got a question for the org - is there any consensus that Roger Troutmand and/or Zapp are responsible for innovating sounds, like George Clinton is claimed to innovate? I am going to bring it up with my music teacher if necessary, since Troutman's name is not listed.

Nice find. This inspired "California Love". This was Roger Troutman's first and only number-one POP hit.

Timmy84 said:

Roger's mix is the roughest. That beat-hook is ruthless hard.
Hits ya like a mutha.

eaglebear4839 said:

got a question for the org - is there any consensus that Roger Troutmand and/or Zapp are responsible for innovating sounds, like George Clinton is claimed to innovate? I am going to bring it up with my music teacher if necessary, since Troutman's name is not listed.

got a question for the org - is there any consensus that Roger Troutmand and/or Zapp are responsible for innovating sounds, like George Clinton is claimed to innovate? I am going to bring it up with my music teacher if necessary, since Troutman's name is not listed.

Shango said:

Nice find. This inspired "California Love". This was Roger Troutman's first and only number-one POP hit.

I think so. When "More Bounce To The Ounce" came out, I had never heard anything like that robotic voice. Come to think of it now, I think the only other time I heard a similar sound to that voice was Peter Frampton a little earlier but I think he used his machine as more of an musical instrument to make strange sounds rather than a voice, kinda like someone would use a harmonica. I can't remember because I haven't heard a lot of Peter Frampton's stuff and it's been a long time since I've heard any of his songs.

After Roger and Zapp, I started hearing more robotic type voices coming from groups like Midnight Star, The Jonzun Crew, and Soul Sonic Force. Their electronic voices had more of an outer space sound than Roger's. Then there was Pretty Tony/Freestyle and Newcleus who had an electronic speeded up type voice. I never heard similar type robotic voices to Roger's until Cher's "Believe" and tons of other people that followed after that song up until today. Their's is similar but not as strong as Roger's was though.

I guess you could say that Roger inspired a lot of the robotic electronic type voices in music that followed him, whether they used the same type machine as him or not. They were still electonic voices over music. I think there may have been someone who used an electronic voice before Roger (maybe Herbie Hancock, I don't know) but when you say the words "electronic voice", most people immediately think of Roger.
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[Edited 2/20/09 20:42pm]

vainandy said:

Before Roger/Zapp, Kraftwerk (from Germany) already had a cult following in the USA when the Trans-Europe Express album came out in the early 1970's. The title track have the "electronic voices".

One thing to remember is that Kraftwerk were using vocoders, which is the same devices that Herbie Hancock, Midnight Star & Dazz Band would used later on. Roger/Zapp were using a talkbox, which is the same device that Stevie Wonder once used as a vocalist & some blues artists were using for years as a gultar effect.

TonyVanDam said:

Sly Stone also used the talk box as did Johnny "Guitar" Watson.

Roger said Stevie Wonder inspired him to use the talkbox.
So Ruff So Tuff was the JAM!!!

Timmy84 said:

Johnny is one of the blues artists that I was referring to. He use the talkbox for his guitar AND vocals. He still used it after crossover to The Funk.