Ringtones scream out personality

iStockphoto.com/© Rich Seymour

TWEED mobile phone users looking to ditch the traditional phone ring or music clip for something more trendy are turning to screaming voices that announce an incoming call, according to industry professionals.

And in Egypt, the quest for a funky ringtone has led to a top cleric to issue the religious edict to ban the trend of having the Muslim call to prayer play when a phone rings.

But whatever the country, the desire to personalise your mobile ringtone is still restricted to the younger generation.

Vodafone Tweed City Shopping Centre assistant manager, Stuart Hughes, said he had noticed a generational gap in the ringtones he helped set up.

“Old people want a very basic tone, something that goes ring ring and is very boring,” he said.

“But younger people go for something much more personal, a favourite song or something funny like a screaming ringtone.

“The screaming tones are certainly growing in popularity.”

Mobile phone culture expert and lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Ross Monaghan, agreed and said teenagers and the Y generation viewed ringtones as an extension of themselves.

“Younger people use the tones as an extension of their personality as much as hairstyle or clothing,” he said.

“The newest trend among people in their 20s are tones that scream something, like a South Park character’s catchphrase.”

But instead of a cartoon character screaming at her, 24-year-old Georgette Tabbakh, of Coolangatta, listens to herself when someone calls.

When her phone rings, anybody within earshot can hear her screaming “get out of the pool now”.

Ms Tabbakh said she put herself as her ringtone after seeing a mother screaming at her children to get out of the pool.

“I just thought it was really funny and couldn’t stop mimicking her, so I recorded it on my phone and set it as my ringtone,” she said.

“It’s just something really different.”

Top picks

2004: Crazy Frog was No.1 on Australian music charts.

2005: The Mosquito, a high pitched, ultrasonic tone popular with teens.

2009: Screaming ringtones, from John Cleese to Cartman from South Park yelling obscenities.

2010: Sing Tone, the combination of a recorded voice karaoke style tone.