lyrics are replaced with "yuh-muh-nuh" and variations on it. David Drainman finds the video hilarious.

** "Seed', "BBK", "Twist" (which aside from the title is nearly all scatting!) and "Ball Tongue" are a few examples.

* Anime/ZombieLandSaga does this in the ImageSong for Yugiri, "Saga Jihen". Specifically, it happens during the first half of the bridge section.

* Installation from the soundtrack of ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}''.

** Seed, BBK, Twist and Ball Tongue are a few examples.

* The bridge of Music/{{Metallica}}'s "The Memory Remains" is Marianne Faithful singing nonsense syllables in a ''very'' [[NightmareFuel creepy]] tone of voice.

* [[Music/{{REM}} R.E.M.'s]] "Endgame" is mostly instrumental, aside from some wordless harmonizing and Michael Stipe singing variants on "ba ba ba" a few times.

* Music/{{Yes}} could really make this work when they used it, e.g. on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UivtWeJgvMg "Leave It"]] from ''90125''.

* "Ooby Dooby" by Roy Orbison has the chorus "Ooby dooby, ooh, ooby dooby, ooby dooby, ooby dooby, ooby dooby, ooby dooby, doo wah doo wah doo wah doo wah."

* Loreena [=McKennitt's=] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iijklrtljnw Tango to Evora]] is like this, essentially "lalalala" repeated over and over.

* Music/{{Aerosmith}}: even when Steven Tyler isn't actually trying to sing the drum parts (Heart's Done Time, Livin' on the Edge) he's quite happy to go off the end of the lyric sheet (Rag Doll, Livin' on the Edge, many others).

* Music/{{The Rolling Stones}} had a couple:

* Music/MichaelJackson was known for his impressive beatboxing skills, and not only was it prevalent in his material as an adult, he also used beatboxing to create rough demos of his songs, before giving them to his producers to flesh out; "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZeYw1bm53Y Beat It]]" being a well known example. This particular skill actually helped him win a plagiarism lawsuit because he was able to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkjYcgpaS4w demonstrate how he composed his songs in such a way]].

* As VideoGame/TheSims characters [[SpeakingSimlish speak Simlish]], the songs heard on the radio are also sung in gibberish, in all three installments and their respective expansions. The Sims: Unleashed hired a real band (Zydeco Flames) to perform their songs in Simlish, and The Sims 2: University started the now-famous series tradition of getting a whole selection of artists to re-record their songs in Simlish for each expansion.

* 75% of the background music in the Nickelodeon version of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}''...and it was ''[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic awesome]]''.

* Franchise/{{Popeye}} had a charming habit of scatting to himself as he went about his business.

* The ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'' song "Scat", which consists mainly of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the main trio singing scat]]. [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic It's considered by many viewers to be one of the best songs in the series]].

* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yAI5_YXNqI 13.1.14.4.18.1.7.15.18.1.1110]]" by Music/{{Iamamiwhoami}} is [[FanNickname nicknamed "papachoo"]] for its meaningless lyrics.

* The song ''Thoughts Far Away'' from [[VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar Lunar Silver Star Story]] consists entirely of "la la las", to the point where many people only know it as [[FanNickname Luna's Lala Song]]. She sang a different song in the original Sega CD version, still consisting entirely of "la la la".

* Webvideo/RockedReviews [[PetPeeveTrope shows a disdain for these]] - and the albums showcased on Regretting the Past have them often! - and even highlights it by playing the ''Homestar Runner'' clip from the folder above.

* The main theme of ''VideoGame/BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg'' is mostly composed of children going "La la la la la la la lalala..." and occasionally misspelling the game's tagline ([[YouMakemeSic "G-I-N-T E-G-G"]]). [[spoiler:The credits are accompanied by a version of this song with actual lyrics.]]

** The secret level theme of Battleblock Theater features gratuitous scatting by William Stamper.

-->-- '''Music/ScatmanJohn''' [[note]](leading his listeners through [[MotorMouth easy mode]])[[/note]], [[http://youtu.be/pVHKp6ffURY "Scatman"]]

* The sound "Giant Egg" from ''VideoGame/BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg'' is mostly composed of children going "La la la la la la la lalala..." They do spell [[YouMakemeSic "G-I-N-T E-G-G"]] at one point, but that's it.

* Venus's song in ''VideoGame/EarthBound''.

* [[VideoGame/JetSetRadio Hideki]] [[VideoGame/SonicRush Naganuma's]] sampling tends to turn vocals into this. A good example is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMMANIT5v-M "Ethno Circus"]].

* The sound "Giant Egg" from ''VideoGame/BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg'' is mostly composed of children going "La la la la la la la lalala..." They do spell "G-I-A-N-T E-G-G" at one point, but that's it.

* The Mighty Dub Katz' "Magic Carpet Ride" has the [[BrokenRecord repeating refrain]] "A ring ting ting, a ring ting ting".

** In some parts of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', you can find holograms of the Prophets [[ThemeTuneCameo chanting the series theme]] in alien gibberish.

** In the fifth episode of the show's second season (''Revenge''), we see Lily performing a song called "Little Bodda Bope", which is 90% comprised of scatting. It's done like this because [[spoiler: its secretly a remix of a much more emotional song called "Life", which Lily was going to perform during the talent show, but her opponent manages to sing exactly that before she gets her turn]]. Needless to say, Lily's scatting skills are exceptionally well.