4. Ian Gillan and the Legacy of the Operatic Voice in Heavy metal: Borrowed Feminine Classical Virtuosity in Metal Masculinity
Who Do We Think They Are? - Deep Purple and Metal Studies - Andy R. Brown
Francesca Stevens [+]
Falmouth University
Description
The vocal performances of Ian Gillan, on the track ‘Child In Time’ (1970) and on the ‘live’ album, Made in Japan (1972), as well as the original version of the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical, Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), articulate a debate about the wide octave range of the singer and his influence on other hard rock and metal lead-singers, such as Rob Halford, Freddie Mercury, Ronnie James Dio, and Bruce Dickinson, to name but a few. It is the development of distortion techniques, especially in the high register that defines hard and heavy rock singing, characterised by Gillan’s high octave screams, and his powerful, often first-take studio performances, especially on the classic In Rock and Machine Head albums, as well as the development of a layered-vocal delivery on later albums, that define the template, range and distinctive timbre of the hard rock and metal singer. Francesca Stevens, in Chapter 4, not only seeks to analyse Gillan vocal stylings, but to do so as part of an examination of the interconnections between borrowed classical female vocal virtuosity and the aesthetics of heavy metal masculinity. Through the lens of gender semiotics and critical popular musicology, the chapter considers the appropriation of classical feminine vocal capabilities by Gillan and his contemporaries by means of the dramatic use of an operatic vibrato and countertenor range. This singing style and technique employed by Gillan is analysed in relation to the sonic representation of essentialist gender tropes through his application of a delicate balance of classical/feminine and rock/masculine. This dichotomy is realised through Gillan’s use of the female tessitura, mimicked chiaroscuro, and wide vibrato, mixed with traditional rock techniques, such as vocal distortion and nasal resonance. At the centre of the analysis is the performances heard on the ‘live’ album Made in Japan (1972), focussing on the virtuosic sequential vocal patterns heard in ‘Child in Time’ and the (guitar/vocal) call and response (‘parroting’) cadenza and F#5 fermata (or feminine ‘scream’) notes heard in ‘Strange Kind of Woman’.