History of beatboxing
Prehistory
Two examples of primitive vocal imitation of percussion sounds are bol, which originated in India several thousand years ago[when?], 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 includescat 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.[3]
Additional influences may perhaps include forms of African traditional music, in which performers utilize bodies (e.g. by clapping or stomping) as percussion instruments and produce sounds with their mouths by breathing loudly in and out, a technique which is used in beatboxing today.
Origins in hip hop
The term "beatboxing" is derived from the mimicry of the first generation of drum machine, then known as beatboxes. "Human beatboxing" in hip hop originated in 1980s. Its early pioneers includeDoug E. Fresh, the self proclaimed first "human beatbox",[4] Swifty, the first to implement the inhale sound technique[citation needed], Buffy, who helped perfect many beatboxing techniques[citation needed] and Wise, who contributed significantly to beat boxing' proliferation[citation needed]. Wise inspired a whole 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 world.[5] Websites also contribute substantially toward raising the profile of beatboxing.
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 more.[6]
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 hand 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 2001, Gavin Tyte developed the first audio and text 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 championship of beatboxing was organised in Leipzig, Germany. The participants came from all over the world, and included Tom Thumb, and Joel Turner (Australia), White Noise (Ireland), RoxorLoops (Belgium), Poizunus (Canada), and Faith SFX (UK). After several heats of beatbox battles and contests, the final 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 won the world championship.
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.[7]
In July 2009, The World Beatbox Association (WBA) was founded, and set about organizing the first American, and the first Canadian Beatbox Championships.
Recently, a 2009 beatboxing world championship took place where over 52 beatboxers and many female beatboxers 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, and took place 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.
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 [8] of Humanbeatbox.com in 2006 as an alternative to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcription, which had been used sparingly before then.
