Category Archives: Musical

SONGIFY THE NEWS

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC, from Portland, Oregon
Performance Date: 4/18/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

ABOUT THE INFORMANT:

My informant is a senior graduating this semester from USC. He is a biomedical engineer, and is the oldest son of two immigrants from China.

EXAMPLE:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw

BACKGROUND:

“Okay so first of all I have to start this one by saying there is obviously nothing funny about rape, sexual harassment, intruders, and whatever else happened here. That all said this is hilarious.

So I guess that this started by a news, like a news report, or cast, like a newscast that went viral. I guess this guy went into this family’s house, and then she like saw him or something and ran away.

But that all doesn’t really matter. The part of the story that is important is that they interviewed the victim’s brother. And right away he comes on screen, he just stands out. It’s just really funny. He just gets into the camera, basically calling out the guy, “You are so dumb. You are really dumb, fo real.”

“Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husband, because they raping everybody out here.” He’s so matter of fact. And animated. It is just perfect.

So I think that the video went viral. And then this group took it, auto tuned him, threw a beat over it and remixed it into a song. Which I actually think is kind of catchy. Like you definitely start bobbing your head to it.

But it also kind of makes it a little bit more emphatic. Like he looks less ridiculous now. It was almost always meant to be a song.

So then that went viral. Fast forward hundreds of millions of views and a few years later, and I’m watching that new show, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”. It’s on Netflix. Tina Fey made it. And the intro, like she basically, not Tina Fey, this other girl, Erin from “The Office”. She was kidnapped as a girl. That’s the premise. So she got taken by this guy, who is like a cult leader. And so she is thrown into this cult where he brainwashes them to think that the world has ended. So the intro is them being found. Like by the police. So the beginning of the first episode is them being rescued, and then it cuts into this newscast. Where they go to interview the guy who found them, who is like just as animated as the guy from this video.

But then the video starts getting like remixed. Just like this. So then the theme for the show is actually a remixed version of the news coverage from the show. Which of course brought me back to this guy. And so I Youtubed it again. And I found their channel, and I saw that the guys who made this, actually made that video too. So I thought that was kind of cool.”

ANALYSIS:

This is unique because it is an example of how folklore actually infiltrated into the mainstream. After doing some research there was a video of the “interview” of the character from the television show who is remixed.  Meaning that the writers probably wrote the script for the interview, and then really gave it to the makers of the other songifyed videos and let them go to work, which is kind of cool.

The original of course is a mashup in that it is someone on television news being remixed. Who is the owner? Who is the genius? The man, the music, or the producer for choosing to interview him and keep him on air for that long? It really it could be argued any of them are. It is interesting then that the television show, which is on an entirely online streaming platform, Netflix, chose to tap into this internet folklore. It is savvy to attract the younger viewers, it’s catchy, and it is true to how it is that we interact with news stories like this normally.

BATE

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC, from Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/28/15
Primary Language: English

EXAMPLE:

“So this is something that we actually took from “Dora the Explorer” in my house. There is an episode, where, I think we were watching because it was when my brothers were younger and they would watch it. And my mom would watch with us. So we were watching one day, and I think they were making chocolate. Dora and her grandmother.

And so they sang the chocolate song.

‘Bate, bate, chocolatè

Mix that cho-co-late, chocolatè

Bate, bate, chocolatè!’

So we heard that, and I think maybe my mom had heard it before. Like I think it is a thing Mexican culture, I don’t know though. Because I remember once telling someone about it who was Mexican and he knew a version of it. But that was the first time me and my brothers heard it.

But anyways, so in the show they sang it to make chocolate. Like stir it together, or something. But for us, after that, my mom would rub our bellies when we had a stomach ache and sing it to us. She would like rub it in a circle, and after we would feel better.

So then when I would get stomach aches after I went to college, I would have my boyfriend, who is white, sing the song to me and rub my stomach. Which of course he then was mad and wanted me to do the same to him when he got stomach aches. So now whenever we’re piggies and eat too much, we rub eachother’s stomachs and sing the song. “Can you bate me?” It’s pretty gross.”

ANALYSIS:

This is like a mix of folk music and folk medicine. There seems to be some Hispanic heritage or pride peeking its way into this tradition. Since Dora the Explorer is Hispanic, and she believes her mom may have known this song prior, it does feel grounded in the Hispanic culture.

It is also folk medicine in that she uses it specifically for relieving stomach aches, not for mixing chocolate like Dora does. A stomach ache is such a weird thing to cure; there are definitely some over the counter cures, but it does not surprise me that people would think of different ways to cure it. I like that she has now passed it down to her significant other. The song has taken on a whole new meaning than it was most likely originally intended for.

It is funny that this seems to be a pretty traditional song, a Google search comes with a bunch of variants (see below) that was repurposed for Dora the Explorer. It was also kind of gringo-fied, which is to say many of the other versions were more based in Spanish, but Dora seems to strip that out and replace it with English. It is an interesting, but somewhat predictable choice.

I found this other version of the “Bate” song here.

 

Band bus trip activities

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/13/15
Primary Language: English

“Under tunnels we yell. Uh, if the bus driver brakes too quickly or suddenly, we sing the bus driver song: ‘My father’s a bus driver, a bus driver, a bus driver, mhuhm…’ That gets um explicit. Um, people go up on the mic and, uh, tell jokes. [They introduce themselves by saying:] ‘Once upon a time, my name is’ and like your name, or like your name name cause you got like name names and like names. Um, [people respond:] ‘Why?’ and you say something funny, or not funny, depending. And then, like normally, they’ll boo you or ‘head, head, head, head’ which means go to the toilet.”

 

The informant is a member of the University of Southern California Spirit of Troy. She is a sophomore, both in the school and in the band ranks, studying Computer Science and Computer Engineering. She plays alto saxophone and has travelled with the band to the Weekender and to Notre Dame.

 

The informant was asked about band folklore, and what they do on bus trips. As trips can be hours long, groups such as the band usually have unique ways of passing the time. The Spirit of Troy is no exception.

 

The first custom the informant mentions is that if you are on a bus and go under a tunnel, then for the duration of that tunnel you yell, at the top of your lungs. This helps make trips more interesting, as you can be having a conversation with someone sitting next to you, then both of you start yelling. This also serves to wake up anyone who dares try to sleep on a band bus. The act of yelling is also a very important part of band culture. During practices and any band events and gatherings, there are ample opportunities to yell. This all adds to training for game days, where band members are expected to operate at full spirit for 12 hours at a time—shouting cheers, orders, and cadencing all to keep spirit and hype up. The yelling in the tunnels is just yet another way of continuing this.

The informant also mentions a song the band sings if the bus driver slams on his brakes noticeably hard.  She starts singing the first few bars before mumbling off and claiming that it’s too explicit. The band has been trying to work on its image in recent years, cutting down on curse words and inappropriate behavior that goes on hidden from the public eye, in fear that these should become public. As a result, many band traditions have had to be trimmed down and made presentable to anyone who might hear them. This song is one other. It once used to trail off into  curse words and sexual images, but no longer. Though no G-rated version of this song has been created as of yet, something will likely replace it soon.

The purpose it serves is no different. On long bus trips, it is customary for whatever group happens to be traveling to sing songs together. Some favorites include “99 bottles of beer on the wall” or “This is the song that never ends,” all of which are written to take a long time to finish singing and to fight off the boredom for those extra few minutes. This band song has the added entertainment value that everyone must be paying attention to the bus driver’s driving in order to know when to start, and also the ability to make fun of the bus driver if he brakes too quickly. There are supposedly many verses to this song, allowing time to pass more quickly.

Then there is the tradition of “On the Mic.” The buses the band takes always have a microphone hooked up, to allow leadership to make announcements without having to shout over 50 rowdy college students. This mic becomes available to the band’s use during the trips for entertainment. The most important thing to remember when going on the mic is to introduce yourself properly, following the pre-ordained script. As someone walks up to take the mic, the band shouts “Who are you?” That person is expected to respond with “Once upon a time my name is [insert band name here].”

This brings up the topic of band names. Every person in the band is given their own band name, often referred to as their “real name” while the other name they have is “the name on your birth certificate” so as to avoid confusion. The name is often based on some trait, and it often ties back to a popular reference. They are often only a few words long, but can be entire verses of a song. Everyone is given a name as a freshman in band, almost always before their first band trip, so they are able to participate in this tradition. You are not a member of the band unless you have a band name.

The bus members respond to the person on the mic with “Why?” The person then goes on to tell a funny reason why that’s their band name. They are then expected to either make an announcement if they are leadership, or tell a joke. If the joke is judged bad, which it almost always is, then the bus shouts “Head, head, head!” or they should be ashamed and go hide in the toilet. Everyone is expected to go up on the mic, at the very least once a year. This ensures that all bus trips will have ample entertainment and jokes to laugh at, or at least aggressively boo.

Horsey, Horsey

Nationality: American
Age: 76
Occupation: Teacher
Performance Date: 4/29
Primary Language: English

“I like to take my horse and buggy,

as I go traveling through the town,

I like to hear ol’ Dobbin’s clip-clop,

I like to feel the wheels go ‘round”.

“Horsey, Horsey, on your way,

we’ve been a’travelin for many a day,

so let your tail go swish and your wheels go round,

Giddy up! We’re homeward bound.”

“Music was always a big part of my life. My Mom loved to play the piano, and my family would always sing whenever we traveled. This one of the songs that my Mom taught to me, and I ended up teaching to my grandchildren. I believe I also heard the song at girl’s camp when I was a bit older; it was a song that many people seemed to know back then. I still sing the song when I get together with old camp friends. I think the song is a lot of fun to sing, because both the verses are sung at the same time by different singers, so it takes a bit of timing to get it right.”

My Grandma (the informant in question) taught this song to my sisters and I when I was young. My grandma loved to travel, a passion she instilled in myself and my siblings. As was the case when she sang the song with her siblings, we often sang it while on long road trips. Like my Grandma, I found that the song was most fun to sing as a round, as this required a mild degree of musical cooperation.

As it turns out, this song is actually a copyrighted piece with an established author. However, what I found to be interesting is that the lyrics I was taught differ slightly from the original script. The original song makes no mention of “Dobbin” (which, according to my Grandmother, is the name of the horse in question).

This song, at least in the course of my family’s use, was often performed while traveling. The lyrics themselves seem to invoke the joys of traveling, of moving from one place to another. I think this is particularly interesting because of the antiquated form of travel featured in the song. Though horse and buggies are not commonly used for travel (at least not in the US and other developed countries), there is a commonality which makes the song relevant even to those traveling in an automobile.

For another form of this song:

101 Childrens Songs & Nursery Rhymes. Pegas, 2001. MP3.

The Turtle and the Shark

Nationality: Samoan American
Age: 19
Occupation: USC student athlete
Residence: USC
Performance Date: April 23, 2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Samoan

The informant’s family originated in Samoa, his parents were born and raised there before traveling and moving into the United States. He takes many visits to Samoa and is very in touch with his Samoan heritage and culture. He shared some common folklore with me that he could think of off of the top of his head. 

Informant…

“During a time of a huge famine and starvation spread across Samoa a blind grandma and granddaughter were put out of there family because they were seen as kind of a burden. They decided to jump into the ocean to cast their fates upon sea because it was giving and caring. Magic turned them into a turtle and a shark. The grandma and granddaughter wanted to find a new home. They traveled for a long time and were constantly turned away from potential homes until they found the shores of Vaitogi. Vertigo had high cliffs and a rough coastline, the shores were occupied by a compassionate and generous group of people. The old woman and her granddaughter turned back into their human form. They were welcomed by the people of Vaitogi. They fed them and offered that they make this village their new home. The old woman decided to make it her home, but she felt a connection to the sea as if it were her home too. She couldn’t stay on land, so she told the villagers that she and her granddaughter had to go back to the sea. She said that they would make village waters their permanent home. She gave the villagers a song to sing from the rocks and a promise that when they sang the song she and her granddaughter would come to visit. They returned to the sea and turned into their turtle and shark forms. To this day, the people of Vaitogi still sing the song and many villagers will tell you that they have personally seen the Turtle and Shark. To each of them the legend is as alive today as it has been.”

The informant also told me that there is a song that goes along with the legend, he said that he doesn’t know it and only certain people in the village of Vaitogi are able to know the song.

Analysis…

This legend of Samoa is different because it goes against the Samoan value of family by throwing the grandma and her granddaughter out of the house. However, this legend depicts that it is hard to be accepted into the different samoan communities but when you are accepted they treat you as family and give you the upmost respect. This legend helps to show the culture of the people of Samoa and how they do things. The grandmother wanted to be a part of the ocean so she left the village that accepted her but lived in the nearby shores and visited only when a song was sang. Also, this legend shows the importance of animals in this society. The grandmother and granddaughter were both transformed into two common sea creatures, and shark and a turtle. The informant wasn’t sure why but it is important to the story. The informant said that this story originated in Vaitogi by its natives, but he heard it from his grandma.