What is it about music that brings people together and can turn complete strangers into a troupe of singers?
I kid you not. I have seen an entire room of strangers spontaneously break into song and dance.
My brother works for TSA at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. He called me up today to let me know he got an entire line of passengers to start singing together.
“How?”
“Well, I started singing bits and pieces of Strawberry Fields. And then some guy started humming it. And the guy behind him started singing it. And, before long, there were like 30 people singing while going through security!”
“That’s pretty unbelievable.”
“I know!”
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the planes at the airport today were just a little bit more synchronized in their take-offs and landings... like a Boeing Ballet.
This isn’t the only example I have for you either.
I was shopping at Goodwill the other week. The speakers in the ceiling started to emit the Righteous Brothers' one and only You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.
I think this song just might contain some element of magic. I have never heard this song played in a public setting without everyone in hearing range singing along. My Goodwill shopping adventure was no exception.
We even broke down parts of the song into separate sides of the store, when the parts with back up vocals came into play.
Maybe if catchy tunes were constantly playing in our daily lives, communities would progress.
I mean, for whole minutes, no one was telling my brother what an asshole he was for discarding their half-empty coke bottle. No one was making a huge scene, worthy of a three-year-old, about taking off their shoes and screaming that the security checkpoint was broken because there sure as hell wasn’t anything metal in their pockets for it to be beeping at. No one was snidely reminding the security personnel that they were too important to wait around while their bags were searched.
For a time, everyone in Goodwill was smiling and laughing with each other. No one was tearing clothes off of hangers and throwing them on the floor. No one was screaming at the cashier that they should get a senior or military discount everyday, not just the designated discount days.
Everyone was nice to each other. Because of some captivating lyrics and tunes.
Every so often, people live in harmony.
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I think it's nice that people can connect in such a way, even if it is just for a few minutes during a familiar song.
Sucks when you don't know the words, though.
~ *~
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Mind Control is Easier Than You Think
when you don't know the words, it's the perfect opportunity to express yourself through interpretive dance! :-)
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Rocky Votolato
Reminds me of work. The biggest battle between the boys right now is whether the Radio Disney commercial is correct when it claims "It's okay to sing along, even if you don't know the words!" The Princess offers this up as proof that he is well within his rights to sing non-stop, while Middle Child insists that singing will not be tolerated unless one can produce a perfect imitation of the radio edit.
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When I sing without knowing the words, it sounds something like:
I try to say good bye and I choke, I try to walk away and I stumble. Though I try to hide it, it's clear, mmmmmfffrrrmmmrrr you're near... :-)
or if I'm at a show in a small venue, it doesn't even matter. Because it's too loud for anyone to notice my mistakes when I'm yelling along anyway. :-P
I think your charges need a karaoke machine. They are so much fun with siblings. :-)
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The Princess got an American Idol karaoke machine with a video camera in the screen for Christmas. And all the Radio Disney karaoke cd's. If you are ever needing the lyrics to an Ashley Tisdale or Hannah Montana song, I'm your girl. I know them all...with jazz hands.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Ooooh Jazz hands! That's a step up from spirit fingers.
Jazz hands are more artistic and sophisticated.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Definitely more classy.
It's like the difference between Easy Cheeze and Cheez whiz.
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Music is amazing! This makes me want to try that sometime...
Although, something like this did happen to me today. All of the choirs at my school have one song that we will sing together. I walked into my math class, still singing that song and dancing to it (probably rather strangely). I got stares from most of the class, but once my classmates in the other choirs started singing, the atmosphere of the room really picked up and everybody was in a good mood.
That sounds like a fun math class. ;-) you're school could be the next high school musical :-)
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Wow. That would be crazy. Except instead of singing songs that everyone suddenly knew at once, we would be singing mainly classical pieces. We'd probably have to put an MTV spin on it if we were to attract any viewers.
not really an MTV spin...
more like when Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes performed Romeo and Juliet... just a little more modern, but not changing any of the dialogue. :-)
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That idea makes me cringe a lot less! And it also seems like more fun.
An MTV spin would require lots and lots and lots and still more reality television about vapid rich kids.
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I have had an experience like that. It was my 12th birthday. My mom took me and five of my closest friends to San Francisco for the day. At the time my favorite song was Yellow Submarine by the Beatles (talk about a song that everybody knows) and since my birthday is in June, it was a gorgeous day in the city. We had all the windows down and just blasted that song on repeat while driving in downtown SF, and people started singing along! It was incredible. To this day, that experience gives me the chills and makes me smile, I felt like I was in a musical and it was amazing!
Après la pluie le beau temps. ♥
Drugs!
when I drive back and forth between Nevada and Arizona, I like to blare my music (usually Ben Folds or The Beatles) while going across Hoover Dam with my windows open, and then see how many people start singing along.
Most just give me weird looks though. :-/
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Well, if you are ever driving in SF, I can guarantee people will sing with you. It may just be SF, it is quite a different bunch of people. :]
Après la pluie le beau temps. ♥
Drugs!
Hoover Dam is full of.... tourists. It's like a small subdivision of beings that resemble people... :-P
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I have done this tons of times. I have started singing and one by one, others join in. I have done this with silly dances, too. I can get a whole group of people dancing around looking like idiots. Being able to connect so many strangers together really gives you the warm fuzzies!
My family went to Russia for New Years a few years ago with a tour group. Along with our American tour group, the hotel we were at had people from other parts of Russia, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, you name it.
On New Years Eve, there was a huge party going on in the hotel lobby. The kind of party with a lot of food and everyone just stands around awkwardly, sipping champagne. It started out kind of boring. When a somewhat upbeat song started playing, my brother and I and my tourbus roommate decided to start a conga line. 3 people. Then we got 2 more people from our tour group. Then some UK tourists joined. Then come a cute old couple from France... before long, it was everyone in the room.
I'm fairly certain we all looked like idiots. I mean, we even had the hired Father Frost and the Snow Girl characters in our line. But it was definitely warm fuzzies all around, and, despite several language barrierse, the rest of the night was a lot of fun. :-)
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How fun! Dancing is definitely a great way to unite a bunch of people who speak different languages! It sounds like you and your brother really spiced up the party....if you hadn't started the conga line I'll bet the whole night probably would have been boring for everyone. Song and dance is a great ice breaker.
Sometimes I wish I lived in that type of a fantasy world. But since that really happens to you I can't argue, but I don't ever see anything like that happen ever. And personally I don't think not even for a moment that it would solve anything. And by the way you're title for the blog if it came true wouldn't solve anything either. just my 2 cents
Your Brother Rhino!
I'm sorry this random bit of silliness has never happened in your life; I truly am.
I don't think it would solve anything either; I never claimed it would. But if it brings people together, or brightens someone's day, then, yes, progress has been made.
The blog title was part of the lyrics to a funny song. It was meant to draw attention to people so they click on it and read my blog. Apparently it worked and solved the problem of "what if no one reads this?" It had no hidden meaning or actual goal in life behind it.
The blog was meant to be fun, not particularly insightful. Lighten up. :-)
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Just try it.....crash some boring party and think of a song that everyone knows the lyrics to. I guarantee that if you can get one person even tapping their foot a few more will join in. If they don't, at least you'll have a funny story to tell people. "This one time I was bored and crashed a business seminar at the local Howard Johnson's and tried to get them to sing 'I Like Big Butts'" Either way, I'm sure someone would get a chuckle out of it.
Life is what you make it.
when a girl walks in with that itty bitty waist and a round thing in your face you get sprung, wanna pull out the tongue, cuz you notice that butt was stuffed...
Yep. That one should do it. Can anyone NOT sing along to that? I think even my grandmother knows the words.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I can't sing along to it because everytime I hear it, the version from the end of Shrek pops in my head instead.
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If I haven't seen numerous people do this all the time. I have a co-worker that sings like Frank Senatra( I could have spelled the last name wrong) and if I singed for instance"Cumbayi My Lord" he would join in right now. Good blog.