About
Sea Shanty TikTok refers to a subgenre of TikTok Duets[1] in which a user sings part of a traditional folk song and other users add various harmonies in their duets, ultimately resulting in a choir-like sound after multiple duets.
History
Sea shanties[2] began growing popular on TikTok[3] after multiple popular vocalists on the platform began inviting others to participate in duets with traditional music. One of the early notable examples appeared on July 25th, 2020, when user @The-Good-egg-kay posted a video of himself singing a dwarf song from The Hobbit (shown below, left). This led multiple users to add their own harmonies to his video (example duet by @leebmg shown below, right).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6853604303316225286[4]
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6863010083463367941[5]
On September 1st, 2020, TikTok user @natidredd posted a video of herself singing a traditional folk song, one of the first “sea shanties” on the platform (shown below, left). Other @natidredd videos would inspire multiple duets on the platform, particularly her rendition of “My Mother Told Me” (example duet by @norseforged shown below, right).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6867597162138651910[6]
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6907761445237280005[7]
User @nathanevanss also helped popularize the genre on the platform after singing multiple shanties. On December 23rd, 2020, he posted his first, singing a rendition of the folk song “The Scotsman” (shown below, left). On December 27th, he sang “The Wellerman,” which inspired multiple users to create duets (example duet by @jonnystewartbass shown below, right).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6909533746983079169[8]
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6913909783548431618[9]
Along with @natidredd and @NathanEvanss, user @_luke.the.voice_ has been a notable presence in the subgenre, often adding the bass parts to various shanties (examples shown below).
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6915847798332116230[10]
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6914015123224939782[11]
Online Presence
The growth of Sea Shanty TikTok has been covered by BoingBoing. It has also spread on Twitter[12]. On January 7th, 2021, user @Peter_Fries posted @jonnystewartbass’ duet with @nathanevanss, gaining over 58,000 retweets and 229,000 likes (shown below, top). User @miaasaanomusic posted a video of herself adding violin parts to the duet, gaining over 1,800 retweets and 7,600 likes (shown below, bottom).
SeaShantyTok keeps getting better pic.twitter.com/yWLEHzlPlB[13]
— Peter Fries (@Peter_Fries) January 8, 2021[14]
Had to add my violin to this! #tiktok #seashanty artists are tagged in the video! pic.twitter.com/tQI3Mpeap4[15][16][17]
— Mia Asano (@miaasanomusic) January 5, 2021[18]
Search Interest
External References
References
- ^ TikTok Duets (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ Sea shanties (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ TikTok (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6853604303316225286 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6863010083463367941 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6867597162138651910 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6907761445237280005 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6909533746983079169 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6913909783548431618 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6915847798332116230 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6914015123224939782 (www.tiktok.com)
- ^ Twitter (knowyourmeme.com)
- ^ pic.twitter.com/yWLEHzlPlB (t.co)
- ^ January 8, 2021 (twitter.com)
- ^ #tiktok (twitter.com)
- ^ #seashanty (twitter.com)
- ^ pic.twitter.com/tQI3Mpeap4 (t.co)
- ^ January 5, 2021 (twitter.com)