Sincerity: The Autopsy

Shabby personal appearance carried a lot of weight in rock circles – torn bluejeans, unwashed hair, worn flannel shirts, etc. Music and expression are so paramount these guys can’t be bothered with soap or nice clothes.

They use certain poses, like Howie with his hands in the "steepling" position, far right:

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0000257I3.03.MZZZZZZZ.gif

Puppy dog eyes, unquestioning (I guess Howie is the Sincere One).

http://www.dietquest.com/images/howie1.gif

They end slogans in periods.
Why was "sincerity" the 2000 garridge "thing"?
Was it Craig David? Another indicator of sincerity seems to be fastidiously maintained facial hair.

Surely ultimate in sincere pose = on yer knees (viz: Adam Ant slagging K. Rowland in "Goody Two Shoes" - "...get down on your knees and pretend that you're Al Green...")

"String sections: the 90s saxophone?"
OTM!

Trash your instruments: punk sincerity.
Don't be photographed: techno sincerity.
Carve 4Real into your arm: gimp sincerity.

My only problem with the string sections trope is that My Life Story were never really assumed to be the most sincere band in the world, quite the reverse in fact. Maybe they just went too far and were seen as taking the piss a bit.

Oh man, there's so many!

"I'm stopping the singing, and will talk really fast-about-something-that's-very-important-then-I-suddenly-start-singing-in-a-hiiiiiiigh-oh-oh-ohhhhhhh-high-oh-motheeeeer-oh--voiiiiiiiiiiiiice"
Then Mariah Carey-style vocalwanking goes berserk.
Worst offender I can think of in recent times: Pain Of Salvation.

Singing a phrase or two, then repeating them, but screaming it and going "YEAH!" at the end.
All those bands that want to be Minor Threat come to mind.

Lately I've noticed there's a lot of "distorted voice over smoothpop background". Think Britney Spears, think Avril Lavigne going "Yeah, life's like this. uh huh. That's just the way it is"
Argh! Maybe it's not quite what you meant :P

Sorry, dunno much about moves and such, as I'm not one for watching music videos. Though sitting down on a chair seems to be a prime example. As if ol' uncle Fabio is getting comfortable with us, to tell us about the harsh world.

Hrmm, a capella? I'm not thinking Gentle Giant here, hah! But rather Tori Amos' "Me and a gun" and such things. Talk about a song that would've been a lot more interesting to listen to if she'd be kind enough to give us a harmony or anything. But music would take away from the power, or so someone told me. Bleh.

Screw it. You got a reeeeal kinda thing, goin' down, geeeettin' down, there's a whooole lot of rhythm goin' down!

I am going to go away and watch a Nickleback video before answering this properly, but I think that anything involving clenched fists, to indicate ToRmEnT has to count.

well, to begin with their string section was kind of their USP, wasn't it? Jake Shillingford's Pop Orchestra! kind of thing. hard to take seriously.

The *really* sincere 90s artist obviously just called Will Malone.

Dynamics and length have a lot to do with it, too. And mid-tempo is generally the most sincere tempo.

Actually right now Tears For Fears' "The Working Hour" is playing which is an incredibly manipulative example of Rock Sincerity In Action, c.1985

- starts off with long saxophone bit
- goes into really big sounding mid-tempo
- no vowel knowingly understretched (voice could do with more rasp though)
- builds up to big shouty climax during which you can well imagine R Orzabal on his knees
- six and a half minutes long, no hook until about 3 minutes in
- comes from album called Songs From The Big CHAIR!!! (unless it's from another one)

(NB I think this song works very well!)

That TFF song was written before the days of the empty chair *and* the days of the open hand. It's amazing to think of it, really.

Incorporating the qualities of crying into singing. My all-time favorite example of calculated sincerity in the pop world would be the very beginning of Whitney's "I Will Always Love You," how she's quiet and tremulous and makes these little puffs of breath into the mic like it was the first time she had ever picked up the thing. If the song was three-and-a-half minutes of Whitney doing that and only that, people would've feared for her sanity because it'd just be too damned stark. But using it as a brief precis to her typical bombast gives reason for the bomast -- the bombast is the sound of her conquering her uncertainty.

Also: muddying the difference between singing and talking.

Top Ten Jokey Sincerity Moves that I Can Think of Right Now
(while I was posting this you've all already said most of it)

1. Arms and hands. American Idol / Pop Idol are great textbooks for sincerity hand moves, including the fist that you pull to your chest, the hands you spread open as if offering something, the one arm outstretched as if holding a ball of radiant light, and -- my personal favorite -- the two fists above the head, for serious full-on anguish and such. With rock, if you play guitar you just play it like Ryan Adams, with that bobbing/churning motion. (Acoustic guitars more sincere than electric; if electric it should be big and round -- maybe semi-acoustic -- and should be lightly distorted, sort of chunky and roots, or have a delay echo on it.) It not playing guitar, arms should be outstretched, particularly if this is accompanied by
2. Standing alone, like on a bleak streetcorner or windswept cliffside. Sincere people like to spend lots of time alone, meditating on their sincerest thoughts. This also makes them more sincere, because when you're alone there's no one around to cater to or mislead. (Insincere people are always talking and socializing)
3. Lots of minor chords. This should be number one: obviously if you play a major chord you're just doing it so people will like you. Granted, minor keys are allowed to resolve into major ones for soaring choruses and significant key changes, especially in soul, but nothing says "no, seriously" like some nice minor chords. (Whereas seventh chords, for instance, are patently insincere). Minor chords should be delivered at
4. A determined stride/lope, just slower than midtempo. Lots of toms on the drums help, as does taking the snare trap off. By doing this you're communicating that you're (a) not just going to launch peppily in to please people, because you have something sincere and important to say, but that also (b) there's some backbone in there, just enough to keep you all steely-eyed and intense
5. Build dramatically, usually to vocal gushing
6. Whispering is key. Whispering is sincere. Whisper either at the beginning of the song or during the part of the bridge where the drums have dropped out and you're only hearing...
7. The cello. Strings in general work if they're in minor keys. But it's better to just have a trio of strings with cello most prominent, because your deep and forthright emotions are incompatible with the bureaucratic business of organizing a whole string section. Lone cellists are hella sincere, cause people imagine them being classically trained in big orchestras but then taking a stand and giving it all up to go play pop music (cf every movie ever about classically-trained musicians and/or ballet dancers -- there's always that part where the poor "repressed" dancers get all into hip-hop dancing or African dance or breakdancing or some other way that black people dance)
8. Looking uncomfortable, underconfident, or bashful helps (i.e., don't say "hello Cleveland" and smile, or anything). Unless you're Bono, you have to approach it sort of like a schoolteacher, as if the point isn't for you to have fun or your listeners to have fun, but for some more serious and important point to get communicated between the two. (So you can shyly crack jokes in between songs, but once things are moving again you should be all business.) If it doesn't seem like anyone's meant to be amused by it then you must be serious -- why else would you be there?
9. Overemoting. This isn't a criticism of "sincere" stuff, it's just part of the point. Like with soul: part of the idea is to watch someone really express -- really over-the-top and down-to-the-core express -- something we relate to. So e.g. "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" really fucking hammers at the anguish of said loving feeling being lost, to wounded-bear levels, and that's pretty great to watch, and I think part of the "sincerity" test is setting people up to do stuff like that and then seeing whether they can be at all convincing (cause hell, even if someone has lost that loving feeling most of us would still be hard-pressed to work up that kind of outpouring over it). The problem with "sincere" is that being convincing about this sort of thing actually requires a mix of really-feeling-it and calculating your moves to make sure you get that across effectively.
10. Stubble. Or wrinkles.

Sorry, seventh chords are sincere if you play bluegrass, which is a very sincere genre, or jazz, which sort of is.

And I just remembered: hiding your face is good -- with hair, or hands, or by looking down -- except for soul or r&b, where it's sincere to look straight into the camera/audience, really staring unflinchingly out at everyone and usually smiling.

(Hours later: geez, sorry, I didn't mean to kill this thread off!)