In his article “The Grain of the Voice”, French theorist and essayist Roland Barthes discusses language as it pertains to the discussion of music. According to him, the quality of most musical description is lacklustre due to the heavy dependence on adjectives. Something interesting about this observation is that professors of creative writing will often tell their students the same thing when it comes to literary description. In critiquing a short story, one might suggest to remedy this issue with stronger verbs or incorporate more figurative language. In a musical context, Barthes suggests to “change the object of music itself, as it presents itself to discourse” (p. 180). To explore “the encounter between a language and a voice”, he coins the term grain (as in the grain of the voice). The purpose of the grain is to observe how a performer physically embodies what is in the score. Barthes investigates his ideas by briefly discussing the vocal tendencies of two well-known classical vocalists. After reading his analysis, I wondered how his theories would apply to other genres. Does the grain still exist in modern popular music?
Jessie Reyez is a Columbian-Canadian singer and songwriter who rose to fame after the release of her now certified triple platinum 2016 single, “Figures”. The Juno Award–winning artist has since released two EPs and a full studio album, collaborating with other big-time artists such as Kehlani, Normani, and Eminem. Reyez has gained recognition and admiration from listeners for her ability to write with such authenticity about themes such as heartbreak, the life of an immigrant/child of immigrants, and the evils of the entertainment industry. As a live performer, Reyez has strong stage presence that translates seamlessly into her studio recordings. As someone who has seen her live in concert and is an avid listener of her recorded music, I believe that she absolutely posses the “grain” that Barthes discusses in his article. Reyez has an affinity for using physicality to embody the essence of the stories and messages explored in her music. By analyzing “Worth Saving” from her studio album, Before Love Came to Kill Us+ (2020), I will explain how she makes use of her chest, teeth, lips, and throat the physicalize the song.
“Worth Saving” is one of Reyez’s songs about heartbreak where she begs someone not to leave her. Barthes mentions two terms, adapted from Julia Kristeva, that can be used to describe vocal music: pheno-song and geno-song. Pheno-song is meant to deal with aspects of performance related to subjectivity, expressivity, and interpretation, while geno-song is reserved for the more concrete details. I perceive the phenotypic qualities of “Worth Saving” to be the several moods that Reyez experiences throughout the course of the song. This includes anguish, desperation, hopelessness, and fight (as in, the audible fight in her voice). At the geno-song level, the grain in her voice comes through her ability to sing as if she is pleading, screaming, speaking, arguing, or on the verge of tears.
As the song progresses through verses, choruses, and the bridge, one can hear a continuous rise and fall in her emotions. At the beginning of the first verse she talks about her disappointment in the behavioural trends of people in relationships. There is a lot of air behind her tone, and the articulation of her consonants are rather soft. The tip her of tongue barely touches the roof of her mouth when articulating alveolar consonants (d, n, s, t), her lower lip faintly grazes her upper teeth during labiodental consonants (f, v), and her lips brush together only slightly when voicing the bilabial consonants (mostly b, p). However soft her tone, she still sings in a way which one can tell hypothetically which syllables or words would be italicized in written form. For example:
Nowadays, everything’s different
Everybody cheats, nobody listens
Everybody hits, nobody misses
Everybody scared, nobody risks it
Through the pre-chorus and chorus, the increase of intensity in her voice and body become parallel to that of the lyrics. The volume gradually gets louder and she possesses more vocal fry. With a high-quality speaker, one can hear occasional squeaking that follows the end of some phrases. The rising strain in her throat during the pre-chorus makes it seem as through she is struggling to get the words out. This strain gives way to a shouty, more belted tone in the chorus during, “I might be worth saving”. I would argue that the height of intensity occurs when she is practically screaming during the lyrics,“didn’t you SAY THAT your MOMMA, liked me?”. This is when the fight in her voice is most present, warranting (I believe) capitalization. At this point, the sense of desperation is almost palpable.
The bridge is perhaps the most interesting part of the song as she briefly considers why she might not be worth saving. One specific line of the bridge so brilliantly captures the type of breaks heard in the speech pattern of someone who is crying while speaking. When one sobs or weeps, it is typical to experience involuntary shuddering (in the neck, shoulder, chest area) as well as shaky breaths (perhaps better described as gasps). As Reyez sings “I’m not the easiest (x2)/don’t even blame your dumb*ss for leaving me” in the second half of the bridge, her voice wobbles. She then incorporates the shudder and gasps into the next line, “all my friends, they (gasp) hate your guts/I’m (gasp) here defending (gasp) all you’ve done”. The audible evidence of physicality used in the vocal line evokes a vivd mental image of what Reyez must have looked like while recording this song, or at least when she suffered this heartbreak. The song ends with the now defeated plead, “so don’t let me go so easy” as the solemn piano plays its last chord.
The use of the grain effectively transforms the idea of a performance into a unique experience. Using the body not just for its instrument, but for its physicality essentially adds a new level of depth and complexity needed to tell the full story of an emotional song such as “Worth Saving”. The listener is taken on a spiralling journey through the lows of hopelessness to the heights of the fight.