lucasquirkymusicblog

[lucasquirkymusicblog]

New research porject

I am posting a bit late, sorry about that. I noticed that my previous research topic was way too vague to narrow it down and I decided to change it totally. My new project will talk about musical collaborations between popular artists like Imagine Dragons, and Riot Games. I will share my new sources as soon as I have a few more of them.

[lucasquirkymusicblog]

Research Project

For my research project, I will developp on mediation and how music can become popular seemingly out of nowhere. I will also study the evolution of popular media.

My primary sources corpus is not yet complete but I have some articles that I know I will use, like “ Radio space and industrial time: music formats, local narratives and technological mediation“ for the second part about the evolution.

[lucasquirkymusicblog]

The most popular music of all time

In 2012, Korea granted us “Gangnam Style”, which quickly became Youtube most viewed video. It lost this medal to Despacito some years ago, which lost it again recently to a song that would not be expected to be the world’s most viewed. “Baby Shark” is a children song, associated with dance movements and Youtube user’s new favorite video of all time with no less than 9 BILLIONS views. What started as a folk music sang around campfires became a massive popculture element when Korean studio Pinkfong recorded their version, that quickly became viral on social medias, especially TikTok. The song was announced to be adapted in a TV show on Nickelodeon that premiered in late 2020.

The song is also known for being publicly broadcasted in West Palm Beach, Florida, to prevent homeless people to stay on the street, the song being described as very annoying to listen repeatedly

How did a child song became the worldwide leader of Youtube ? A TikTok trend is not that big, after all. It was combined with another very popular thing : Kpop band that covered the song. I will not elaborate on this point as it is non english music but it is important to understand how “Baby Shark” became that popular. Do you think these two things are enough to make a song grow in such a way ?

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"I know this song but what is its name ?”

Chances are (very) high that all of you know the melody of “Also sprach Zarathustra”. You know, the “paaah paaaaah paaaaah, PAH PAH” song in “2001 : A Space Odyssey”.

This melody,composed in 1896 by Richard Strauss, is inspired by the eponymous Nietzsche philosophical novel. Its fanfare, repeated creschendo for 3 times, represents a sunrise. This aspect of elevation in the sound may be the original element that made Stanley Kubrick chose this track for his famous movie. A choice so good that now, few people think of a sunrise hearing these notes, but rather to space. This association is also based on the fact that the BBC, inspired by Kubrick’s work, used the same track for its televison coverage of space missions accomplished by Apollo.

Do you think it is a good thing that a song is known only by this mean ? Do you think  “Also sprach Zarathustra” should be more than “The Space Song ?”

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Can a video match and contrast with the song at the same time ?

What does pirate metal and Lady Gaga have in common ? At first sight, not that much, but the first ones may totally be fans of the latter. This is the case for Alestorm, one of the most known pirate metal bands that released in 2015 a movie video for their song Magnetic North.

The song is about pirates sailing in Northern waters and freezing to death in quest of a treasure. Now, let’s take a look at the video that got released some years after the song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11CKOAQDsbg

It is not exactly what people had in mind when listening the song on the album but it actually fits the song way more that we could imagine. What is interesting is that the video does not match the lyrics at all but match very well the rhythm as it is directly inspired by Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”. The front singer of the band even made a mashup video of his song and Gaga’s, showing he took inspiration from her for his band : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKF2oc9h3o4

This is then a very strange case of a movie video that both match and contrast with the song, as it parodies a pop-culture media. People who saw the original Gaga’s video loved this one, while Alestorm fans that were unaware of the tribute got quite confused at first.

[lucasquirkymusicblog]

How a same rhythm can carry a different image depending on your country.

Some songs carry a universal meaning that is understandable even in the very basis of their rhythm. If you hum “Imagine” by John Lennon, everyone in the world will recognize the famous song and associate it with the concept of peace.

But some other songs have a very different story depending on the country you are in. This is the case for “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, a famous song of the Civil War. Firstly written in 1863 by Patrick Gilmore, the song is a way to cheer up soldiers and to give them courage by reminding them they will go home eventually. It was meant to be an inspirational song for families too, waiting for the return of the family father.

“The men will cheer and the boys will shout The ladies they will all turn out And we'll all feel gay When Johnny comes marching home.”

In 1867, an alternate version of this song composed by Joseph B. Geoghegan emerged in London and spread widely in Ireland. This version, called “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya”, features modified lyrics talking about a war-injuried soldier. The song is the opposite of its American counterpart, presenting the homecoming as painful for wives having to see their husband in such a condition.

”You hadn't an arm, you hadn't a leg You're a spinless, boneless, chickenless egg You'll have to be put with the bowl to beg Johnny I hardly knew ya”

Both these songs entered quite rapidly in popular culture at the time and are still often referenced when talking about civil war, like in the movie “Gone with the Wind” or the song “Civil War” of Guns’n’Roses, where a slowed down, whistled version of the song is featured in both intro and outro.

[lucasquirkymusicblog]

How (very) old music can get a second wind of popularity with pop culture.

Tonight i will talk about a song that recently hooked a lot of people (including me) despite being created in the 13th century. This song is a traditionnal viking poem named “My Mother Told Me”, written in Egil’s Saga in some different words than the modern version.

The song got later used in the Vikings TV show, in episode 9 of season 4 (2016), giving it a little of fame, but it is with the release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in 2020 that it exploded on the internet. That is actually quite strange as the song is not even featured in the game. So many people believed that it was actually in the game that the two of them are now associated and a lot of this song’s covers are titled “Assassin’s Creed Song” or have video clips featuring characters from it.