Not just a song that can be found in the archives, but one that almost everyone can hum, even today.
(Somebody asked what was meant by “today’s…” Throw whatever you want out, somebody tossed out “Love me tender” as being a tune from in the 1860s.)
Here Comes the Sun. Simple melody, timeless lyrics, and it’s the most-streamed Beatles song out of an already strong and memorable catalog.
Fittingly similar to the theme of “Sumer Is Icumen In,” a British round from the late 1200s.
I hate that song, it makes me sad as fuck every time I hear it, and if I never heard that song again in my life it’d be a better one.
Why does it make you sad?
Something about it just ruins my mood. I think it’s linked to how my parents put that song over old home videos and as a kid I would watch them and just ball uncontrollably at the loss of such simpler times (when you’re a baby and don’t have to worry about shit, you’re just cared for and loved).
One of my favorite little details of Blood and Wine, Witcher 3, is random people humming or singing small refrains of modern pop songs like the Beatles, implying these tunes are exactly what you’re asking about.
7 nation army by the white stripes. It gets played after a goal is scored in football stadiums across the world.
Don’t forget Freed from Desire
Sweet Caroline is getting that way for Football. Especially now that the English nicked it from us
Not even after goals. It’s like the wave, you can start it up at most sporting events with the help of four other people.
I have a feeling that this will be one that everyone knows, but doesn’t know the title of, like Power House by Raymond Scott.
Link.
Yeah, choosing something that will end up in the background of a lot of archives and memories is probably as good a strategy as any.
We will rock you by Queen another contender for similar reasons.
As much as I want TiK ToK by Kesha to be a recognizable tune in half a millenia I know that’s not happening. Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode is one of the most covered songs of the past 50 years so that very well may become immortalized through diffusion alone. There’s a couple dozen jazz standards that could have that kind of staying power as well, especially considering their ubiquity in performance repitoires and books of sheet music.
Bored music teacher in 2200: “and here children, we find the most important contributions to late 20th centure music: a phonograph of Depeche Mode’s Violator.”
I can only hope, deep into the future, some dork leans toward his friend and mutters “101 was better.”
Anyone who would say that would say Black Celebration instead.
I would’ve said Songs Of Faith And Devotion, but a short name made a better gag, and I could not bring myself to say Ultra.
And seriously, 101 fucking rules. It’s an energetic best-of before they asked themselves what made them special and stripped back everything for the iconoclastic rose album everyone knows them for. Which is okay.
On reflection, far from sober, it is surprising the Deftones have never covered “In Your Room.”
Funny. Seems like you see Violator as the start of a new era for them, and I see it as the end of the classic era. There are isolated songs I like after Violator, but no whole albums. (For reference, SoFaD was their newest album when I started listening, and I got it as the same time as Violator.)
Violator is a band asking themselves what they’re about and finding a crystal clear answer. The result is deliberately transitional. In going to the extremes, in excising everything that is not strictly necessary, they built a framework for a sound that is distinctly their own, without being more of what they’d already done.
Songs Of Faith And Devotion is bombastic, but all its power is built on that same crisp restraint. Especially in the 90s - it would have been easy to be louder and busier just by adding a little distortion, a little fuzz, a little taste of metal or grunge. Instead they stuck with clean synths and tasteful reverb, but made them fucking hit. (By contrast, see Playing The Angel. Or don’t.)
Ultra does the opposite trick, applying that sparse soundscape to more-general instrumentation. It kinda works. Exciter does a better job of it, but still stumbles on tracks like “Dead Of Night” and “Comatose.” Good demos! How long until they’re complete? Oh. (“Freelove” nearly makes up for all of it.)
Everything after that… look, I actually like Playing The Angel, but I’m the kind of mutant who sincerely argues that Violator was merely okay. And even I can’t find any love for Delta Machine.
All their work leading up to Violator was much more organic than how they made Violator. Their masterpiece, in the sense of getting their shit together and being taken seriously, was Construction Time Again, with “Everything Counts” as a tentpole. Some Great Reward was Gore going ‘oh we can get real weird with this, huh’ and leaning way the hell into the kink and the darkness, god bless him. Black Celebration was the peak of that arc.
Music For The Masses never rises to quite the same level, but in that album you can see the transition forming. “Behind The Wheel” is probably the crescendo of their old sound. Y’know, synthpop where someone’s credited for playing the trash can. And then immediately there’s “To Have And To Hold,” which is maybe one degree too loose for Violator. It is emblematic of the sound they wanted.
As much as I want TiK ToK by Kesha to be a recognizable tune in half a millenia I know that’s not happening.
I heard it on the radio recently and they censored the beginning:
Wake up in the morning feeling like [redacted]
I heard a live performance where the line was changed to:
Wake up in the morning saying Fuck P Diddy
??? Why
P Diddy/Sean Combs has a lot of ongoing allegations right now
Chumbawumba Tubthumping.
Nah it got knocked down.
I hate to break this to you, but its Chumbawamba, with an A not a second U. And it always has been.
My life has been a lie
Amen Brother by The Winstons, more specifically the drum break on it. It’s by far the most used sample of any song ever, and once you know of it you’ll hear it everywhere kind of like the Wilhelm Scream in movies.
One thing people might not realise, is that memorable old music can come and go. Until someone recorded a successful rendition in the 60’s, Cannon in D had been forgotten for centuries. Now it’s almost synonymous with wedding music, and seems completely timeless.
It’s possible everyone will be crazy about 1919’s El sombrero de tres picos in 2450, and (with this all being indistinct distant history) will picture us in 2024 playing it on boombox at a 2050’s-style holo-orgy.
B.P.E. by Girls5Eva I had this song in my head all day yesterday. https://open.spotify.com/track/7jYbX7gU0Pe2b0nZR7OSH5?si=P9aE_s8ER3unRraCRrV0dA Surely it will be known by all in the future… hehe.
I think having a dance associated with the song is integral to the staying power of a song. The Twist, Hokey Pokey, Electric Slide, all great contenders.
But time will prove that the champion is The Macarena, by Los Del Rio.
I guess, but I couldn’t hum the Cakewalk for you.
I can, as well as my gran, so there’s that. Try and keep up.
Nutbush City Limits might have a chance then, we’ll see whether Australian public schools are still teaching the dance in a couple of hundred years…
Tell me more about these 2050’s Holo-Orgies
Busy. I’ll get back to you about it in 30 years or so. /s
Will they be included with a Canadian residency or will it only be for CanadaPlus?
Hmm. Well, I haven’t gotten any invites to orgies. The only possible, logical reason is that it’s a plus-premium thing.
On a serious note, if anyone’s an American who’s serious about moving to Canada and not just memeing, I’d get moving on it now. We have a massive housing shortage, and things would sticky politically if there was a big wave of people pushing prices up even more.
In the U.S., “Neck” by Cameo has become a college marching band standard. I wonder if that will help. Not that it would come from U.S. college sports but maybe a song like “Sweet Caroline” or “Seven Nation Army” that’s played at professional sporting events in multiple countries.
Creep by Radiohead, imagine how annoyed that would make Thom Yorke.
Probably helps to be featured or mentioned in other notable media, as greensleaves is mentioned in Shakespeare, and creep is part of the fight club soundtrack, so it has that going for it I guess 😅
All Star by Smash Mouth, obviously.
Darude - Sandstorm
I don’t know what it is but I hear it at sports stadiums. Duh duh duh duh- duh duh duh-duh It repeats
I know it’s not the song that you’re saying but I read that in Suzanne Vega - Tom’s diner tone
There’s a surprisingly good cover of it by Britney Spears.
“Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes.
gucci gucci
it’s blur - song 2.
I heard it on an aired commercial the other day.
Something from Michael Jackson maybe. I heard you can go somewhere where there is no civilization and they’ll still know him.
