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Subscribe to RSSThe official 'We Are The Champions' music video. Taken from Queen - 'Greatest Video Hits 1'.
It’s nearing 1 a.m. The lights are dim in the bar and the opening riffs of Queen’s “We are the Champions” blare from the stereo. Suddenly, it seems like everyone in the bar is singing, “We are the champions, my friends, and we’ll keep on fighting, till the end …”
“I was out on a night out and I saw [several] groups sort of huddled together belting out songs at the top of their lungs. And I was blown away by the all enthusiasm and vigor,” says Alisun Pawley, a musicologist and lecturer at Kendal College in England.
“It had a tribal quality. What is it about this song?”
To understand why people croon in bars, Pawley visited pubs and clubs in several towns in Northern England. Over 30 days, she recorded 1,110 songs, played throughout the evening. In addition to capturing the song, she noted what lyrics roused the crowd and estimated the number of people singing when the tune reached its climax.
She and a colleague, Daniel Müllensiefen, a music psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, analyzed the most popular songs to see if they shared any particular similarities.
Paul McCartney leads athletes and audience members in what amounted to one massive sing-a-long to the Beatles song
“We looked at various aspects from their melodic aspects, the range, the intervals between notes -- I thought that maybe if [the intervals] weren’t as far apart it would be easier to sing, [but] that wasn’t influential,” she says. “We looked at the aspect of the lyrics and how relevant they were in the context of a pub.”
Pawley found that pub-goers most enjoyed crooning high-energy songs sung by male vocalists with high chest voices and fewer warbles (these qualities describe something known as an anthemic vocal performance). All the popular songs spent at least four weeks on the UK music charts. Crowds that engaged in sing-a-longs were normally younger and the later it was, the more likely it was they would sing.
“The later on in the evening, the more people sang along and we largely relate that to alcohol,” she says.
While Pawley thought that songs with nonsense words such as “Hey Jude,” with its "nah, nah, nah, nah" would be more popular, she found nonsense words didn’t add a song’s appeal. (“Hey Jude” united the world in a sing-a-long during the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, which Pawley says was “just brilliant.” She believes the song was a hit with an international crowd because non-English speakers don’t need to understand nah to enjoy it.)
People gravitated toward songs with some cultural significance. Even if “YMCA” isn’t on a personal favorite, people know the words and it’s a mainstay at festive events.
“Songs have kind of a tradition about them and very new songs haven’t necessarily built a culture.”
She hopes to conduct similar research in the United States. She suspects the songs might have different titles, but will share the same musical properties.
The article will be published in the journal Music Perception later this year.
Top 10 pub songs in England:
1. "We Are the Champions," Queen (1977)
2. "Y.M.C.A.," The Village People (1978)
3. "Fat Lip," Sum 41 (2001)
4. "The Final Countdown," Europe (1986)
5. "Monster," by The Automatic (2006)
6. "Ruby," The Kaiser Chiefs (2007)
7. "I'm Always Here," by Jimi Jamison (1996)
8. "Brown Eyed Girl," Van Morrison (1967)
9. "Teenage Dirtbag," Wheatus (2000)
10. "Livin' on a Prayer," Bon Jovi (1986)
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Leave a Comment:
Guess I'm bar-challenged. I only know about half of them.
That's probably because you're not from England and have a different set of hits that you listen to.
I would like to assist with the study in the US--to go bar hopping. For science, of course!
Everybody join in now - Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the levy... you know the rest!
Love it! Hard to find a crowd that can make it all the way through though - unless you're at the Boardy Barn in West Hampton, NY :) That song's been a staple there for 40 years. Among the many offenses that'll get you kicked out are not knowing the words to American Pie!
Brits are weird! Haven't they heard of Billy Joel: Piano Man, Only the Good Die Young, Moving Out, Big Shot? Maybe just on this side of the pond, but those are way more popular than YMCA!
This isn't about the most popular songs, but the ones people want to trying singing themselves. I'm not up to most Billy Joel songs.
When did we stop spelling 'til correctly? Really - it always used to be spelled right, and then, suddenly, sometime in the last few years, everybody seems to have forgotten. Was there a vote that I missed?
I believe 'til, til and till are all considered correct from way back when till the end of time.
Have you ever noticed how Barry Manilow songs always get a crowd singing? Even a crowd that hates Barry Manilow! Me, and everyone I know, just hate "Copacabana", but just try not singing when it's playing. Manilow music is insidious!
Wasn't the tune of the US natioianl anthem originally a bar song -"To Anacreon in Heaven"-
Sung by a men's club in England???
Because they are drunk! Duh!
Maybe it's because this study was done in England, but I have to say that they are probably right that they will find the list of singing along songs slightly different across the pond (although Final Countdown and Queen are both definitely going to be on it).
"I Love Rock n Roll", "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Here I Go Again (on my own)".... are easily more bar-anthem oriented than half the tunes on this list. In fact, if I could find a bar that played more of that and less of today's remix electronic-junk, I'd probably show up and stay a little longer.
I'd join in but I'm "Wasted Away in Margaritaville" eating a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" --no age related bias here!
Well hello fellow parrot head. Life is Just a Tire Swing, Door Number 3, Nautical Wheelers, and Tin Cup Chalice from the A1A CD. Wore out several cassette tapes. Hmmmm...me thinks I need to buy the CD.
Thanks CAH for bringing back such fond memories. I actually listened to the A1A tape while driving on Hwy A1A down the Florida coast. Sunroof open (even in the rain) wind blowin' in my hair. Ahhhh...such good times. As the saying goes "Youth is wasted on the young."
Oh, completely forgot about "A Pirate Looks at Forty." Ok, time to book a scuba diving vaca to the keys.
Dixie Chicken
usually... I drink a whiskey drink, I drink a vodka drink, I drink a lager drink, I drink a cider drink.
I sing the songs that remind me of the good times, I sing the songs that remind me of the better times
What? No "Don't Stop Believin'"?
Don't start Bereavin'.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Gimme Three Steps" and "Sweet Home Alabama".
where is Garth Brooks' low places, where the whiskey drowns and the beer chase my blues away??
New York, New York........Sweet Caroline.......Paradise by the Dashboard Lights.......Mony Mony
'Sweet Caroline' indeed! Was just at a German beerhall (in Vegas) and this song got everybody singing! Bah, bah, bahhh....
Sounds like a Boardy Barn fan to me.
Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and Gloria Gaynor "I Will Survive"
My brother-in-law is known to belt out "Where oh where are you tonight, how could you leave me here all alone? I've searched the world over and thought I found true love, then, Phweet, you found another and then you were gone...." We all join in and have a rollicking good time.
Actually it is " and thought I found true love. You met another and Phweet, you was gone."
:-)
Geez, and I haven't even had one beer yet today!!! That's probably why I got it wrong.
If you sing along with "We Are The Champions" you should put down the beer and move away from the bar. On the other hand, I'll sing along to "The Rodeo Song". Can't find it on many juke boxes anymore.
Allemande left, allemande right, C'mon you.. Heard an Irish kid do this song in the middle of nowhere in Ireland one time... blew me away.
and this story is news because. . .?
to annoy the crap out of people like you.... It's life-style news, not everything have to be about MDK ((Murder, Death, Kill) a nod to demolition man).
Sing us a song, you're the piano man, sing us a song tonight... because we are all in the mood for a melody.. and you got us feeling alright !!!!!!
Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"
In the American south, the sing along craze is now Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup" :-)
I'm afraid that is up here in Wisconsin too.
Huh, as a layperson, I would have thought it was all the alcohol and catchy tunes. Nice work. What's even more amazing to me is that these two convinced someone to give them a research grant to roam the world getting drunk and singing bar tunes. Now THAT is the real genius of it all. Bravo.
Here she comes now sayin' Mony, Mony...