# GLEE question: What's that singing called? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 11, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346 "2010-11-11T19:46:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/1 "2010-11-11T19:46:59Z")
First let me get this out of the way; auto tune. What’s the singing style called used in the title “song”, the brief vocal that goes something like “bidly diddly boop GLEE!”? Is it simply Choral? Something else? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/2 "2010-11-11T19:51:18Z")
Scat? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/3 "2010-11-11T20:53:13Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Scat? Yup. ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/4 "2010-11-11T21:06:43Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Yup. Well I’ll be! Ain’t never heard no scat like that. Although my entire exposure to it has been Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. This choral type seems quite different to me. Can anyone point me to more examples of the GLEE type? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/5 "2010-11-11T21:49:09Z")
Manhattan Transfer? ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/6 "2010-11-11T22:29:27Z")
Ewww! Really? Okay. Maybe best in small doses. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/7 "2010-11-11T22:30:30Z")
acapella? beatboxing? ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/8 "2010-11-11T23:46:27Z")
This is a style I associate with the Swingle Singers. The Wonder Bread end of scat singing. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/9 "2010-11-12T01:25:44Z")
The internet has ruined scat singing for me. Well, the _term_ for it, at any rate. I now refer to it as “freestyle jazz vocal improvisation”. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/10 "2010-11-12T08:49:43Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > I now refer to it as “freestyle jazz vocal improvisation”. Well there you go. If not the official term, a good offering. Freestyle, scat, beat boxing, a cappella, vocal jazz, free jazz, free improvisation, whose line is it anyway, nonsense syllables, vocal jamming, vocalese. I’d say it’s somewhere in between some of those… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/11 "2010-11-12T09:12:35Z")
Isn’t it based on doo-wop? ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/12 "2010-11-12T09:26:43Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Isn’t it based on doo-wop? You mean doo-doo-wop, I presume? ---
**Author:** ![RachelChristine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RachelChristine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RachelChristine)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/13 "2010-11-12T13:25:22Z")
I read on wiki (I believe) that it is acapella covers of instrumental songs. I can’t find it on there now, s maybe it was a different website. It even gave the name of the group who does all those bada-bada-bada songs. This is going to bug me all day, isn’t it… ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-question-whats-that-singing-called/560346/14 "2010-11-12T18:09:21Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > You mean doo-doo-wop, I presume? Scat? Doo-Doo-Wop? LOL More like the Brown Sound…