Repetitive song

Repetitive songs are songs containing a large proportion of repeated words or phrases. Simple repetitive songs are common in many cultures as widely spread as the Caribbean,^[1] Southern India^[2] and Finland.^[3] The best-known examples of such songs are probably children's songs. Other repetitive songs are found, for instance, in African-American culture from the time of American slavery.^[4]

Structure

Self referential: The Song That Never Ends The song quotes its own lyrics.

Describing circular phenomenon: There's a Hole in My Bucket To fix a leaky bucket, one ultimately needs to have the bucket already fixed. Where Have All the Flowers Gone? Flowers were ultimately given to soldiers, who fell in a war, new flowers grew on their graves, those flowers were given to soldiers and so on.

Cumulative songs: "Old McDonald Had a Farm"

Counting: "99 Bottles of Beer"

Repetition in children's songs

In children's songs, repetition serves various educational purposes: repetition aids memory,^[5] can aid in learning punctuation and reading skills,^[6] and is very valuable in learning (foreign) languages.^[7]

Repetition in work songs

Repetitive songs are also found in traditional work songs. Examples abound in African-American culture,^[8] in political groups,^[9] and among traveler, marchers, and walkers.^[10]

Examples of repetitive songs

• "Michael Finnegan"
• "The Song That Never Ends"
• "There's a Hole in My Bucket"
• "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt"
• "Found a Peanut"
• "Yon Yonson"
• "10 Green Bottles"
• "99 Bottles of Beer"
• "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet"
• "Ti amo"
• "Ievan Polka" (5th stanza) by Loituma, seen frequently in the infamous "Leekspin" animation
• "The Wheels on the Bus"
• "If You're Happy and You Know It"
• "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"
• "Badger Badger Badger"
• "Around The World"
• "The Rockafeller Skank"
• "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am"
• "Do What U Want"
• The songs on Breadwinners
• "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
• "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
• "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)"

Repetitive songs in Czech

Self Referential: Pes jitrničku sežral, Byl jeden číňánek; Counting: První den prohlížím koleje, Lélo lélo^[11]

See also

• Donald Knuth, "The Complexity of Songs"
• Cumulative song
• Repetitive music

References

1. Abrahams, R.D. (1985). "A Note on Neck-Riddles in the West Indies as They Comment on Emergent Genre Theory". Journal of American Folklore: 85–94. p. 88.
2. Jackson, William (1992). "Features of the Kriti: A Song Form Developed by Tyāgarāja". Asian Music: 19–66. esp. p. 20-21.
3. Rank, Inkeri (1981). "The Foreigner and the Finnish Maiden: A Theme in the Finnish Medieval Ballad". Western Folklore (Western States Folklore Society) 40 (4): 299–314. doi:10.2307/1499712. JSTOR 1499712.
4. Floyd, Samuel A. (1996). The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the United States. Oxford UP. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-19-510975-7.
5. Agin, Marilyn C.; Lisa F. Geng; Malcolm J. Nicholl (2004). The Late Talker: What to Do If Your Child Isn't Talking Yet. Macmillan. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-312-30924-4.
6. John A. Smith, "Singing and Songwriting Support Early Literacy Instruction", in National Reading Panel (2002). Evidence-based reading instruction: putting the National Reading Panel report into practice. International Reading Association. ISBN 978-0-87207-460-6. p. 189
7. "The use of song is an excellent way to practice Spanish phonetics, and songs can be found using the most troublesome sounds. Repetitive songs using all vowels are good for beginners." Garcia-Saez, Santiago (March 1984). "The Use of Song in Class as an Important Stimulus in the Learning of a Language". Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Colorado Springs. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
8. Epstein, Dena J. (2003). Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. U of Illinois P. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-252-07150-8.
9. Lieberman, Robbie (2003). My Song Is My Weapon: People's Songs, American Communism, and the Politics of Culture, 1930-50. U of Illinois P. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-252-06525-5.
10. Podruchny, Carolyn (2006). Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade. U of Nebraska P. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-8032-8790-7.
11. Votruba, Adam (2009). Namažeme školu špekem. Plot.