HoneySuckle Magazine
No Result
View All Result
  • Culture
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Racial Politics
    • Black Lives Matter
    • A Culture Cries Out
    • Politics
  • Environment
    • Spirituality
      • Honey Drip
    • Health & Wellness
SHOP
Honey Suckle Magazine
  • Culture
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Racial Politics
    • Black Lives Matter
    • A Culture Cries Out
    • Politics
  • Environment
    • Spirituality
      • Honey Drip
    • Health & Wellness
No Result
View All Result
Honey Suckle Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home Culture

Sea Shanties: The Latest Music Craze Sweeping TikTok

As major TikTok trends tend to do, the sea shanty craze has quickly outgrown just the videos of people singing the songs and become a social media phenomenon.

January 26, 2021
Reading Time: 3min read
0
sea shanties, tik tok

Image: Neha Mulay

TikTok has become incredibly effective at determining what the next big trends in music and pop culture are, but the latest craze sea shanty craze is not one that anybody saw coming. 

RELATED POSTS

Phoebe Bridgers’ Record Label’s Debut—Claud’s “Super Monster”—is a Soft Pop Masterpiece 

How the Music Industry Exploits and Discriminates Against Black Musicians

On Sad Music and the Female Masters of Melancholia: Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift, and SZA

The viral video app has been flooded with clips of talented users singing old sailor’s tunes and amassing millions of views and likes, specifically chains of videos that utilize TikTok’s duet feature and combine the clips of numerous different people singing in various vocal ranges to create one unified, glorious-sounding sea shanty.

TikTok’s Nathan Evans Popularizes Sea Shanties

Scottish singer and TikTok user Nathan Evans has been at the center of the trend, uploading wildly popular videos of him performing songs such as “Drunken Sailor” and “The Wellerman,” the latter of which serves as the starting point for a now Internet-famous chain of videos duetting Evans and adding layers to the song.

As major TikTok trends tend to do, the sea shanty craze has quickly outgrown just the videos of people singing the songs and become a social media phenomenon. People are playing sea shanties to get viral reactions out of others, remixing them into 21st century club hits, and compiling Spotify playlists dedicated to sea shanties that garner tens of thousands of listeners.

So, what gives? On an app full of young people that try to showcase how cool they are for their music taste, fashion sense, favorite hobbies, and so forth, sea shanties are a decidedly uncool thing to be all the rage right now.

ADVERTISEMENT

The songs are simple, centuries old, often sung by a cacophony of burly voices. They concern outdated topics like rough waters and whaling, and are nothing like any popular music today. It could be that Gen Z humor is notoriously odd and difficult to understand and that this makes the old maritime songs funny by default, but it probably runs deeper than that.

Virtual Bonding on TikTok Through Sea Shanties 

If the popularity of sea shanties was just a fun joke, the videos on TikTok would not be made with such care and met with such genuine praise. Moreover, the playlists created to assemble the genre in easy-to-access places likely wouldn’t have as many likes and listens as they do. Although the fun of hopping on a trend is definitely a part of the craze, the rise of sea shanties is no joke. It is a genuine love of the music.

Was this universal love of sea shanties just sitting dormant in all of us until TikTok singers like Nathan Evans brought it bubbling to the surface? That could be the case, or it could be that sea shanties are just the perfect kind of song for people to bond over these days. Written with simple, easy-to-memorize rhymes and meant to be bellowed out by large groups of people, sea shanties are like the best form of quarantine catharsis imaginable.

While we can’t meet up and goof around with friends or go to concerts just yet, we can get together on TikTok to collectively sing sea shanties with all the camaraderie of a drunken pirate crew. We can send the videos to our friends and family and laugh about the absurd new music trend taking social media by storm, and we can take comfort in the hearty nature of the music that is unexpectedly helping us weather the rough seas of pandemic life.

It may be impossible to tell how long this trend will stay in the public eye and continue to blow up on TikTok, but the pure wonder of everybody adopting the music and liking it enough to the point of mainstream popularity will no doubt immortalize 2021 as the year of the sea shanty.

 

Tags: Musictik tok
ShareTweet
Owen Conway

Owen Conway

Owen Conway is a junior at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY majoring in media and strategic communications. He has interest and experience in multiple fields of mass media, from Iona College's radio station and newspaper to a personal blog dedicated to talking about his biggest passion, music.

Related Posts

claud's super monster album cover
Culture

Phoebe Bridgers’ Record Label’s Debut—Claud’s “Super Monster”—is a Soft Pop Masterpiece 

Black Music, Music industry, Exploitation
Music

How the Music Industry Exploits and Discriminates Against Black Musicians

phoebe bridgers, taylor swift, sza
Culture

On Sad Music and the Female Masters of Melancholia: Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift, and SZA

SOPHIE artist
Culture

Remembering SOPHIE: Trans Icon and Pioneer of Hyperpop

Valentine's Day, Playlist
Culture

The Best Love Songs for Your Valentine’s Day Playlist

Soleil, new single, whose side
Culture

Soleil Kicks of 2021 With New Single “Whose Side?”

Next Post
New Jersey, Medical Cannabis, legalize it

Veriheal Provides Access to Medical Marijuana Doctors for NJ Patients

joe biden

Is Biden's US Citizenship Bill a Turning Point for Immigration?

Discussion about this post

Recommended Stories

“Among the Cedars”: Why Native Americans Deserve More Than This Play

Sea Shanties: The Latest Music Craze Sweeping TikTok

THE HARD NUT – by Mark Morris Dance Group

Sea Shanties: The Latest Music Craze Sweeping TikTok

How History Whitewashed The Civil Rights Movement: The Fight For Equality is Messy

Popular Stories

  • On Secret Sex Work, Cardi B, and Finding Liberty

    On Secret Sex Work, Cardi B, and Finding Liberty

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Unbound: King Noire on Kink, Porn, and Polyamory

    291 shares
    Share 291 Tweet 0
  • Illegal Cannabis is Unconstitutional: Hiller PC Takes Landmark Case to Supreme Court

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • The Power of Your Life Path Number

    14 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 0
  • Michigan Department of Corrections Under Fire for Failing to Take Appropriate Measures to Combat Covid-19

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Honeysuckle Magazine

Honeysuckle Magazine provides an outlet that emphasizes diverse perspectives and creative expression. Wise, yet provocative, we aim to normalize the discussions of taboo topics.

Recent Articles

  • Sunday Scaries CBD Review 2021: Gummies, Gumdrops and more
  • Why Netflix’s “Emily in Paris” Doesn’t Deserve Golden Globe Nominations
  • March’s Tarot Draw: Judgement

Download the Apps

Honeysuckle on Apple App Store
Honeysuckle on Google Play Store

About Honeysuckle

  • About Us
  • Team
  • Press & Awards

© Copyright 2020 Honeysuckle Magazine, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

No Result
View All Result
  • Culture
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Racial Politics
  • Sustainability and Environment
    • Spirituality
    • Health & Wellness
  • Honeysuckle Studios
  • Honey Pot
  • Shop
  • Honey Drip

© Copyright 2020 Honeysuckle Magazine, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?