- It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you've ever attended a poetry slam, you probably already hate "slam voice." For the uninitiated, it's a term used to describe the affected vocal delivery that has evolved out of the spoken word scene in recent years, and tends to involve a number of common features: mournful tone, stilted, Shatneresque pacing, and long crescendos deployed to show us just. How. Fucking. Intense. Everything is. As an outsider, it's an easy thing to make fun of, but unfortunately for our cold, dead hearts, it's always been hard to articulate exactly why it annoys us.
God damn I hated slam poetry the one time I went to see it. I think it really comes down to the strived-for emotive impact that Alley mentions; it tries to be super serious and sombre and intense, and to really beat you over the head with some emotional point, and thereby has always come across to me as pretentious or condescending.
I get that, there have been times when I feel like slam poetry can come off pretentious and condescending. It sometimes does try too hard.
used to go to these for the free food in college. i just assumed it sucked because a bunch of amateurs were doing it, but maybe the whole thing is just dumb. spoken word is incredible, though. and there really shouldn't be just a whole lot of difference.
I don't listen to enough slam poetry to know the voice they're talking about. But I also can't talk about it without mentioning Shane Koyczan.
What would you like to say about Shane Koyczan? I have heard of him before. Anyways the way he does that poem is something I have heard before but with different word usage.
Just that he's great and everyone should listen to him (or perhaps I'm misunderstanding your question).
wow expose me lol I was mega guilty of this for the year or 2 I was SUPER into slam. I thought it was Part of The Deal.