How Voice Overs Have Changed Over the Years

by Victoria DeAnda on February 26, 2015

Voice overs have been working hard for many years. They are the voices behind thousands of brands throughout the years. Usually, brands choose voice overs dependent on the target audience and what they want to portray. Over the years, brands and the world have changed, but have voice overs changed as much?

Sexism and the History of Voice Over Acting

The Voice Over Herald reports men identify themselves as strong, authoritative, reliable and confident. Female voice overs identify themselves as sexy, sultry, elegant, motherly, fun and playful. In the research, only three out of ten profiles of female voice overs identified themselves as strong, authoritative, reliable and confident.

The history of voice over acting shows that that women may have taken their stereotypical roles and accepted them as who they are. That’s why they identify themselves with those qualities, while men identify themselves with stereotypical male qualities.

Times are changing though. Females are no longer only viewed as the passive, nurturing, and romantic ones all the time. Many of them have broken away from those labels and see themselves as confident, authoritative, reliable and strong.

What does this mean for the voice over industry?

Unfortunately, not much. In a study by Mark Pedelty from University of Minnesota, it really has to do with consumers’ perceptions. Society continues to see females as the ones who should take the nurturing and domestic roles, while men take the more powerful, authoritative ones. Brands continue to use voice overs considering these qualities, so even those females may feel they are confident, authoritative and strong, it’s really what the public believes that matters in the industry.

What needs to be addressed though is that more female voice overs are being considered because of the change in women’s roles. For example, when a brand wants to target a female audience of strong, professional, confident business women, they want to use voice overs with the same qualities. Forty years ago, women did not work in business, so there was no need for voice overs that had those qualities.

What seems to have happened is that you have female voice overs who are perfect for the nurturing, motherly role as well as female voice overs for the executive women population. You then have men voice overs representing the male population in the roles they’ve been taking for decades.

What does the future of voice overs look like? There will likely be more opportunities for female voice overs. As women continue to break into traditional male roles in society, female voice overs will break into roles that were traditionally for men. It may take some times before it’s equal, but it’s definitely heading in that direction.

Top 5 Things that May Hurt your Voice-Over Business

by Victoria DeAnda on April 3, 2014

Have you just recently put up your own voice-over business? Do you have trouble attracting the right prospects for your voice-over services? Or do you find establishing yourself as a stable online voice artist difficult?

If it seems like your voice over business can’t take off in the right direction, you may be doing a few things wrong. Here is a list of 5 things that may be hurting your chances at audio narration success:

You don’t take care of your voice or your clients. 

While voice talent is just one factor in your success, it is still the most important factor.  Thus, you need to be able to take care of your voice at all times.  Avoid things that may cause dry mouth, mucus formation, and hoarse throat.  When you take care of your voice you also take care of your clients who are, after all, paying for your voice acting services.

You allow distractions to take over. 

You may not notice it at once, but little distractions can affect your audio recording performance. Thus, regardless of the problems you have outside of work, you need to focus on your voice-overs wholeheartedly. As a voice artist, you have to be totally involved in what you are doing. Otherwise, you’ll end up with half-baked performances that fail to establish your spot in the competitive voice-over market. 

You don’t update your website. 

Have you recently changed your e-mail address or contact numbers? Have you decided to expand your voice acting services to include commercial voice-overs?   Is your website well- ranked in popular search engines? When you don’t update your website, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities out there.

You forget to take care of business matters. 

Your voice-over business should be a legitimate business. Thus, you have to get the right permits and pay the right taxes. Clients will want to transact with legally-operating entities especially on the web. This way, your audio recording company will be a legitimate, responsible business that your clients can rely on.

You don’t network with the right people.

If you think your voice-over business is not moving in the way you’d want it to go,  you may       want to expand your contacts and participate in offline events. Surely, the Internet is a great   way to network and earn more contacts. But getting involved in actual events such as meetings, conferences and seminars with fellow voice artists can help establish your presence in your chosen profession. These events can also serve as opportunities for you to get in touch with people or organizations that may need your voice over services now or in the future.

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An excellent voice artist not only knows how to take care of his or her voice. A successful voice-over professional also knows how to find solutions to pressing problems as soon as they crop up. Are you in need of a creative professional for your Spanish voice-overs? You have come to the right place. Check out the rest of this website to know more about me and my Spanish voice-over skills!