How strongly affected are you by the sounds of people's voices?

I agree. I’m affected by people’s voices. And yes, Fran Dresher is definately one of them. Anything nasal just goes right through me.

Thankfully, I love Barak Obama’s voice. If I’d have had to listen to John McCain for 4 years, I’d never listen to a thing he had to say. To me, he’s very stiff.

I dislike loud voices, because my ears seem particularly sensitive to volume. If people don’t articulate really clearly, I can’t understand them. In a restaurant or party, where lots of other people are talking, and it’s loud, I have almost no hope of understanding anyone who isn’t talking directly into my ear. On the other hand, I can hear a melody through any din.

As to quality of voices, sure, if it’s nasal and annoying, I’m annoyed. Who is that guy—Gilbert Gottfried? He’s got the most annoying voice. You can hear him being the voice for some character in almost every animated cartoon that exists. Can you imagine what it would be like if he and Fran Dresher had kids together? Oh….. My….. Gaaawd!

Aside from that, I really do like Brooklynese. Yo. Bus!

I wouldn’t like to listen to a nasaly voice every day, but when I’m watching tv and someone like Fran Drescher or Gilbert Gottfried is on for a short period of time, I find it rather funny. If I lived with someone who had a voice like that, that’d be a whole other story.

If they’re actually in my life, I have voice issues too. I can’t stand monotone voices or girls when they try to talk “cute” and make their voices more squeaky or girly than they actually are, or if they talk like they should be on The Hills. There’s also this girl who lives next to me, and when she gets excited about something she’s talking about, her voice becomes increasingly seal-like…seriously. Think of a seal’s barking noise, pretend that seal could talk, and that’s what this girl sounds like, especially when she laughs. I want to punch her in the face every time I hear her. Some voices are mildly annoying, others make me want to kill something, and that’s definitely one of them.

Nasal, high-pitched voices get on my nerves. Gilbert Gottfired’s voice GETS. ON. MY. NERVES. Daryl Hall’s speaking voice I find annoying, too. I don’t know why, he sings like a dream.

I was at the supermarket last week, and in the freezer section, this girl started laughing at something her guy was telling her and it came out like a donkey braying. She wasn’t self-conscious about it at all, bless her, but it was so annoying that I was out of there like a shot.

The speaking voice should be banned from certain frequencies.

I think the NPR people consciously cultivate their way of speaking. Or, they are screened upon hiring for a particular voice.

@steelmarket: you are right about NPR. They have a school where reporters go to learn to talk radio-like. It has something to do with pacing (the person I knew who went there talked too fast), and modulation, as well. It’s trainable, so they don’t have to screen them on hiring. Interesting, no?

I notice it not just with speaking voices, but also singing voices… someone could be singing one of my favorite songs, but if I don’t like the voice I can’t listen.

I’ve known a few women with very high, nasal voices, and no matter how intelligent or kind they may be, it just gives the impression that they’re an airhead.

Also, the converse is true, I’ve known men with speaking voices that make me melt.
:-P~~~

Yes, I have the same issue. A terrible voice is my one superficial deal-breaker. I can overlook a lot of things. But apparently my ears are not as tolerant as my eyes.

I am in this camp.

Once, in high school, I had a crush for a whole year on the guy in choir with me with the most beautiful tenor voice. He was ugly, really ugly, not just not handsome and he was flunking all his classes except band and jazz band and honor choir.
The latter violated a rule I had about dumb guys, but when he opened his mouth all was forgiven.

The opposite is true for me as well. I despise Fran Drescher just because of her voice. She could be the smartest, nicest person in the world, and it would not help.

Luckily, most people fall within these two extremes.

You want harsh, listen to some of Hitler’s speeches, the man made German sound positively ghastly.

One of the officers I work with has a deep baritone that sounds much like Barry White. I love his voice, and could listen to him talk all night.

I have that lazy white boy from the Midwest sort of voice, just a tiny bit nasally and filled with swear words, so you’d hate listening to me, I sound like my IQ is room temperature. :-) At least I don’t speak with a NASCAR accent though.

Barry White. Wow. Every guy probably wishes he could talk like Barry White, at least one time.

I dislike shrill voices.

I <3 many of the voices on NPR, my favorites include: Terry Gross, Kai Ryssdal, Melissa Block,
Robert Siegel and Garrison Keillor. Of course, who can forget Bob Edwards?

NPR is almost as addictive as Fluther. She no longer has a regular show but I still love listening to Susan Stamberg when she does a segment. She has such an infectious enthusiasm. I also find the sound of Liane Hansen on her Sunday show to be particularly soothing.

If i’m teerering in my decision on what documentary to watch, sometimes the voiceover artist can make my decision for me.

@mcbealer: when I read a poem I can’t help but hear it in my head in Garrison Keillor’s voice.

I spend a large amount of my day on the phone and most of the people I have never met so only know them via their voice.

It’s a horrible thing to say but, because of this, I often judge people by their voice and how they speak and when I hear some of our customers on the phone I am automatically irritated by them just based on the sound of their voice.

@Marina Haha…I adore Fran Drescher because of her voice!

When Glenn Beck gets all manic and starts screaming “hot button” words like Marxist, destroy and progressives, my testicles draw up into my body! Luantic!