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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – There was once a song that tickled the internet fantasy
When TikTok revived the humble slum
The views came fast, the fashion could last
Go on, read about it go:
People are stuck at home, struggling, bored, going crazy.
Cooperated sailors who felt the same on long ocean voyages broke boredom with work songs called sea songs.
So it makes sense that the barracks have come full circle with an unprecedented moment of popularity during the pandemic.
“Times are tough. If we can sing along it will help us get by, just like sailors did on tall ships,” said Bennett Konesni, from Belfast, Maine, who started singing songs. show on a schooner in Penobscot Bay and performs several times a week with the Mighty Work Song Community Chorus.
TikTok has helped the sea booths establish themselves in the mainstream.
The app has a duet feature which allows people to create a 60 second song and then others to add their voices.
People started using this feature to register seaside huts, and the slum quickly became a common thing, starting last month. The ShantyTok movement even contributed to an interpretation by the longest Johns of the centuries-old “Wellerman” sailing in the UK’s Top 40. Another version of Nathan Evans with a driving pace reached second place midweek.
The sudden popularity is not that hard to understand. After all, people crave interaction during the pandemic, and Shacks are group endeavors that don’t require great singing skills – although some of the TikToks are quite sophisticated and elaborate.
Times are hard. If we can sing along, it will help us get by, just like sailors did on tall ships.
– Bennett Konesni
Long live the working song race
To bring us a feeling of joy and pleasure
One day when the pandemic is over
Back to the office, we’ll go
Songs and songs of the sea are lumped together in the trend, but the real songs were work songs. The sailors of old sang to pass the time and coordinate their efforts by hoisting sails and anchors, and by equipping bilge pumps.
They usually consist of a chorus – in “Wellerman” it is a vessel loaded with “sugar, tea and rum” – which is easy to remember. There could be formal lyrics, or participants could choose to be free, with others joining the chorus, said Matthew Baya, a radio show host from Williamstown, Massachusetts.
The barracks helped sailors defuse tension and stay sane amid the cruelty of isolation and cramped quarters. The shanties sometimes involved good-natured insults against the captains or the shipping companies that employed them.
Vocal chops are a bonus, but not a necessity.
“Not all sailors kept a perfect pitch. They weren’t in this business for their musical talent,” Baya said. “You will have people who are really talented, and people who are having fun but who may not hit all the right marks.”
Lots of people singing sea songs at local festivals in Mystic, Connecticut; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Plymouth, Massachusetts and other US seaports are delighted with the sudden attention. Cabins are even more popular in some parts of Europe.
“If people are having fun singing, it must be good,” said Baya, one of the hosts of “Saturday Morning Coffee House” on WERU-FM in Blue Hill, Maine. His show often includes a slum or two.
Many workers are stuck inside and alone
A sense of fantasy can throw them a bone
For this reason, the slum trend shone
So sing, sing as you go
Cabins tend to be associated with England, which ruled the seas in the 18th and 19th centuries. But they are sung from Maine, where English settlers started a tradition of shipbuilding, to Massachusetts, where the country’s whaling fleet is located, to Mobile Bay in Alabama, the Caribbean and around the world, Konesni said. .
These are working songs like those sung by slaves reaping crops in the South, miners tearing down the depths of the basement, and loggers chopping down trees in the woods, all of which receive renewed attention from the barracks, said Konesni, State Department cultural ambassador and performed songs around the world.
The trend is refreshing in a world that has become accustomed to people performing on a stage for a crowd, Konesni said.
The cabins are different because they are participatory. The audience is encouraged to sing loudly.
“It has a depth and a story and a singularity that a lot of pop songs don’t have,” he says.
Geoff Kaufman, who made a living singing sea songs and led the Sea Music Festival at the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, said he was amused and intrigued by the sudden fascination with the songs.
He likes the idea of a new generation raising their voice.
“I hope it will bring more young people into the fold,” he said.
Long live the working song race
To bring us a feeling of joy and pleasure
One day when the pandemic is over
Back to the office, we’ll go
Associated Press writer Mallika Sen contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
Copyright © 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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