Audio Erotica

"Even her voice is pure audio sex!"
—Julia Evans on her Really Gets Around friend. "Mindstar Rising" by Peter F. Hamilton.

Sexy voices, basically. Husky ones are popular; breathy, low Marilyn Monroe-esque voices are iconic. For men, deep baritones with sonorous intonations often are used. Bassos are rarer but can also fit the bill. A popular variation is the "Siren Switch," where the speaker isn't nearly as sexy as their voice.

Since what voices are considered erotic can be a bit subjective, this trope limits itself to instances where there are indications the voice is intended, by the author(s), to come across as erotic. Personal examples go on the Fetish Fuel Wiki.

Not to be confused with the similarly named, but very different, Auto Erotica (which simply means having sex in a car).

Examples of Audio Erotica include:

Advertising

  • The Quizno commercials featuring a man named Scott and the infamous Quizno toaster oven, who speaks in a rather husky voice, and once asked Scott to sound "sexier".

Toaster Oven: Put it in me Scott.

  • Marks and Spencer adverts in the UK feature a deliberately low and erotic voice describing almost comically lavish foodstuffs, followed by the tagline "This is not just food... this is M&S food".

Advert: This is not just food...
Charlie Brooker: (frantically undoing belt) Damn right it's not, it's food that's about to be fucked silly...

"The science people explain it as tiny vibrating sound hands massaging your ears."

Anime & Manga

  • Ai Kora: Kirino has Maeda's ideal voice and secretly loves to sing karaoke, so naturally he persuades her to sing at every opportunity. Once she realises this is his fetish... *BOOM*
  • The main character of the H-manga Boy Soprano. All of the girls get seriously wet from hearing Akira's moans. And he moans a lot.
  • Koe de Oshigoto! is actually entirely about this, being centered around eroge voice acting and all.
  • This is pretty much the entire point of Weiss Kreuz -- Takehito Koyasu realized he could sell a show based entirely on the sexiness of his (and three other) voice(s), so that's precisely what he did.
    • Koyasu has also teased his friend and frequent co-star Hikaru Midorikawa by saying that he has a sexy voice.
  • The point of the existence of the Boys Love Genre Ai no Kusabi CD dramas and some of the tracks on the soundtracks which center on eroge voice acting. One aptly titled "Dark Erogenous". The plot revolves around a defiant biker forcibly made a Sex Slave and the relationship he has with his In-Universe irresistible master who's voice was also seductive. The late Kaneto Shiozawa was so impressive as Iason's sultry voice, a memorial drama album was released in his honor. Toshihiko Seki also has a track on both the Sympthy and Mix soundtracks where Riki speaks in a sensual tone about his life as a sex toy. Notable since the BGM itself didn't have this monologue when featured in the anime.

Comic Books

  • In X-Factor, Siryn's power allows her to manipulate her vocal cords to sound extra sexy, hypnotizing others into giving her what she wants.
  • In Gotham Central, Officer Tim Munroe describes Posion Ivy's voice as being like honey, and when he tries to imagine what she looks like based on her voice his narration trails off.

Film

Literature

  • Beaufort by Ron Leshem. The IDF soldiers complain that the female radio operatives with the sexiest voices inevitably turn out to be not-so-good looking.
  • The Discworld book Sourcery describes Conina's voice as "the sort of voice that could make 'good morning' sound like an invitation to bed".
    • In Making Money Adora briefly speaks in golem language, which (despite not understanding it,) Moist thinks sounds extremely sexy when spoken by her. The man they are talking to seems to agree.
  • When George Smiley asks unhappily retired Connie Sachs for information about a Russian agent, one of the things she recalls is his wonderful voice, which she heard on surveillance tapes of phone calls.
  • Louis Wu meets Nessus for the first time in Ringworld:

Had Louis visualized a woman to go with that voice, she would have been Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Marilyn Monroe, and Lorelei Huntz rolled into one. "Tanj!" The curse seemed more than usually appropriate. There Ain't No Justice! That such a voice should belong to a two-headed alien of indeterminate sex!

  • The aged, smallpox scarred former courtesan in The Red Pavilion has an unbelievable beautiful and sexy voice that the Judge finds extremely disturbing.
  • Lover Eternal has Mary the suicide hotline operator whose voice is so appealing that John calls every night just to hear her talk (even though he is mute) and it literally bespells Rhage, her love interest.
  • Herman Wouk's The Hope, Zev Barak takes a phone call from Emily Cunningham. Barak notes a Talmud saying, "A woman's voice is naked sex," and then says this was especially true with Emily.
  • Jaxom first falls in love with Sharra's voice, described as being low and sexy, when she was treating him for Firehead fever. She turns out to be fairly pretty, not particularly beautiful, although she certainly thinks she doesn't live up to the image he had built in his head. He likes her anyway.
  • The Dresden Files has Harry invoke this trope with several women, including Susan, and in the first book, Storm Front, Linda Randall's voice ON A PHONE is enough to make him reflexively ask if she's naked.
    • Which also comes into play if you listen to the audio books read aloud by James Marsters. If that's what Harry sounds like I can see why he tends to have so many woman interested in him all the time.
  • There's a subversion in the Agatha Christie novel The Moving Finger where a character is described as incredibly attractive, but her voice is flat, dull and uninteresting, so much so that it completely ruins the narrator's idea of her as perfect.
  • In The Andromeda Strain, the voice that awakens the main character up after his first night of sleep at the subterranean compound is very sensual. The main character becomes a bit embarrassed when he learns the voice belongs to a seventy-two year old woman.
  • Ambrosio's first sermon in The Monk is clearly presented as an example as he's got half of Madrid swooning in his church.


Live Action TV

  • One episode of Taxi had Alex dating a woman from an answering service. She was overweight and had a history of men dating her because of her sexy voice and then dumping her as soon as they found what she looked like.
  • In NCIS, Perky Goth Abby Sciuto once went under cover at a telephone sex line. She was chosen for the assignment because of her distinctly raspy voice.
    • Played with by one of the co-workers definitely, and knowingly being separate from her voice. She even grins at Abby after a questioning look.
  • Farscape: Mele-On Grayza uses this to seduce her targets.
  • In Blackadder Goes Forth, a nurse who has just slept with Edmund says how she feels that men should smoke for this reason.
  • The Seinfeld episode "The Tape" revolves around this. Elaine leaves a provocative message on Jerry's answering machine as a joke. Only George knows it's actually Elaine. Awkwardness ensues, along with hilarity.
  • Peter Sellers in The Goon Show occasionally voiced a character called "breathy Kensington thing". It's a spookily realistic sexy female impersonation, often accompanied by gags about censorship.
  • In the first episode of The New WKRP in Cincinnati the new head of programming listens to some audition tapes; one is a very sexy woman. He is advised by several people that "the sexier the voice the uglier the person" (or words to that effect). He hires the woman sight unseen anyway, and it turns out she's Tawny Kitaen.
  • In one episode of the Bionic Woman remake, advantage was taken of Michelle Ryan's real-life accent for an undercover mission her character was sent out on... the techie talking to her via an electronic earpiece commented on how hot she sounded.
  • On Friends, Phoebe got a cold and was excited about her "new sexy voice".
  • The siren switch takes place in Married... with Children, when Peggy's mother (a fat, hideous redneck woman never actually seen) starts working for a sex line as "Butter." Al is horrified at first, until the money starts rolling in and he tricks his friends into calling her. When they were all hanging out at the house, she recognizes their voices from upstairs and reveals herself to them, much to their shock.
  • In an episode of Black Books, Fran once dated a man (Peter Serafinowicz) whom she hates simply because his voice turns her on. When she finds out that he is now doing the nightly shipping forecasts on the radio, she listens to it as a form of porn, then phones him after its over.
  • In one episode of Family Matters, Laura has a quite sexual reaction to the voice of an R & B Singer.
  • In Fifteen Storeys High, one character is seen on the phone angrily complaining that the delivery of his fridge is late. All is forgiven after a few soothing words from one of the call centre's staff, and he walks away from the phone satisfied... and very stiffly...
  • In Arrested Development, Lucille Two is aroused by Gob (Will Arnett) reading a menu in a restaurant in a deep voice.
  • An episode of Night Court had a group of old ladies as defendants in one case. They turned out to be very talented operators at a phone sex line, whom Dan tries (unsuccessfully) to deny recognizing when they turn on their work voices.
  • Misha Collins has said that he slightly regrets creating the sexy, gravelly voice for Supernatural's Castiel, as he's now had to do it for several years, and also confirmed that he and Jensen Ackles 'compete' when they are in scenes together to see who can sound gruffer. ("It's like 'oh yeah, fucker?'")
  • On Frasier, a caller admitted that she listened to Frasier's radio show because she got off to the sound of his voice.
  • In Boston Legal, Shirley Schmidt is able to give Denny Crane a boner (and possibly more) just by whispering his name.
  • In the Modern Family episode "Truth Be Told", Claire discovers that Phil has been corresponding with his ex-girlfriend Denise on Facebook. Phil insists that nothing untoward is going on and gives Claire all of Denise's messages to read. Claire reads them out loud in a sexy voice, much to Phil's confusion. Later, Denise visits and says that she thought Phil wanted to have an affair, quoting from his messages to her in a very similar sexy voice.
  • Jade of Victorious has a really lovely singing voice. So much that one of her classmates Andre ends up developing a crush on her because of it.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Veruca enraptures Oz with her husky singing voice—an annoyed Willow later describes her thus; "dresses like Faith, voice like an albatross".


Mythology

  • The Trope Maker and Ur-Example - the Sirens from "The Odyssey" were said to lead men to their deaths, and has been referenced (and parodied) in countless other works of fiction.
    • Odysseus himself was described by Helen to have this, during The Iliad.
  • In Hindu Mythology, Hanuman's voice is said to be so potent that he could impregnate women just by singing.

Music

  • Lana Del Rey
  • A "siren switch" shows up in the music video for the re-release of Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion", in which a young man calls a sex hotline and is drawn in by the sultry female voice on the other line. At the end of the video, we finally see the conversation from her end: she's a chunky middle-aged woman in a drab housedress holding a baby in one hand, ironing with the other, and gripping the phone with her shoulder.
  • The Y-O-U song "Radio" is about all about a girl getting uncontrollably turned on by rock music.
  • On their fifth album, Cardiology, Good Charlotte has a song called "Sex on the Radio" whose narrator is in a relationship with a radio personality. So titled because the girl's voice sounds like, well, sex on the radio.
  • Dream Theater's "Home" heavily implies a sex scene about halfway through, complete with a woman moaning in the background.
  • Papa Roach's The Addict features a woman moaning rather suggestively after the bridge-y bit.
  • The late Seventies cover of "Wild Thing" by one-hit-wonder Fancy is characterized by the group's Playboy Playmate lead singer gasping and moaning her way through the lyrics.
  • "Oooooooh.... love to love you, baby. OOOOOOOH.... love to love you, baby." Repeat ad nauseam for seventeen minutes. This song not only launched Donna Summer to stardom, but led the Catholic Church to declare the song as the work of Satan. A popular rumor is that Donna induced her own orgasms while recording the song, but she says it was all an act.
  • Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg with Je t'aime... moi non plus. Husky voices from both singers, heavy breathing, banned in several countries for sexual content!
    • The Pet Shop Boys cover version is positively orgasmic. Literally.
  • The Runaways incorporate moaning into many of their songs.
  • There's a mainstream example in Pitbull and T-Pain's song Hey Baby. (You may better know the song as "Ooh, baby, baby...lalalalalalala...")
  • Ignorance Is Bliss

"Princess Toadstool, I know you're frightened mmm But if you knew just why we're here, your fear would just be heightened!"


Poetry

  • Taylor Mali's slam poem "Reading Allowed" is about how every woman he dates wants him to read her a story. Often when they're already naked and in bed.


Pro Wrestling

  • Val Venis. Played for Laughs.
  • In a backstage skit in 2007, John Cena was being interviewed by Todd Grisham and he briefly did an imitation of WWE Diva Candice Michelle's voice. He was...surprisingly accurate.
  • Santino Marella thinks his voice sounds like this, but it's less Latin Lover and more Super Mario Brothers


Video Games

  • Made fun of in Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, where Globox falls for the voice of an unknown female character inside the Hoodlum HQ. This helps the Hoodlums lure him into a trap.
  • Once GLaDOS's Morality Core is destroyed in Portal, she takes on a low, seductive voice, pointed out in the descriptive subtitles as such. Word of God says that they initially had Ellen McLain do a sexy voice for the turrets and loved it, but discovered that it didn't fit them, and so found a way to use it for GLaDOS later.
  • An unknown character in an optional scene in Final Fantasy IX keeps Zidane interested from the other side of a stone gate with her voice. The speaker is never revealed, but, given that it was a gate to the Burmecian territories, the odds are that she was a Petting Zoo Person.
  • In Psychonauts there is an underground cart that works as a quick-travel device. Whenever Raz wants to use it, he'll be greeted by a deliberately erotic computerized female voice that will ask him where he wants to go. If the player does not want to go anywhere, Raz will humorously answer that he just dropped by to listen to her voice.
  • The first Battlefield: Bad Company, has "Miss July", the heard but never seen radio voice who guides B Company through their missions, and whose voice they keep mentioning sounds very sexy.
  • In Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, Velvet Velour's voice is just as smooth and husky as her name implies. As a Toreador, it's one of the... assets she uses to get the player on her side.
  • In Hatoful Boyfriend, if you skip class to visit the infirmary, Dr. Iwamine scolds the heroine and asks why she's there. One of the answer options (which gets you points with him!) is, "I just wanted to hear your voice."
  • In Mass Effect 3, both Shepard and Samantha comment on EDI (the computer) having a sexy voice.

Webcomics


Web Original

Brad: All you need is a penis the size of a lightsaber and the rest is done for you.
Girl: Ahh! I just orgasmed at the sound of your voice.
Brad: It's to be expected.

    • The Critic himself got fangirled over by Elisa and Nella when he dressed up like Tim Curry and impersonated his "I'm orgasming on every word" style of voice.


Western Animation

  • A rich widow in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon, "A Fine Feathered Frenzy" pulls the siren switch. Woody reads her ad in the personals where it says that she's a 'Gorgeous Gal' who is wealthy, has lots of food and is looking to marry a young man. So he calls her on the phone. With her sexy voice Gorgeous calls him sweetie and dream boy, says she loves Woodpeckers and he's the only thing on her mind. She invites him to come over to her mansion and says she'll be waiting for him. When Woody meets her it turns out she is an overweight and elderly crow. Gorgeous Gal chases after him, lavishes him with kisses and continues flirting with him with her lovely voice. Woody is no longer interested but Gorgeous Gal's love for woodpeckers wins out in the end. She drags him into a submarine and gets a priest to marry them.
  • Medusa performs the siren switch in Captain N: The Game Master during the episode, "Mega Trouble For Megaland". Kid Icarus pulls Simon Belmont's goggles over his eyes and covers them with black paint so he doesn't look at Medusa while they are on a mission. She flirts with Simon telling him he's handsome and that there's a chance she could fall for him. Her voice is so alluring that Simon is ready to kiss her, sight unseen. Of course when he does take his goggles off to look at Medusa he sees that she has light blue skin, large yellow reptilian eyes, the body and figure of an unnatractive elderly woman and snakes for hair. The horrified Simon turns to stone.
  • In To Live and Die in Dixie, Stewie joins a bluegrass band and sings this little ditty:

Met her on the CB, said her name was Mimi,
Sounded like an angel come to Earth (Come to Earth)
But when I went to meet her, man you should have seen her.
Twice as tall as me, three times the girth (Giiiiirth)

  • One episode of Duckman has Our Intrepid Hero fall in love with a female 911 operator because of how her voice sounded. Then he finally meets her in person and discovers that she's a bit lacking in the looks department. So much so, that her face isn't even shown onscreen until she has drastic cosmetic surgery to make herself look pretty.
  • In the episode of Futurama with the cast of Star Trek the Original Series, Zapp Brannigan demanded that a piece of evidence be read by someone with a "sexy, seductive voice". Nichelle Nichols started to speak, but was cut off by George Takei.
  • The Dexter's Laboratory episode "Voice Over" had Dexter swapping his computer's voice in an attempt to fix it. One of them was probably the most seductive voice ever heard in a children's cartoon. He had to change it because he couldn't stop sweating.
  • The 13th Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons, in the mini-episode called "House of Wacks" had this when Lisa and Marge picked the new house's voice to be Pierce Brosnan's. Lisa claimed it would bring sophistication to the home, but we all know why it was picked...
    • The other options included Dennis Miller.

Lisa: "Isn't that the voice that caused all those suicides?"
"Murder-suicides."

[quoting a friend] Dear Casey; your voice is like butter to our ears. Could you please find a way to get that audible chocolate on the airwaves?

"Soothing, isn't it? Like a madman's lullaby..."

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