PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – There was a tune that tickled the fantasy of the internet
When the TikTok revived the humble sea shantytown
The views came quickly, the fashion could last
Wow, read on wow:
People are trapped at home, working, bored, going crazy.
Cooperated sailors who felt the same on long ocean voyages broke the tedium with work songs called marine shanties.
It only makes sense, then, that the barracks have been completed with a moment of unprecedented popularity during the pandemic.
“Times are tough. If we can sing, it will help us overcome it, just as sailors did on tall ships,” said Bennett Konesni of Belfast, Maine, who began singing marine huts aboard a schooner. in Penobscot Bay and performs several times a week with Mighty Work Song Community Chorus.
TikTok helped the sea huts rise into the main stream.
The app has a duet feature that allows people to create a 60-second song and then allows others to add their voice.
People started using this feature to record marine neighborhoods, and the ravine quickly became a major thing, starting last month. The ShantyTok movement has even contributed to the interpretation of the longest-running Johns of the centennial “Wellerman” sailing into the UK’s top 40. Another version of Nathan Evans with a driving pace reached number 2 in the middle of the week.
Sudden popularity is not that hard to understand. After all, people yearn for 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 tough. If we can sing, it will help us overcome it, just as sailors did on tall ships.
–Bennett Konesni
Long live the career of working song
To give us a sense of joy and fun
One day, when the pandemic ends
Back in the office we will go
Shanties and marine songs join in the trend, but true shanties were work songs. The sailors of yesteryear sang to pass the time and coordinate their efforts in raising sails and anchors and equipping the bombs with bilge.
They usually consist of a choir (in “Wellerman”, it is a ship laden with “sugar, tea and rum”) that is easy to memorize. There may be formal lyrics, or participants may opt for freedom, and others may join the choir, said Matthew Baya, a radio program in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
The barracks helped the sailors turn off the tension and stay afloat amid the cruelty of the isolation and restricted areas. Sometimes the barracks carried humorous insults to the skippers or shipping companies that employed them.
Vocal ribs are a bonus, but not a necessity.
“Not all sailors kept a perfect tone. They weren’t in this job because of their musical talent,” Baya said. “You’ll get talented people and others who just have fun but can’t copy all the right notes.”
Lots of people singing sea huts at local festivals in Mystic, Connecticut; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Plymouth, Massachusetts and other U.S. seaport sites are delighted by the sudden attention. Shacks are even more popular in some parts of Europe.
“If people have fun singing, that should be good,” said Baya, one of the hosts of WERU-FM’s “Saturday Morning Coffee House” in Blue Hill, Maine. Your program often includes a bar or two.
Many workers are trapped inside and alone
A feeling of whim can throw them a bone
That’s why the shack trend has shone
So sing, sing when you go
The huts are usually associated with England, which ruled the seas in the 18th and 19th centuries. But they are sung from Maine, where English settlers began a shipbuilding tradition, to Massachusetts, home to the country’s whaling fleet, to the mobile bay of Alabama, the Caribbean and around the world, Konesni said. .
They are working songs like those sung by slaves harvesting crops in the south, miners digging underground and loggers cutting down trees in the forest, all of which are receiving renewed attention thanks to the barracks, said Konesni, who he is the State Department’s cultural ambassador and has made barrages around the world.
The trend is refreshing in a world that has become accustomed to people performing on stage for a crowd, Konesni said.
Shanties are different because they are participatory. The audience is encouraged to sing boisterously.
“It has a depth, history and singability that a lot of pop songs don’t have,” he said.
Geoff Kaufman, who made a living singing sea huts and conducting the Sea Music Festival at Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport, said he was amused and intrigued by the sudden fascination with the huts.
He loves the idea of a new generation raising their voices.
“I hope it incorporates more young people,” he said.
Long live the career of working song
To give us a sense of joy and fun
One day, when the pandemic ends
Back in the office we will go
Associated Press writer Mallika Sen contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
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