Repetitive song

Repetitive songs contain 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 are probably children's songs. Other repetitive songs are found, for instance, in African-American culture from the days of slavery.^[4]

Structure

The simplest songs repeat without end, and are typically work songs. The Guinness Book Of Records cites one washer song that has been sung for decades by people washing clothes, though presumably not all through the night.

Self referential songs refer to themselves like The Song That Doesn't End and may even recursively quote their own lyrics, for example "I Know a Song that will Get on Your Nerves" where each verse ends "and this is how it goes."

Cumulative songs build from one verse to another, like bricks on a pile, as in "Old McDonald Had a Farm".

'Counting songs' may count up or down, as with "99 Bottles of Beer". "One Man went to Mow" counts up overall, but down in each verse. Decrementing songs generally end before or around zero, for example "Three Craws" (Roud 4582). Incrementing songs are generally stop at the number in the title, though some only have traditional points, such as ten, for "One Man went to Mow". These songs are mathematically bounded once a choice of the maximum number is made.

Another type of song describes a circular phenomenon (see recursion). In "There's a Hole in My Bucket", the singer-narrator attempts to fix a leaky bucket, only to find out that ultimately one needs to have a functional bucket in order to effect the repair. In "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", flowers were offered to soldiers, who fell in a war, new flowers grew on their graves, those flowers were given to soldiers and so on.

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]

Work songs

See also: Slave Songs of the United States.

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 in English

• "Apt."
• "Michael Finnegan"
• "The Song That Never Ends"
• "There's a Hole in My Bucket"
• "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt"
• "Found a Peanut"
• "Versace (song)"
• "Yon Yonson"
• "10 Green Bottles"
• "99 Bottles of Beer"
• "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet"
• "Ti amo"
• "Ievan Polkka" (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 Song"
• "Around the World"
• "The Rockafeller Skank"
• "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am"
• "Do What U Want"
• "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
• "Jack Your Body"
• "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
• "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)"
• "The Twelve Days of Christmas"
• "Gucci Gang"
• "Green Grow the Rushes, O"
• "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly"
• "Five Little Monkeys"
• "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar"
• "Little Bunny Foo Foo"
• "The Farmer in the Dell"
• "Ten German Bombers"

See also

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