The world was macaroni
So, I took a bite out of a tree
It tasted kind of funny
So, I spate it at a monkey
And the monkey just stared at me.
Then Darth Vader
Threw his light saber
And missed me be metre
And hit Justin Bieber
Who said, 'Baby, baby, baby Oooohhh!"
My seven year old son picked this song up at school and taught me. By taught me, I mean repeated it over and over until I couldn't get it out of my head. It's a thoroughly annoying little ditty. I only hope that it stays with you, dear reader. If you do not get any enjoyment, enlightenment or perspective from my blog, at least you get a stupid song stuck in your head. If you don't have any children, this just gives you a tiny taste of the warfare they wage on your mind.
I do have a serious point. Songwriting such as this is ingrained in human behaviour. It is as natural as language itself - I believe it is the one of the most important instincts in the development of human intelligence and language.
When I was seven, we had many of our own little songs like this. However, I don't remember anything like this one. Here's why, it's a take off on a late-90's song by Smash Mouth called All-Star. Children have taken the basic lyrics and twisted them around using current pop-culture icons. The Justin Beiber part could have been added to an older rhyme - I just googled it and found many You Tube versions going back to 2009.
Who knows how many versions are going viral around school yards right now or what new creations will catch on and get spread around in the future. I just find it fascinating how people constantly twist the language and pop culture into all of these new forms. Modern technology lets us document it and spread it quicker, but this has been since the dawn of man. My sons still sings the old Jingle Bells, Batman Smells parody every Christmas that used to get punished by detention in my old school days.
Is it evidence of a rational, creative mind or genetic determinism at work?
BTW, here is the original song, All-Star by ska-rock band Smash Mouth:
http://www.slack-time.com/music-video-3228-Smash-Mouth-All-Star
I kind of like it.
Edited, March 16, 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment