How Do You Make a TikTok Hit? Mailbag
This month we dive into questions about musical animals, Canadian hit-makers, rockstars with college degrees.
My favorite time of the month is quickly becoming when I get to answer reader questions. This month, we dove into songs about U.S. states, how hits happen on TikTok, if it’s possible for animals to make music, and so much more. If you have a question for me, click the button below to send it along. If your question is selected, you get a free premium subscription to this newsletter for a month. Premium subscribers get twice the newsletters of free subscribers.
Can animals make music? - Mario
My gut reaction to this question was, “Of course animals can make music!” Even though I live in a city, I can still hear birds chirping every morning. There’s a reason we refer to bird chirps as songs. But as I mulled this over a bit more, I started to lose faith in my gut. If a bird’s song is programmed into their DNA, is that really music in the way we think about a woman singing at church or a punk band pounding out power chords in a moldy basement? Doesn’t music require intentionality? I wasn’t sure, so I decided to reach out to some experts on the topic.
David Rothenberg is the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. When it comes to animals, nature, and music, he might be the foremost expert. Along with writing books about the music of bugs and birds, Rothenberg has appeared in the New York Times and National Geographic, among many other publications. He’s also an accomplished composer and, as of this year, a Grammy winner. When I asked Rothenberg if animals could make music, here’s what he wrote back:
How can we tell if an animal’s sound is music or language? It’s no accident that many sounds made by birds and bugs are called “songs” in many human languages. That’s because we intuitively sense the meaning of such sounds comes out in their performance, not in any message that can be translated. A chickadee sings “dee doo” and a catbird sings “hreeww mreeow chhhh udvduvus raaaah etc,” etc. and their function is the same: to defend a territory and attract a mate. Why is one two-seconds long and the other ten minutes? It’s a difference in aesthetics. One species has evolved a more elaborate sense of aesthetics. Charles Darwin wrote in Descent of Man, “Birds have a natural aesthetic sense. They appreciate beauty.” That is why they have evolved beautiful feathers and beautiful songs.
These sounds can be understood as music because they are performed with precision and form, in addition to being produced with an emotional weight. Birds release dopamine in their brain while singing. Thus, they are addicted to it. They sing because they have to and because they like to. Just like us. I’ve spent years playing music live with birds, bugs, and whales, showing how much we humans can learn by musically interacting with other species. Believing this is possible makes the whole natural world seem that much more alive.
Hollis Taylor is another authority on the topic of zoomusicology. I posed the same question to her, and she provided additional color:
There are many reasons why people claim that birdsong is not music. Intentionality is just one of them. I’m often struck by the exaggerated sense of importance that consciousness, intentionality, language, and function play in discussions of animal music and other animal activities. Many of these claims are an erroneous understanding of both birdsong and human music, like that animal acoustic constructs are only functional, while human music has no function. Scholars have adopted all sorts of convoluted arguments about how a bird’s song may sound musical, but it supposedly takes a human being to improve on it, or to explain it.
There are musicians all over the world with highly sophisticated musical skills that don’t know how to describe what they do—and think of all those mediocre music teachers who can play but can’t teach!
If you want to hear more from David Rothenberg or Hollis Taylor, they have a ton of stuff available online. Rothenberg has many resources on his website, along with two new books (i.e., Whale Music and Secret Sounds of Ponds) and a film (i.e., Nightingales in Berlin). Hollis Taylor has resources on her site too. There you will find some of her compositions and writing. Her boook Is Birdsong Music? Outback Encounters with an Australian Songbird is a particularly helpful resource on this topic.
What top-charting song has the most traditionally-educated members? - Wesley
One of my favorite members of the E Street Band is Roy Bittan, the pianist nicknamed “The Professor.” Bittan allegedly got this nickname because he was the only member of the E Street Band with a college degree. In other words, college is not required to make it in the music world. Nevertheless, some artists do get a higher education.
To answer your question, I just focused on artists that topped the Billboard Hot 100. Looking at the artists that have done that, the group that most immediately jumps out is Queen. Each member had at least graduated college. And their fields of study were nothing to scoff at. Roger Taylor studied biology. John Deacon studied electrical engineering. Brian May studied physics, a field in which he eventually got a PhD. Finally, Freddie Mercury studied graphic design. I don’t think any chart-topping group can compare with that, but here are some others I came across in my search.
Boston: Shockingly, Boston’s only number one hit was their 1986 ballad “Amanda”. Even more shocking is that Tom Scholz, the multi-instrumentalist and songwriter behind the group, holds both a bachelor’s and masters degree from MIT in mechanical engineering. The rest of the group doesn’t seem to have any sterling academic credentials, though.
Simon & Garfunkel: Each member of the famed folk duo was a college graduate. In fact, on top of his undergraduate degree in art history, Art Garfunkel also holds a masters in mathematics.
Coldplay: The British hitmakers met at University College London. From what I can tell, their degrees are in ancient history, astronomy, mathematics, and anthropology.
Kris Kristofferson: Though never the artist on a number one, Kristofferson wrote “Me and Bobby McGee”, which Janis Joplin took to the top of the charts in the early-1970s. As his songs suggest, Kristofferson is quite literary. After graduating with an undergraduate degree in literature, he received the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to continue his studies at Oxford. Other famous Rhodes Scholars include Bill Clinton, Edwin Hubble, George Stephanopoulos, and David Souter.
Will we ever see liner notes again? - Sky
If you’re too young to remember, liner notes were pictures and words inserted into the inner sleeve of an LP or CD jewel box that contained lyrics, credits, special thanks, and basically anything else the artist or label wanted. With the rise of digital downloads, liner notes all but disappeared because (a) labels weren’t supplying any of the information to digital service providers in a usable format and (b) digital service providers had no place to display them. Things have changed recently, though.
Now, if you scroll while listening to a song on many streaming services, you will see lyrics, artist bios, credits, and a whole host of other information. Because streaming services have rigid formats with how to store and display metadata, these “digital liner notes” won’t be as customized as their physical relative. Nevertheless, most of the information is there now.
What’s the science behind getting a song popular on TikTok? - Patricia
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