#sea shanties

kedreeva:

ober-affen-geil:

kedreeva:

madenthusiasms:

prismatic-bell:

xonar-verse:

so i’ve seen this around a lot and i always felt like the version i listened to just. didn’t have everything? sO! i edited together my three favourite versions of the tik tok sea shanty! enjoy!!

(listen with headphones if possible!)

(yes i know the ending is bad oKaY-)

You know, I want to see someone explain this in 20 years to music history scholars.

Not because it’s a stupid thing or a dumb thing—I think it’s wonderful and lovely that it exists—but because it’s so RANDOM. “In 2021, this one song specifically gained a following such that people across the globe, who had never met, began to sing it and harmonize together, and other people then stitched their videos together to make entire choruses.” “Okay, but why?” “…..because it was the cool thing to do.” “Okay, but why did it become cool?”

Answer that. ANSWER THAT. Why did it become cool? There is zero reason a 200-year-old sea shanty should be a meme, much less a meme people are taking SERIOUSLY. (Listen to these folks. There’s not a parody in the bunch.)

Like. Just. “We made this giant beautiful thing BECAUSE.” Because why? Because. That’s why. Just because.

I want to see that explained to students and scholars of history who insist there must be a reason for everything. Yes, yes, there was a viral video, but that’s just the catalyst. Why Wellerman? Why not the latest Megan Thee Stallion? Or perhaps more to the point, HOW Wellerman, ALONGSIDE the latest Megan Thee Stallion? What is it that made so many people latch on to this song? WHY?

I do. I want to be a fly on the wall for this. We have, functionally, modern recordings of what this would have genuinely sounded like on a ship, because of this meme. That’s amazing. But what’s the why? And how do you explain “because”?

Because the most human thing in the world is to find a way to connect and play with each other, and Tic Tok is the biggest, easiest form of that connection in a pandemic. Which is why it’s being taken seriously; the game is no fun if you smash it. People won’t let you connect if they don’t trust you.

Lockdown was the biggest public creativity I’ve had in decades. Not just because I was home, but because the deep driving urge to go “See me. I’m here. I have something to offer. I’m alone but I have skills to share to give, let me give them. See me. I need to be a part.”

Humans are social animals.

The other thing is that it’s NOT completely random, it’s not even very random; it’s just that the things that factor into its appearance and creation are spread so widely due to our (new-ish) ability to connect as a community across the entire world that it SEEMS random from up close, AND it couldn’t have been precisely predicting in advance.

Pirates are not a new thing; we have media about them, recently pirates of the caribbean and black sails both being fairly well known pirates media. Ren faires often feature pirate material. There’s been a lot of talk about “pirating” media lately because of the recent uptick in streaming services wanting to all have their own thing. There’s people trying to hitch laws about pirating onto COVID relief bills. There was a recent release of a video game that was popular, I believe it was the Assassin’s Creed one, that featured pirates AND sea shanties, introducing a lot of people to the idea of sea shanties, who could then spread it to others, that was probably one of the major catalysts in a previously simmering pot (the other major one being COVID-19).

And the thing about sea shanties is that they are supposed to be sung as a group, the way most popular music isn’t really made to do. Why not Megan Thee Stallion? Because those songs aren’t created specifically to be sung by a group. You can sing them too, and you can sing them in a group, but they aren’t created specifically with being sung as a group in mind. They’re meant to be sung along to rather than sung together.

Okay, but then why not something like campfire songs?

Because campfire songs are meant to be sung in a group, usually with kids, but not particularly made to bring together a community that is facing a lot of isolation (which is where COVID-19 comes in). I mean, camping is sometimes “isolated” but often they are camping at a grounds where there are other, discrete groups of campers nearby, and even if they are actually alone, most people singing campfire songs are not isolated more than a weekend, or a week or two, and MOST camping is pretty close to a community where people could go, and MOST camping songs are not meant to be sung repeatedly. They’re fun to sing once or twice, but imagine singing them on repeat for 3 months. I don’t know about you but that is not really my idea of a good time.

A group of pirates on a ship, they’re a group, but they’re also a community. They are a job and a family in one. And, IMPORTANTLY, they are isolated for LONG stretches of time together, in a place where the only friendly social contact they have is one another and the only songs they have are the ones they know themselves. And the shanties they sung were meant to bring them together, often for a task (sometimes that task was not murdering each other out of boredom or stress), and to remind themselves that even on days where they can’t see a single other sign of human civilization as far as the eye can see in any direction, they are not alone.

And THAT particular, specific sense of community is HIGHLY appealing to people that have been stuck in one form of stressful isolation or another for MONTHS, almost a year at this point. Think back to the beginning. I can’t be the only one who remembers videos of people singing from their balconies together during the early lockdowns. I can’t be the only one who remembers the story of the night howl. People are desperate to reach out and say “Am I alone?” and just as desperate to answer “No!! I am still here! Are there others??”

So take a bunch of people who have been isolated for a long time (like pirates on the sea), with a good possibility that they’ve recently been exposed to a novel, fun concept (sea shanties) through a game (something more people probably played than usual because of the isolation), which they have potentially shared/spread to friends (because they are GOOD songs), and give them easy access to a single person singing one of these songs (a CATCHY song with easy, rhyming words and a good ONE-two-three-four beat, which humans love) that they are all now aware is meant to be sung as a group (which calls upon their nature as social creatures!!) or see others joining in as a group (because monkey-see-monkey-do is a HUGE human behavior phenomenon), and then give them a way to be included in this group with minimal effort (tiktok), as a way to feel connected to a wider community (those that view their inclusions) and have fun at the same time (which is DESPERATELY needed in a world where things are otherwise majorly crap)…

Well, is it any wonder? Maybe the exact, particular song is a bit random, because it could have been any shanty, but even that’s not particularly surprising either since it’s a shorter one (that fits in with Tiktok’s time limit) with easy lyrics (and a REALLY easy, repeating chorus, so it’s quickly learned) and it has a good, solid beat. Whoever first picked it may have chosen it “randomly” or may have narrowed it down from those type of criteria. You’d have to ask the first person to post.

Maybe people 20 years out wouldn’t be able to piece enough together, but right here right now, it seems like a fairly obvious culmination of events. Maybe not a predictable one, but one that, looking back, makes sense. Something something, Hindsight is 2020 right

No this isn’t an excuse to put this on my dash again what are you talking about

I love seeing people be people and I’d like to add the following for consideration. Yes, sea shanties are meant to be sung in a group (sailors still use them btw), yes they’re repetative and easy to pick up, yes the tune is simple, yes TikTok is basically the perfect platform for a thing like this to spread, and yes we’re all starving for human connection right now and this is ideal.

But also the words.

The overall song is about a whaling ship doggedly chasing down a whale, which (taken literally) is not all that relateable. But the chorus? The part that we sing as a group?

Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguin’ is done
We’ll take our leave and go

This song is about a group of people working together to do something unpleasant, and they don’t know when it’s going to end. The chorus is about the hope that it will soon be over, and the good things that await when it is.

Soonmay the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguin’ is done
We’ll take our leave and go

And that is a big mood.

Excellent addition, and reminds me to add that a) more than just pirates sang sea shanties, many sailors did (and do!) sing shanties, b) there’s apparently a singing group called The Longest Johns that has been singing shanties and becoming popular (likely because it’s a novel, fun genre of music for the average person that is not a sailor, and because they sing them while streaming a pirate themed game called Sea of Thieves) and this is one of their songs, and c) I just learned of this whole TikTok Shanty thing a few days ago and haven’t had any time to sit down with it, so this was all just off the top of my head. I’m sure anyone looking farther into it would be able to find a LOT more connections and causation or at least correlation that could account for sea shanties (and THIS shanty in particular) becoming a “sudden” thing.

randomslasher:

princehal9000:

xonar-verse:

so i’ve seen this around a lot and i always felt like the version i listened to just. didn’t have everything? sO! i edited together my three favourite versions of the tik tok sea shanty! enjoy!!

(listen with headphones if possible!)

(yes i know the ending is bad oKaY-)

if you haven’t encountered the tiktok phenomenon of Wellerman, start here, get headphones. yes. the headphones are wanted.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this. It makes me cry every time I hear more additions to it. It’s so beautiful. I wish I could have it on my phone to listen to forever. 

the-prince-of-tides:

ineffable-writer:

amalia-dreadnougther:

jaubaius:

This is awesome

What’s the name of this sea shanty?

Can I just

Everyone saw a song, went, oh, I can make this a better song, and sang together. This is the equivalent of sitting around on the deck and chiming in when someone fills the silence–but instead of the moon and the waves it’s the distance across the earth–and how beautiful is that?

I am in love with all of them.

lynati:

xonar-verse:

so i’ve seen this around a lot and i always felt like the version i listened to just. didn’t have everything? sO! i edited together my three favourite versions of the tik tok sea shanty! enjoy!!

(listen with headphones if possible!)

(yes i know the ending is bad oKaY-)

YES PERFECT EXCELLENT. THANK YOU FOR THIS!!

I got literal chills listening to it and I’ve only had that happened in response to a handful of songs in my life, and it’s a feeling I adore, so *dumps a bucket of kudos at your feet*

rashaka:

lost at sea | for mermaids, pirates, sailors, and souls that go to the deep   {listen}

I’ll tell you a tale of the bottomless blue
And it’s hey to the starboard, heave ho
Look out, lad, a mermaid be waiting for you
In mysterious fathoms below

Medley of sea shanties performed with a few dozens layers of talkboxes and an eight-bit percussion accompaniment