Singing in the Shower

Another one of many idiosyncrasies of the human race. We are one of the only species to wash ourselves to get clean, much less actually holler our horribly out of tune choruses of random squawkish rabble otherwise known as singing. But it is a rather interesting, foible is it not?

But why do we sing in the shower? Now I know there are many people who hum tunes to themselves when they find themselves alone with no one around, but is it about being naked with water running over our bodies that makes us wish to constantly burst into joyous song? Is getting clean that much fun? Maybe it's some kind of chemical reaction that takes place when were are exposed to steamy water. Alas, 'tis like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop: the world may never know.

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Singing in the shower is an idle habit of many hygiene-concerned persons. I sometimes sing in the shower (most of the time I'm just silent and almost asleep), and I know exactly why every time.

Most people just can't sit still. They need to be doing something. People might flip their pen, drum on their desk, scratch their face, or fix their hair. The reason why there is so much singing in the shower is that we have no pen, no desk, a face that's being scratched by water, and hair that's usually slicked back (or however you have your hair in the shower). What's left that still allows us to still clean our bodies? Singing.

It's just something to do.

Singing in the shower also originates from the special acoustic characterstics that bathrooms and showers have.

As you've probably seen on MTV many times, vocal recording booths always have some sort of acoustic isolation material on their walls. These isolators prevent any echoes that may have been returned otherwise, echoes that sound incorrect or just plain bad.

Much like these vocal booths, showers also have a great acoustic isolation - steam. The little drops of water in the air absorb the echoes from your singing, and make it sound a bit better. This is a kind of real time sound processing. In the same way that electric guitars sound much better with a reverb effect on them, your voice sounds better in the acoustical context of the shower room.