"The rise of ShantyTok during the pandemic saw modern creators discovering centuries-old shanties and adapting them for young, streaming audiences, resulting in fantastic modern renditions of ancient classics."
"Shanties work surprisingly well on social media due to their simple, repetitive structure and dramatic, story-driven content, which encourages listeners to engage fully rather than swipe away."
"The Wellermen tells the story of a ship's captain and his crew locked in a never-ending battle with an elusive whale, reminiscent of the narrative in Moby Dick."
The Wellermen, a sea shanty, was written in 1966 by a New Zealander but inspired by a song from 1820. The original lyrics were cryptic and the melody lost. To revive it, modern music-generating AI was used to create a new version based on the 19th-century original. The trend of ShantyTok emerged during the pandemic, where creators adapted old shanties for younger audiences. Shanties' simple, repetitive nature and dramatic storytelling made them ideal for social media engagement, leading to viral success.
Read at Fast Company
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