Tag Archives: song

Christmas Songs

Age: 19
Occupation: Student

Context: “I grew up in a big Christmas family. We went to church, decorated every part of the house, and sang every Christmas song there was. Singing wasn’t just for caroling; it happened throughout the season. Every year, the same songs, the same excitement. My parents were especially big on the ‘magic’ of it. They were really believed in ‘the magic of Christmas’ and really believed that it brought everyone closer together. I personally don’t know about that but I think it’s nice that even just for a little bit or just one day, everyone gets even closer for the holidays. There’s one song specifically called Must Be Santa, and it was so annoying, but we used to sing it at church every year.”

Analysis: Singing Christmas songs is a ritual that blends both religious and secular traditions. In families like Anne’s, it reinforces seasonal joy, community belonging, and shared memory. A song like Must Be Santa, though often seen as lighthearted or even annoying, takes on symbolic importance through repetition; especially in a church setting where it bridges sacred and playful elements. The act of singing together, becomes an expression of belief, nostalgia, and identity. It binds participants to cultural rhythms and holiday expectations. Even “annoying” songs serve as touchstones of collective memory, especially when tied to family or religious routines.

Brasilian Birthday

AGE: 20 

Date of performance: 04/29/2025

Occupation: Student 

Primary Language: English 

Title-   Brasilian Birthday Traditions

Context- M shares a part of her familial heritage that influences how she celebrates birthdays in her family. M says, “I LOVE the brasilian happy birthday song, it’s awesome. It’s a tradition during birthdays to always have brigadeiro made, which is like a chocolate truffle ball made of milk, cocoa powder and butter that’s covered in sprinkles.”

Analysis- M shares a variation of the typical birthday most people imagine. Instead of the classic ‘Happy Birthday’ ballad followed by a whole cake, M celebrates her birthday the Brazilian way—singing the ‘brasilian happy birthday song’ and sharing many brigadeiro. An iconic element of folklore is observing how certain elements of a tradition, such as a birthday, are kept throughout the world but slightly adapted to the certain region/people. The way people can share similar customs but make it their own based on their unique traditions is a trait of folklore, which can be seen in M’s Brasilian birthday tradition.

Bucktoothed Buzzards – Ballad

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text/Context: “This is a girl scout song that we would always do at sleepaway camp, around the campfire, a bunch of sugar-high girls, the whole deal. At least in my unit, it was always reserved for the oldest troop. The eldest girls on their way out of the program are the ones teaching it to the younger girls, they have that privilege. And with girl scout songs, when you’re the one leading them you have to give 300% so that anyone else only has to give 50%. We usually do this starting at 3 or 4 but I’ll start at 2 for the sake of time.

Two buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn. 

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh no. One has flown aaa-way. What aaa shame. Darn.

No buck toothed buzzards, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, let us reee-joice. Hallelujah!

One buck toothed buzzard, sitting in a dead tree. Ohhh look. One has reee-turned, lett us reee-joice. Hallelujah!”

Analysis: The girl scouts are one of the largest and most well known folk groups, and the scale is reflected in the variety of folklore they have to offer. My sister was a girl scout for a few years, so I thought I was familiar with most of their folklore, but I have never heard this song before. It has a similar structure to other silly folk songs, with the counting and all, but I think it separates itself from others like it in a few unique ways. When performing this song for me, my informant also performed a dance that she said is essential to the song. It was quite the interesting dance with lots of unusual motions, and those combined with the unique delivery and enunciation made it very interesting. I already understood that being a girl scout is an experience that sticks with people forever, but seeing this performance and hearing what my informant had to say about it really reinforced that fact. It goes to show how powerful folk groups really are, and how even something like a silly song can mean so much more.

Arirang

Text:

Arirang is a traditional Korean ballad that is thought to have originated from a folktale–the true origins, however, are unknown. The name of the ballad comes from a legend of a man and a woman who fell in love while picking flowers near a lake called Auraji(아우라지). The name “auraji” comes from the Korean word “eoureojida” (어우러지다) which loosely means “be in harmony” or “to meet”. The man and the woman lived on opposite sides of the Auraji, to longed to be united. In his yearning, the man attempts to cross the Auraji, but drowns. However, while he’s drowning, he sings the song Arirang to his lover in an attempt to console her.

Context:

The informant heard this song simply as she was growing up in Korea. During her childhood, Korea was going through an economic, social, and cultural crisis, and many people were still remembering the ghosts of the Korean War a few decades prior.

Analysis

Today, Arirang typically is seen as a song that represents the people’s wishes to reunite North and South Korea. The lyrics and melody carry the Korean concept of han(although this is a post-modern interpretation of the ballad, as han originates from colonial Korea in the 20th century), which is the concept of a collective feeling of sorrow or resentment, grief, and longing in the face of hardship. This is especially symbolic, as Korea has had a long history of political turmoil, and carries most recently the scars of Japanese colonialism, but still prioritizes unity and perseverance even with these challenges.

Because Arirang is a relatively old ballad–it’s thought to be at least 600 years old–I find it interesting that it is still relevant today, despite there being over a thousand different variations of it. It’s seen as a protest song, an unofficial anthem of resistance over (dictatorial) authority), but its lyrics tell a touching, mournful story. I personally see it as the people telling others that only by uniting and remember their past can they overcome hardship(this goes hand-in-hand to the idea that folklore helps with identity on a national level).

Marine Jody

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Language: English

Text: 

(Each line repeated once by leader and once by platoon)

Around her head, she wore a yellow ribbon

She wore it in the springtime, the merry month of may

And if you asked her why the hell she wore it

She wore it for that young Marine so far, far away. 

Far away

Far away

She wore it for that young Marine so far, far away

Around the block, she pushed a baby carriage

She pushed it for that young Marine so far, far away.

And if you asked her why the heck she pushed it 

She pushed it for that young Marine so far, far away.

Far away

Far away

She pushed it for that young Marine so far, far away

(3rd verse non PG- song ends after this verse)

Behind the door, her daddy kept a shotgun

He kept it in the springtime, in the merry month of May

And if you asked him why the hell he kept it

He kept it just to blow that young Marine’s ass away

Far away

Far away

He kept it just to blow that young Marine’s ass away

(3rd verse PG- song continues to verse 4)

Behind the door, her daddy kept a shotgun

He kept it in the springtime, in the merry month of May

And if you asked him why the hell he kept it

He kept it for that young Marine so far, far away

Far away

Far away

He kept it for that young Marine so far, far away

(4th verse, slowing)

Around his grave, she laid the pretty flowers

She laid them in the springtime in the merry month of May

And if you ask her why the hell she laid them

She laid them for that young Marine so far, far away

Far away

Far away

She laid them for that young Marine so far, far away

Context:

“This is my favorite jody that I learned in high school in JROTC. It’s passed down by a Prior, which is a Cadet who has been in the program at least for a year, so she was like a year older than me, I was a freshmen and she was a sophomore. And it was her favorite jody and it’s, according to her, originally a Marine jody. Jodies are- I guess I should explain what Jodies are. Jodies are songs you sing while marching, kind of sing, they’re kind of sing songy, but they’re yelling and they’re call and response. So you yell a line and the platoon repeats a line and it’s while marching. A lot of them are story centered, so I want to share one that’s story centered. I love this jody because it’s sad, it tells a story.

“I said young Marine, but when we would say it around our senior Chief, we would have to say Sailor because we weren’t allowed to sing Marines jodies because we were in the Navy unit. And each of the lines is repeated back, I just did it straight through”

“And then the third stanza, there’s two versions. Also, I said hell, but we said heck when instructors were around. And the third one, there’s two endings, one is non PG and one is PG. 

Analysis:

The jody itself is a chant, meant to (in the case of this informant) draw people together within their platoon. Especially as the informant mentions how she was taught this by a classmate in the grade above her, one can see this folk song as a form of mentorship. Learned from the mouth of a more senior individual, the jody is passed between them and gives a sense of identity within the group. The informant even mentions how important the specific branch is. She wasn’t allowed to sing this as a Marine jody normally because they were the Navy unit and therefore could only sing Navy songs. Specificity is important to the practice of this jody even though the rest of the lyrics are unchanged by a change in branch or between platoons. 

Additionally, we can see the influence of some of Olrick’s epic laws within the narrative. Repetition of the chorus and of structures make the stanzas easier to learn, and the chorus itself has three lines. Most ‘scenes’ are between the woman and the soldier, with one between the soldier and the woman’s father. All detail how two characters relate to each other, keeping the story straightforward and in line with the expectations of tales and folk songs.