Not really a “trope” since singers used to, and probably some still use it. The sprays usually contain menthol, eucalyptus, and glycerin, to moisturize and soothe their throats.
Comment on Anon wants to be a singer
kamiheku@sopuli.xyz 3 days agoI absolutely did do that as a kid too, lol. Anybody know what the story behind the cartoon trope is?
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 2 days ago
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Afaik, atomizers with breath spray used to be pretty common. I used to take care of old folks, some of whom went through the great depression as adults. A lot of them had those.
Disposable ones have been a thing since at least the 50s, if my memory isn’t failing. Binaca used to have commercials back before cable was ubiquitous, and a lot of people carried some to freshen up breath.
So, somewhere along the way, the specific trope of a guy spraying once or twice before hitting on a woman crept into social awareness. I never dug too deep looking into it, but it allegedly apparently was a thing.
The culture of lots of coffee at work followed by a drink or three after at a bar wasn’t exactly great for oral hygiene overall, and definitely makes breath funky.
The singer part of the trope, where you see them spritz before hitting the stage is supposedly a different thing. That was from stage actors, but that’s as far as I’ve ever looked, that it was a thing. No idea what they used, what the reasoning was. Never piqued my curiosity enough to look deeper.
9point6@lemmy.world 3 days ago
A pretty dull one really:
Some singers use throat sprays to reduce irritation
Gutek8134@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I’m pretty sure your throat shouldn’t get irritated from that
9point6@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I think it’s more for the kind of people that do a couple of musical shows a day
I’ve lost my voice from singing as part of the crowd at a music gig before, I can totally imagine that being a problem that professional singers need to mitigate
Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Try doing it hours on end and with some actual force behind it.
Gutek8134@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Mine can get irritated from talking for two hours. I still think it shouldn’t happen, but I have no medical background to back up my statement.
M137@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Why say this when you clearly don’t know instead of looking it up? This exact thing is, just stating something that’s purely ignorance, is way too common. How did you not realise you’re ignorant about this? And then you decide that you should comment and not only show everyone you’re ignorant about it but also that you’re an idiot for not realising that. It’s just so fucking dumb.
Gutek8134@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I’ve been learning how to scream for about 3 years now, if I understand correctly pain after any amount of time can be a sign of bad technique, and I’ve extrapolated to singing
Was it wrong? Yes. Sometimes it doesn’t occur to me that I’m doing something bad until a few hours to months later