Soon may the explainer come: Everything you’ve always wanted to know about sea shanties but were afraid to ask

The hot new thing on the internet is the latest revival of a centuries-old musical tradition. The humble sea shanty has taken the internet by storm, with remixes of remixes getting millions of views. The phenomenon written up in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and CNN, and inspired an SNL skit.

As a marine biologist who learned to sing many of these songs to pass time on research vessels while honoring maritime traditions, I’ve loved watching this style of music spill all over my social media feeds, letting a new generation experience them. (Watch this man’s skepticism quickly fade to joy as he listens to Wellerman and tell me it’s not one of the purest things you’ve ever seen).

Illustration of sailors hauling on halyard, from an article on sailor chanteys. Image from W Symons, via WikiMedia Commons

However, reading people’s explanations of why Sea Shanties are The Next Big Thing has made me realize something important: I didn’t know as much of the history of this style of music as I thought I did, and I’m not alone—much of the information contained in the articles I linked to above is oversimplified or even incorrect (Wellerman is a maritime song, but isn’t really a sea shanty, for one egregious example). As I began to ask around, I realized that there isn’t a single authoritative and thorough article about the history and culture of the sea shanty written for lay audiences anywhere on Al Gore’s internet. So I decided to dig into the literature, speak to experts, and write one myself. I hope you enjoy it!

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SciComm Infuses Science with Soul

Every scientist I work with spends most of the day communicating, whether that’s preparing grants, manuscripts, theses, outreach talks, emails to colleagues/students… the list goes on.  However, most of these outlets share fairly strict formatting rules. Grants comes with pages of guidelines. Talks have defined who I am, what I did, found, next, thank you slide.  While this sterile approach is arguably fundamental to science’s critical tenant of replication, it makes for terrible communication.

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An Ocean Playlist for Science Online Oceans

So you’re heading out to Miami this weekend for Science Online Oceans and you’re thinking “hey, I really need some fresh jams to get me pumped up for the conference”. Or perhaps you’re thinking “you know, I need some good thoughtful rhymes that make me think about ocean issues from a different angle”? Well, we here at Southern Fried Science Aim to please. Enjoy.

Alela Diane – The Pirate’s Gospel

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpwSxHiiNSw

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