A Sign of the Times

     No, this isn't a post about Harry Styles although I did just have to pull up the video since I absolutely love this song. Rather, this post is about those annoying little tunes that get stuck in our heads, going round and round or popping up out of nowhere, triggered by some unknown or unexpected circumstance.

    It used to be, and I'll be aging myself here, these kitschy tunes came from either catchy TV commercials or, even better, sit-com theme songs, which sometimes were a bit better than the shows themselves. I've had so much fun just researching for this post, a sweet amble down memory lane...I could picture myself in my parents' living room, sprawled on the floor in front of the TV, belting out lyrics to both commercials and sit coms, so full of myself and doing my best to annoy my brothers, something always easily accomplished. But, for those of you from my generation, just mentioning WKRP, you can hear the theme song immediately. Same with Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, M*A*S*H, Gilligan's Island, Welcome Back Kotter, and some newer ones: Friends, Fresh Prince. Even not so new but super fun to listen to is the Dukes of Hazard theme...

    And the commercial jingles were just as great: Coca Cola's I Just Want to Teach the World to Sing, Big Red (Kiss a Little Longer), Toys R Us I Don't Wanna Grow Up, Oscar Meyer Weiners (this link is a super cute hand drawn cartoon commercial from the sixties), Bandaids, Kit Kat's Gimme a Break, and who can stop themselves from finishing along with a Farmer's commercial?

    But today we don't watch so many commercials with live streaming services eliminating those pesky pauses--does anyone actually watch live TV anymore? You can blissfully zip past show beginnings and recaps while bingeing. I think I have only actually paused to listen to the Game of Thrones theme song because it's such a compelling piece and while rewatching Downton Abbey, I admit I missed listening to the opening theme but could still hear it in my mind as I skipped forward to the next episode. 

    So what sticks in our heads today? TikTok tunes. You know those little sound bites, MP3's and WAV tracks tacked on to every new viral video. They're quick and catchy--my favorite are the Weee.memes which are both hilarious takes of epic fails and (mostly Russian) people throwing themselves in seriously deep drifts of snow. The Oh No meme, Andy Mineo and Lucrae's Comin' In Hot, Don't Be Suspicious, Immediately No, and I seem to get a lot of suggested videos tagged with the Sea Shanty for some odd reason? Other favorites are Bad Vibe, the Mental Health Walk theme, Look at These Rocks (which pops into my head quite often on hikes around Rhode Island, which just seems to be one giant rock...) They also make reel trolling addictive so it's no wonder we have these sound waves stuck on repeat in our brains. You may not be able to belt out lyrics along with these meme sound bites, but they're as intimately ingrained in our lives as those old familiar show songs and jingles once were. Just a sign of the times we live in now: fast, quick, catchy and addictive. Whatever keeps you scrolling...




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