Morrissey's average dropping?

[takefive89]

I've got to say I've been less than impressed with Morrissey's over reliance on long vowel sounds in recent years. His early work in the Smiths was plaudable (The Smiths and Meat is Murder had a combined consonant to vowel syllable bias of 79 per minute, impressive compared to U2's 'How to dismantle an atomic bomb' which contained on average 68, excluding the last 1 minute 34 seconds of track 3 which includes a disproportionate amount of 'kakaka' like chants and so, I feel, badly represents the album as a whole), however their later work and Morrissey's solo work began to drop to an alarming 28 syllables a minute, and I was surprised to find 'Years of refusal' only contained an average of 34 syllables per song.

Do you think Morrissey's use of vocabulary has relied too heaily on elongated vowel sounds and disregarded hard consonants?

Discuss.

Gavin

 

[slazengerpete33]

Wow Gavin. That's alot of research mate! I must admit I'm quite surprised by what you've found out. Is that true about the lower use in YOR? I must admit its not one of my favourites. Where did you get your research? Just out of curiosity, what is the average rate for TQID? - Possibly my favourite of the earlier years.
As for U2, no offense but I always thought they were goddamn awful!

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I've been very dissapointed in this too. I don't give a fig about the vocal meldoy, or what the words he's saying actually mean - all that matters to me is his ratio of consonants to vowels. What else do people listen to pop music for?

Anyway - I must dash - 'Countdown' is about to come on the telly.

 

[Deleted member 1074]

To answer the thread title:

 

[Skylarker]

To answer the thread title:

Wow, he must have a really big butthole.

 

[Anonymous]

...and is that Jeff Golblum I'm seeing lodged in there?
You have some explaining to do, Steven. This is definitely not a veggie-friendly image!!!

 

[Skylarker]

 

[the raytownian]

Not sure why that excites me.

 

[Skylarker]

Not sure why that excites me.

 

[takefive89]

Back On Topic!!!!
Guys, take it seriously!!

Slazenger pete - Very interesting you should say that, TQID actually had one of the highest consanant syllable rates of the new wave (alright I know I'm speaking roughly!) making it one of the most consanant heavy albums of the decade!! Strange considering his quick decline. I wonder if maybe it has anything to do with the prescription drugs Morrissey sometimes mentioned taking? Back in those days no prescribed drugs were available to anyone under 28, I believe, and so this must have happened congruently with the disbanding of The Smiths. You can tell in interviews he has a much more defined facial emphasis than in later interviews. I remember an interview with Les Pattinson, of Echo and the Bunnymen fame, talking about the inspiration he took from TQID's heavy reliance on 'popping' syllables to form the basis for his perculating bass work on the later albums - Fun Fact!!

Don't worry I still love Morrissey's later work don't get me wrong! But I've been a proffessor of English Language and especially social language trends for the past 17 years and Morrissey's influence certainly interests me!

And anonymous - I don't spend all my afternoon's watching countdown, only on Tuesdays!!

 

[Skylarker]

Back On Topic!!!!
Guys, take it seriously!!

Slazenger pete - Very interesting you should say that, TQID actually had one of the highest consanant syllable rates of the new wave (alright I know I'm speaking roughly!) making it one of the most consanant heavy albums of the decade!! Strange considering his quick decline. I wonder if maybe it has anything to do with the prescription drugs Morrissey sometimes mentioned taking? Back in those days no prescribed drugs were available to anyone under 28, I believe, and so this must have happened congruently with the disbanding of The Smiths. You can tell in interviews he has a much more defined facial emphasis than in later interviews. I remember an interview with Les Pattinson, of Echo and the Bunnymen fame, talking about the inspiration he took from TQID's heavy reliance on 'popping' syllables to form the basis for his perculating bass work on the later albums - Fun Fact!!

Don't worry I still love Morrissey's later work don't get me wrong! But I've been a proffessor of English Language and especially social language trends for the past 17 years and Morrissey's influence certainly interests me!

And anonymous - I don't spend all my afternoon's watching countdown, only on Tuesdays!!

 

[slazengerpete33]

Takefive89

Erm to be honest I'm probably well in over my head with this. I was never really that good at English at school

 

[slazengerpete33]

Takefive89

As its been a quiet day at work I thought I'd have a go at this myself. Therefore I did a bit of my own research. So mocked up a wee chart of what I have. I've got to admit there are a couple of estimates (YA and SG aren't exactly my favourite albums. PLEASE DONT SHOOT ME!! ) I then made a an estimate for the average per min (just divided album length by number of tracks etc). Its probably not as precise as what you have but I hope it will help in someway.


Turns out you were right about it going down a little bit. You still can't take anything away from YATQ and ROTT though - both great albums

 

[Anonymous]

So, on a consonant to vowel ratio, this means you can work out Morrissey's 'best' song. In fact, you can work out his 'best' line.
Let's have it then. We know you've got nothing else to do.

 

[slazengerpete33]

Takefive89

So what did you think then mate? I mean I know its probably not totally accurate but would love a review. (Give us a grade miss!!! )

 

[slazengerpete33]

Takefive89 or Gavin

Seriously you could give me a reply. Especially after all that work I did. Its just rude tbh.
Also are you really a professor?