I am constantly listening to the radio, from my alarm walking me up with Morning Edition to falling asleep to the Real Jazz channel on XM radio. My days are filled with music, but also with news and the voices that read that news.
I love the voices of Carl Kasell, Bob Edwards, Sylvia Poggioli, Noah Adams, and Susan Stamberg. Those voices make me feel calm and relaxed and even happy. (Really, how can Sylvia Poggioli’s voice not make you happy?)
But in the same way, there are voices that grate on my ears, that I do not like to hear. On NPR those voices include Liane Hansen, Joe Graedon, and Sue Scott. (Something about Sue Scott’s voice makes me run for the radio to turn it off.)
And of course there the voices of people in the news. Which brings me to my point. Now I can’t stand George W. Bush’s voice, but I think that’s more association than anything inherent about his voice. And I don’t like Al Gore’s cadences. There’s nothing wrong with his voice, but his cadences when he’s speaking formally bug me. And John Kerry, something about his voice and speech patterns.
But nothing like Sarah Palin’s voice. All it took was listening to the debate, and her voice makes me twitchy. I want to find her, and smack her into taking elocution lessons.
There’s only one other voice I can think of off the top of my head that does this to me. There’s a very nice woman in my building who has the most annoying voice every. Her voice is located in her nose, and to make it worse it’s extremely high pitched. Sometimes I just want to yell at her to speak from her chest. (Note to Gina: I am not talking about she whose computer senses fear.)
The difference is that Sarah Palin should KNOW better. She was a newscaster. She should know how to modulate her voice. Why she should choose such a nasal register is beyond me.
Especially when dropping your voice into your chest to deepen it is so much more effective when dealing with men. :)
