Did you know that a group of European voice researchers conducted a study to figure out
once and for all what made Freddie Mercury's amazing voice so special?
So what did they find? Their results may surprise you.
There's no shortage of talented musicians, and there are more than a few that certainly come
to one's mind when thinking of industry icons. If the legendary rock group Queen crosses your mind
when you think of raw talent and impressive vocal range, you aren't alone by any means.
Queen has more than a few hit songs that everyone seems to know the words to,
and crowds can be heard singing along to them as loudly as possible at every opportunity.
Even though the impressive vocal range and variety of hard-to-hit notes seem impossible
for the average human, for Freddie Mercury, they are achievable with both skill and style.
It's tempting to chalk up Queen frontman Freddie Mercury's ear-shattering four-octave
vocal range to divine intervention; to consider him a sort of rock 'n' roll
Chosen One and call it a day. But a team of European voice researchers attempted
to dispel the mystery and magic in 2016 when they carried out an acoustic analysis of the
singer's impressive pipes. What the study found — as well as what it didn't — reveals
the rare ability that makes Freddie Mercury's voice so incredible to listeners of all ages.
"I'm a big ham,
really. I just get on that stage and do it. I don't really take myself that seriously."
Through the testing of various theories and curiosities pertaining to Freddie
Mercury's vocal range, researchers were specifically able to explain that iconic
and inimitable growl that stands all the hairs up on the back of your neck when
Freddie sings the words to, "Don't stop me now!" The technique doesn't come easy,
and for a lot of folks, it doesn't come at all. The reason for this is because the range and growl
that Mercury bellows melodically in each track require the use of what's known as "false vocal
cords" — the two folds of the mucous membrane in the larynx also known as vestibular folds.
Vestibular folds aren't commonly used when singing because even the most talented and highly trained
musicians aren't always able to access this unique skill, but those who can activate them produce a
rare vocal marvel called "subharmonic vibration." In layman's terms, it's that shiver running down
your spine when Mercury's voice gets rough and raspy. A 2013 linguistic study out of Canada's
University of Victoria attributed the harsh voice qualities of quintessential blues singers such as
Muddy Waters and the aptly named Howlin' Wolf to subharmonic vocalization of the vestibular folds.
Metalheads will recognize this technique as the death growl that scares the faint of heart away
from the grisly genre. According to Metal Injection, the death growl was born in 1966
on the album "A Quick One" by English rockers The Who. Bassist John Entwistle is credited with the
sinister growl on the chorus of the hallucinatory "Boris the Spider." All growls aside, the European
vocal scientists were ultimately unable to explain that special something in Freddie Mercury's voice
that keeps songs like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and so many other hits rocking the radio waves:
his spectacular vocal range. So the possibility remains that those four
scientifically inexplicable octaves really were "A Kind of Magic" sent by the gods of rock
to grace us with their presence for a short while before leaving our world as a legend.
It isn't just the answers to a research study that explain the vocal powerhouse
that is Freddie Mercury. Freddie himself even believed that the uniqueness of his teeth had
something to do with his wide vocal range. However, he spent much of his time studying
music outside of the rock genre and was known for his love and ability to perform
opera — which is one of the most challenging musical styles for a performer to master as it
is taxing on the entire body. There's no doubt he was a man with not only talent but the drive to
push himself to levels of musical heights that had never before been seen by anyone in the industry.
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