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.)
XcQ, link stays blue
So, 500 years from now people will still be doing this?
I can see it
I want to click, but I don’t want to click
Happy Birthday has the kind of universal recognition you’d be looking for. Maybe in 300 years there’ll be a lyrical shift towards something more interesting. I know multiple versions of Greensleeves. The Cuckoo is the other song that I can think of with a long history. The wiki article doesn’t fully capture it. I’ll stick something in here later.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo_(song)
Happy Birthday owes it’s place to function. I don’t think anybody actually enjoys it as music.
How many 1700s drinking songs does anyone know the tune of today? Well, there’s “To Anacreon in Heaven”, better known as “The Star Spangled Banner”.
“Aura Lee” is from the 1860s, but the tune is better known today as Elvis’s “Love Me Tender”.
“I like to f*ck” by Tila Tequila.
Essentially the same lyrics, even.
It’s it a hummer?
Here Comes the Sun. Simple melody, timeless lyrics, and it’s the most-streamed Beatles song out of an already strong and memorable catalog.
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).
7 nation army by the white stripes. It gets played after a goal is scored in football stadiums across the world.
We will rock you by Queen another contender for similar reasons.
Define “today”? My first pick would be Yesterday, but that’s about 60 years old already.
On the scale of Greensleeves, I would suggest Yesterday is today.
Green Onions
All Star by Smash Mouth, obviously.
the entertainer by scott joplin
I say this with the deepest respect for the King of Ragtime, but Joplin has been dead for over a century now.
It’s…
PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME.
PEANUT BUTTER JELLY
PEANUT BUTTER JELLY
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.
Tell me more about these 2050’s Holo-Orgies
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.
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…
Chumbawumba Tubthumping.
Nah it got knocked down.
But it got up again!
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
While not what one would think of when they think of songs that survive hundreds of years from now, the only song I can think of that’s not a folk song that’s both archived and hummable (and actually has a tune, so that excludes pop songs)… is the Pokémon theme song. Go up to anyone and say in tune that you wanna be the very best and someone’s gonna ask “like no one ever was”.
i have this thing where when i’m focused, but switching tasks, i’ll click my tongue but it’s always the tune of nick nick nick n’nick nick nick o lo dea onnn
Darude - Sandstorm
