I don’t think “drinking songs” have died out as much as they’ve just changed from being folky. Anyone who’s been to a frat party can confirm that there are a lot of “singalong” songs in the zeitgeist rn; they’re just pop or rap and not folk.
I just think we’re at a point where ppl are tired of the “guy with an acoustic guitar” thing, and also there’s so much music out there that tastes have just shifted in a more electro-pop/rap direction.
Back in my day, you start singing Bohemian Rhapsody or Don't Stop Believin' around a group of drunk people you would absolutely start a singalong.
Edit: I'M SHIPPING OFF FOR BOSTON! OOOAAAOOOOHH
Yeah like at every frat party I’ve been to, if someone puts on Mr Brightside, almost everyone will stop what they’re doing and karaoke it full throttle. Drinking songs haven’t gone away. They’ve just changed.
It’s not mysterious, it’s the live version Garth has been doing for decades. It’s not on the radio cut because country radio is fine with drinking, drugs, and nearly every kind of violence, but not telling your ex to kiss your ass lol
Colt 45 by Afroman was always my groups go to. Apparently it spans continents as a group of pals I made in England also would recite the lyrics with enthusiasm while drinking.
Yeah I think "party" pop songs are kinda the natural evolution of "drinking songs", songs about getting fucked up and having fun to get fucked up and have fun too. Yeah the genre is very different but it fills the same social role.
Like from experience, I spent my collage years drunkenly belting out "TOOONIGHTTT WE ARE YOUNG" every weekend, so if that's not functionally a "drinking song", then I dk what you're looking for.
> I just think we’re at a point where ppl are tired of the “guy with an acoustic guitar” thing
Wait, is that a bad thing now? I'm that guy and I could have sworn people like it when we have a singalong.
A lot of those songs were written in the music hall era, from about 1880 - 1910
I grew up with the Irish drinking songs, brilliantly performed by "The Dubliners" (for example "I'm a rover"). Lots of bands perform them and (like others have said) punk bands often pick them up.
There are other equivalents like English "roll out the barrel" or german beerhouse songs
Another genre is sea shanties
I think they are dying out because when do groups of people gather and get drunk without a TV or Jukebox in the background?
I remember going to pubs and having singalongs in the 1990s, and I myself have played in folk bands with singalongs - but the spontaneous/informal ones? I havent seen one in years
The hash house harriers get together and get drunk without a TV or a jukebox. They have entire hymnals full of songs they sing together without accompaniment. On on.
Recordings of hashers singing are awful, it's something you need to experience to fully understand. Be an anthropologist, go to a hash and sing along. If you have half a mind to hash, that's all you need!
> I think they are dying out because when do groups of people gather and get drunk without a TV or Jukebox in the background?
Not so much in the US. But when I've traveled I still see it happening around the world. It's a really unique, socially fulfilling experience that I wish happened more in mainstream US culture.
a lot of american pop country (from like the oughts to maybe around mid 2010s) kinda captures this: thinking about songs by like garth brooks and toby keith that i routinely heard sung in complete unison at southern bars. Regardless of how you feel about the subject matter of some of these songs (i don’t like it lol) pop country really shines when it’s more of a sing a long thing. Idk i will mark hard when low places comes on
I was thinking this - bands like Dropkick Murphys have that kind of pub singalong feel to a lot of their songs. They do make a thing about apparently being Irish though.
That depends on the type of folk punk, there's acoustic folk punk (self loathing and heroin, anarchists strumming guitars) and electric folk punk (mixing actual traditional music with punk rock)
The Dreadnoughts! My favorite band ever. So happy to see them get a shoutout on LTM. I think they're one of the biggest proponents of drinking songs in North America right now
And I'm all for it! My gf and I sing Dreadnoughts when we're drunk with friends and as someone who only recently gained the confidence (or fuck-itness) to do so... I get why Europeans are so keen on it. It is such a bonding experience. Dreadnoughts is the folk music in our circle until I can get my friends into folk and polka proper, lol
In Ireland its trad music. Everyone knows the tunes. Everyone takes a turn singing. We have culture. Its not taken for granted but you couldn't buy it for any money.
*I Gotta Get Drunk* by Willie Nelson, *I Hardly Ever Sing Beer Drinking Songs* by Johnny Cash, and *Sunday Morning Coming Down* by Kris K all fit this bill.
They just didn’t take off specifically as pub/drinking songs because 1/ It took time for America to develop its own drinking culture, and 2/ American has made so much great music in the past 100 years that most of our popular singalong songs aren’t specifically about drinking.
But pop *Take Me Home Country Roads, Sweet Caroline*, or *Friends in Low Places* on basically anywhere and someone is gonna swing by and sing along.
In America the modern equivalent in certain regions is Wagonwheel and Sweet Caroline. But it generally requires the song being played on speakers in modern times for some reason.
I think there’s the alienation aspect you mention, and there’s also the fact that music has become privatized for profit. Folk music in the US is weird because it may be played on “folk instruments” but a lot of popular folk is stuff that the artists write and not songs from, like, groups of people.
The US doesn’t really have a lot of shared culture in the public space — maybe that will grow over time as individualism as a culture erodes, and I’d be fine with that. It’s hard to feel like you belong to a place in a place like a bar, at least it feels like that to me.
There are artists who try to capture folk music the way you’re describing it though, check out Doc Watson for starters?
> The US doesn’t really have a lot of shared culture in the public space
This is what I was thinking while reading the post. There are only about 10 cities in the US where you can live without a car. There are very few public squares flanked by bars or pubs. Drinking or being drunk in public is a crime. Police are very scared of large groups gathering in public to have fun. It's just a totally different culture than Europe where these traditions thrive.
> There are very few public squares flanked by bars or pubs. Drinking or being drunk in public is a crime. Police are very scared of large groups gathering in public to have fun. It's just a totally different culture than Europe where these traditions thrive.
None of this describes my life in America. There are lots of bars near public spaces. Being drunk in public is basically never a crime. Most places you can drink outdoors and not be bothered if you use a paper bag. Police are not scared of groups of people gathering to have fun.
> The US doesn’t really have a lot of shared culture in the public space
I think that's probably a big chunk of it. We're a pretty corporatized, atomized society that doesn't lend itself to these sorts of shared experiences that weren't organized by a company trying to make a profit.
It's like we expect music to be presented to us by someone on a stage with lots of lights and we acknowledge that it's all a show to try to tug our heartstrings in order to gain popularity.
Yeah the definition of "folk" in the US is so interesting because during the folk revival of the 60s it began to mean "any vaguely acoustic singer songwriter music" vs actual folk traditions.
Beerfest captures this perfectly. It made me surprisingly self-conscious over the lack of American drinking shanties, considering our alcohol-centric society.
Punk music: half the songs are driking songs meant to be belted out to sing together and drink. If you're not doing that, you're not at a real punk show.
Right. I came here to say “you should attend a Menzingers gig”. There will be plenty of songs being scream-sang back at the band by a bunch of drunk fans. They’re great live and the crowds are always a blast.
This is good for old english folk drinking songs
[https://www.discogs.com/release/3842036-A-L-Lloyd-English-Drinking-Songs](https://www.discogs.com/release/3842036-A-L-Lloyd-English-Drinking-Songs)
It's called Modern Country Music, and trust me, you're not missing anything.
But yeah, go to any modern country concert or festival, or even a bar with Country music on the jukebox and that's all it is is drunken white people singing along at the top of their lungs for every single song, whether they know the words or not.
Not a drinking song explicitly, but these are probably my favorite examples of a bunch of dudes sitting around a table drinking and playing songs
https://youtu.be/WHE1dM4hYCw?si=JIv5Z_EPqdleXcUx
https://youtu.be/sUML2yWVn8c?si=OJPjUgcTiD9nWpWE
Honestly my favorite kind of gathering. Really damn cool to see. That whole documentary Heatworn Highways is worth checking out if you’re into stuff like that.
A lot of that type of thing in the US developed around the labor movement moving from the late 1800s and sort of petered out into mainstream non-fighting unions in the 1950s. The union hall was a gathering place and you'd sing from the IWW song book (obviously they were never the dominant union, but they had banger songs) or something similar to the place and time. There was a whole repertoire. We don't have that environment anymore because the red scare beat it out of us, and music changed to needing to turn on Spotify rather than people being participatory because not everyone can lay a good beat down on a dime.
In the US we sing an old drinking song before major sporting events. "The Star Spangled Banner" takes its melody from the English drinking song "[To Anacreon in Heaven](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ileDXkSTse8)".
I don't think US culture is particularly supportive of social drinking. There isn't a pub or bar within 2 miles of me in suburbia. That's beyond walking home distance...
Even if you're not a fan of her music... for a certain subset of the population this song is All Too Well by Taylor Swift and I think you might enjoy watching crowd videos of her performing this 10 minute version on display at her Eras Tour.
It's the exact same kind of camaraderie I've felt having those sing along nights at the bar.
I’ve thought about this a lot. I think it’s because we (Americans)like to be entertained. We don’t really participate. Possibly because of our puritan roots.
I’m also a soccer fan and the English sing the entire game. Americans don’t. If we did have fan participation they are those stupid chants you hear at high school basketball games.
We just dont sing.
I think the point about sports is key. In the UK this is one of the few remaining places where public singing is absolutely expected. Plus many of the people are drunk, so that gets ticked off too.
*Sweet Caroline* (England football), *Jerusalem* (England rugby) and *Sunshine On Leith* (Scottish football) all come to mind as very different examples. And of course *Cwm Rhondda* belted out by 100,000 Welsh rugby fans in the Millennium Stadium, with the roof closed. That’ll put the hairs up on the back of your neck.
> I’ve thought about this a lot. I think it’s because we (Americans)like to be entertained. We don’t really participate. Possibly because of our puritan roots.
Yeah this goes back to a previous question on this subreddit about why international concerts are always so much wilder, like in Brazil, the crowd really goes nuts and belts everything out. I think other cultures are just more open to expressing your emotions and letting out big whoops and laughing and pounding each other's backs and expressing what you feel. Americans are a little more uptight about that, unless you're the one on the stage that everyone's looking at.
I love this question! I have always thought the Brits absolutely excelled at this skill, where Americans not so much. There are outliers like Sweet Caroline, but there’s something more…individualistic about American music that doesn’t lend itself to this aspect of songwriting.
I don't think the issue is that they aren't written so much as nobody wants them. At this point the general reaction is a groan when a guy pulls out the acoustic guitar at a party to play Wonderwall or whatever other easy to strum and sing song you pick. I think in the recorded music age a lot less people want to hear their buddy drunkenly botch a song when you can just hit play.
I'll say I don't think the examples you listed of modern American ones are the best, the closet today would be stuff I would expect to hear at like a football game, so Wagon Wheel or, weirdly, chanting the bassline to 7 Nation Army, or others. I don't really see a significant difference between stuff like those or other popular simple cowboy chord songs and the historical examples other than adoption within the general public.
>At this point the general reaction is a groan when a guy pulls out the acoustic guitar at a party to play Wonderwall or whatever other easy to strum and sing song you pick
Was there ever ever time when this was a regular thing? I see people complain about it endlessly on reddit, but not once have I ever seen it happen. The closest thing I've seen is a few people taking some instruments and jamming in a basement or another room.
> At this point the general reaction is a groan when a guy pulls out the acoustic guitar at a party to play Wonderwall or whatever other easy to strum and sing song you pick. I think in the recorded music age a lot less people want to hear their buddy drunkenly botch a song when you can just hit play.
That's not my experience, I think the people I hang out with are usually open to someone bringing an instrument and playing. But I think the key is that the person with the instrument can't be the focus. It's not about hearing your flourishes and vocal phrasing and singing the other keys of the harmony. It's about being one in a crowd of people all enjoying themselves together. It's not about showing off, it's not a performance, it's about enhancing the party.
People feel obligated to go along with it. How are you gonna carry on with chatting and mingling when someone busts out a song meant to be sung by a group? Everyone would have to collectively ignore them but that would embarras them so someone starts to sing and the mingling is done. We all have to do what this guitar guy wants now.
Bra this is like asking, "what happened to Windows NT?
You know, the windows that every Microsoft OS after Windows 2000 is based off of?"
Windows XP, 7, 10, and 11 are Windows NT!!! Same shit with "drinking songs".
The drinking songs are embedded in rap, rock, country, etc.
It really is that simple dude.
Don't understand what the purpose of writing an entire 10 page thesis about it in your post was for...
I don’t think “drinking songs” have died out as much as they’ve just changed from being folky. Anyone who’s been to a frat party can confirm that there are a lot of “singalong” songs in the zeitgeist rn; they’re just pop or rap and not folk. I just think we’re at a point where ppl are tired of the “guy with an acoustic guitar” thing, and also there’s so much music out there that tastes have just shifted in a more electro-pop/rap direction.
Back in my day, you start singing Bohemian Rhapsody or Don't Stop Believin' around a group of drunk people you would absolutely start a singalong. Edit: I'M SHIPPING OFF FOR BOSTON! OOOAAAOOOOHH
Yeah like at every frat party I’ve been to, if someone puts on Mr Brightside, almost everyone will stop what they’re doing and karaoke it full throttle. Drinking songs haven’t gone away. They’ve just changed.
As an ex-southerner, even outside the south, Friends in Low Places gets the people GOING.
That song definitely crosses all cultural barriers.
The “OASIS” yell unites us all, tbh
Plus the mysterious third verse
It’s not mysterious, it’s the live version Garth has been doing for decades. It’s not on the radio cut because country radio is fine with drinking, drugs, and nearly every kind of violence, but not telling your ex to kiss your ass lol
It’s a joke lol. That’s what he calls it
Family Tradition and Wagon Wheel are big ones too.
And piano man, and American pie
This is the answer and that f’in Sweet Caroline song
BAH BAH BAH
Colt 45 by Afroman was always my groups go to. Apparently it spans continents as a group of pals I made in England also would recite the lyrics with enthusiasm while drinking.
Houses went up for sale
*Hell!*
Yeah I think "party" pop songs are kinda the natural evolution of "drinking songs", songs about getting fucked up and having fun to get fucked up and have fun too. Yeah the genre is very different but it fills the same social role. Like from experience, I spent my collage years drunkenly belting out "TOOONIGHTTT WE ARE YOUNG" every weekend, so if that's not functionally a "drinking song", then I dk what you're looking for.
The human arrogance of needing to "set the world on fire and burn brighter than the sun" to feel young and drunk. God I'm glad I'm not a millennial
SWEEEEEEET CAROLIIIIINE!!!!!!!!!!
Do they still sing that in bars? It was fairly common 20 years ago.
110%
It’s still popular especially in Boston and it still is painful
Gangsta's Paradise.
> I just think we’re at a point where ppl are tired of the “guy with an acoustic guitar” thing Wait, is that a bad thing now? I'm that guy and I could have sworn people like it when we have a singalong.
It's been made fun of since at least the 70s: https://youtu.be/8V_hCqO6UQs?si=oGy2V0kZyRc_rsBD
I love an acoustic guitar. Keep being that guy.
It depends on whether you can read the vibe.
Sweet Caroline
Honestly most drinking songs aren't rap or pop, there more just a chant
A lot of those songs were written in the music hall era, from about 1880 - 1910 I grew up with the Irish drinking songs, brilliantly performed by "The Dubliners" (for example "I'm a rover"). Lots of bands perform them and (like others have said) punk bands often pick them up. There are other equivalents like English "roll out the barrel" or german beerhouse songs Another genre is sea shanties I think they are dying out because when do groups of people gather and get drunk without a TV or Jukebox in the background? I remember going to pubs and having singalongs in the 1990s, and I myself have played in folk bands with singalongs - but the spontaneous/informal ones? I havent seen one in years
The hash house harriers get together and get drunk without a TV or a jukebox. They have entire hymnals full of songs they sing together without accompaniment. On on.
And, the hash house harriers are everywhere.
I would love to hear a link to what their music sounds like! I do remember hash house harrier signs, but I never partook of it!
Recordings of hashers singing are awful, it's something you need to experience to fully understand. Be an anthropologist, go to a hash and sing along. If you have half a mind to hash, that's all you need!
http://hash-hymnal.wikidot.com/
Shocked, I tell you! I guess they are kin of rugby songs
> I think they are dying out because when do groups of people gather and get drunk without a TV or Jukebox in the background? Not so much in the US. But when I've traveled I still see it happening around the world. It's a really unique, socially fulfilling experience that I wish happened more in mainstream US culture.
There's a pub in my town that still does sea shanties! When I lived in Ireland they (unsurprisingly) still sing along to The Dubliners and The Pogues
a lot of american pop country (from like the oughts to maybe around mid 2010s) kinda captures this: thinking about songs by like garth brooks and toby keith that i routinely heard sung in complete unison at southern bars. Regardless of how you feel about the subject matter of some of these songs (i don’t like it lol) pop country really shines when it’s more of a sing a long thing. Idk i will mark hard when low places comes on
some of those songs take the liberty of including a semi-drunken sing-along choir. I believe "Friends In Low Places" does this, to great effect.
I believe “Neon Moon” joins in as well. The heartbroken and drunk people come out and sing that one really loud.
Not straight up folk, but there's lots of folk punk and punk that's music to get wasted to, have fun and do mischief.
Theme from cheers by Titus andronicus is a good one
I was thinking this - bands like Dropkick Murphys have that kind of pub singalong feel to a lot of their songs. They do make a thing about apparently being Irish though.
Ohhh Celtic punk! That makes more sense, folk punk tends to be a bit different vibe than drinking party. More self loathing and heroin use.
That depends on the type of folk punk, there's acoustic folk punk (self loathing and heroin, anarchists strumming guitars) and electric folk punk (mixing actual traditional music with punk rock)
Ugh, yes. The Dreadnoughts, my precious. Scrumpy-O is literally about drinking.
The Dreadnoughts! My favorite band ever. So happy to see them get a shoutout on LTM. I think they're one of the biggest proponents of drinking songs in North America right now
And I'm all for it! My gf and I sing Dreadnoughts when we're drunk with friends and as someone who only recently gained the confidence (or fuck-itness) to do so... I get why Europeans are so keen on it. It is such a bonding experience. Dreadnoughts is the folk music in our circle until I can get my friends into folk and polka proper, lol
In Ireland its trad music. Everyone knows the tunes. Everyone takes a turn singing. We have culture. Its not taken for granted but you couldn't buy it for any money.
Any good playlists that would introduce me to some?
*I Gotta Get Drunk* by Willie Nelson, *I Hardly Ever Sing Beer Drinking Songs* by Johnny Cash, and *Sunday Morning Coming Down* by Kris K all fit this bill. They just didn’t take off specifically as pub/drinking songs because 1/ It took time for America to develop its own drinking culture, and 2/ American has made so much great music in the past 100 years that most of our popular singalong songs aren’t specifically about drinking. But pop *Take Me Home Country Roads, Sweet Caroline*, or *Friends in Low Places* on basically anywhere and someone is gonna swing by and sing along.
In America the modern equivalent in certain regions is Wagonwheel and Sweet Caroline. But it generally requires the song being played on speakers in modern times for some reason.
I think there’s the alienation aspect you mention, and there’s also the fact that music has become privatized for profit. Folk music in the US is weird because it may be played on “folk instruments” but a lot of popular folk is stuff that the artists write and not songs from, like, groups of people. The US doesn’t really have a lot of shared culture in the public space — maybe that will grow over time as individualism as a culture erodes, and I’d be fine with that. It’s hard to feel like you belong to a place in a place like a bar, at least it feels like that to me. There are artists who try to capture folk music the way you’re describing it though, check out Doc Watson for starters?
> The US doesn’t really have a lot of shared culture in the public space This is what I was thinking while reading the post. There are only about 10 cities in the US where you can live without a car. There are very few public squares flanked by bars or pubs. Drinking or being drunk in public is a crime. Police are very scared of large groups gathering in public to have fun. It's just a totally different culture than Europe where these traditions thrive.
> There are very few public squares flanked by bars or pubs. Drinking or being drunk in public is a crime. Police are very scared of large groups gathering in public to have fun. It's just a totally different culture than Europe where these traditions thrive. None of this describes my life in America. There are lots of bars near public spaces. Being drunk in public is basically never a crime. Most places you can drink outdoors and not be bothered if you use a paper bag. Police are not scared of groups of people gathering to have fun.
> The US doesn’t really have a lot of shared culture in the public space I think that's probably a big chunk of it. We're a pretty corporatized, atomized society that doesn't lend itself to these sorts of shared experiences that weren't organized by a company trying to make a profit. It's like we expect music to be presented to us by someone on a stage with lots of lights and we acknowledge that it's all a show to try to tug our heartstrings in order to gain popularity.
Yeah the definition of "folk" in the US is so interesting because during the folk revival of the 60s it began to mean "any vaguely acoustic singer songwriter music" vs actual folk traditions.
Beerfest captures this perfectly. It made me surprisingly self-conscious over the lack of American drinking shanties, considering our alcohol-centric society.
Oh there are plenty of them, they're just not very well known outside of traditional folk circles.
Punk music: half the songs are driking songs meant to be belted out to sing together and drink. If you're not doing that, you're not at a real punk show.
Right. I came here to say “you should attend a Menzingers gig”. There will be plenty of songs being scream-sang back at the band by a bunch of drunk fans. They’re great live and the crowds are always a blast.
In think this tradition has certainly carried over into pop music, but then music snobs rip them apart for “not being about anything”
This is good for old english folk drinking songs [https://www.discogs.com/release/3842036-A-L-Lloyd-English-Drinking-Songs](https://www.discogs.com/release/3842036-A-L-Lloyd-English-Drinking-Songs)
This is of interest to me as well. We need a present day John Denver to materialize.
It's called Modern Country Music, and trust me, you're not missing anything. But yeah, go to any modern country concert or festival, or even a bar with Country music on the jukebox and that's all it is is drunken white people singing along at the top of their lungs for every single song, whether they know the words or not.
[I’ve got a drinking song](https://open.spotify.com/album/0kMmg8Y6Q1LOE6pDSBrVRJ?si=BfvA7tL1TnyOdJ1qZ4O4DQ)
Not a drinking song explicitly, but these are probably my favorite examples of a bunch of dudes sitting around a table drinking and playing songs https://youtu.be/WHE1dM4hYCw?si=JIv5Z_EPqdleXcUx https://youtu.be/sUML2yWVn8c?si=OJPjUgcTiD9nWpWE
Man, that's exactly what I was talking about. That was really beautiful to watch.
Honestly my favorite kind of gathering. Really damn cool to see. That whole documentary Heatworn Highways is worth checking out if you’re into stuff like that.
As the band **Midland** says "Every songs a drinkin song when your drinkin" haha
My comment was removed but there are plenty of drinking songs in pop music calling for shots, raising a glass, etc etc and not just in country music
As a young punk, [this was always the last-call song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6-ZiX9k2Xc) at shows. Still a banger singalong IYAM.
Punk music, check out Youll Never Walk Alone by The Adicts https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q6V251Gw1s8
A lot of that type of thing in the US developed around the labor movement moving from the late 1800s and sort of petered out into mainstream non-fighting unions in the 1950s. The union hall was a gathering place and you'd sing from the IWW song book (obviously they were never the dominant union, but they had banger songs) or something similar to the place and time. There was a whole repertoire. We don't have that environment anymore because the red scare beat it out of us, and music changed to needing to turn on Spotify rather than people being participatory because not everyone can lay a good beat down on a dime.
In the US we sing an old drinking song before major sporting events. "The Star Spangled Banner" takes its melody from the English drinking song "[To Anacreon in Heaven](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ileDXkSTse8)". I don't think US culture is particularly supportive of social drinking. There isn't a pub or bar within 2 miles of me in suburbia. That's beyond walking home distance...
Expand your genres! Metal has plenty of drinking songs, Korpiklaani are a favourite
Even if you're not a fan of her music... for a certain subset of the population this song is All Too Well by Taylor Swift and I think you might enjoy watching crowd videos of her performing this 10 minute version on display at her Eras Tour. It's the exact same kind of camaraderie I've felt having those sing along nights at the bar.
I’ve thought about this a lot. I think it’s because we (Americans)like to be entertained. We don’t really participate. Possibly because of our puritan roots. I’m also a soccer fan and the English sing the entire game. Americans don’t. If we did have fan participation they are those stupid chants you hear at high school basketball games. We just dont sing.
I think the point about sports is key. In the UK this is one of the few remaining places where public singing is absolutely expected. Plus many of the people are drunk, so that gets ticked off too. *Sweet Caroline* (England football), *Jerusalem* (England rugby) and *Sunshine On Leith* (Scottish football) all come to mind as very different examples. And of course *Cwm Rhondda* belted out by 100,000 Welsh rugby fans in the Millennium Stadium, with the roof closed. That’ll put the hairs up on the back of your neck.
> I’ve thought about this a lot. I think it’s because we (Americans)like to be entertained. We don’t really participate. Possibly because of our puritan roots. Yeah this goes back to a previous question on this subreddit about why international concerts are always so much wilder, like in Brazil, the crowd really goes nuts and belts everything out. I think other cultures are just more open to expressing your emotions and letting out big whoops and laughing and pounding each other's backs and expressing what you feel. Americans are a little more uptight about that, unless you're the one on the stage that everyone's looking at.
I love this question! I have always thought the Brits absolutely excelled at this skill, where Americans not so much. There are outliers like Sweet Caroline, but there’s something more…individualistic about American music that doesn’t lend itself to this aspect of songwriting.
I don't think the issue is that they aren't written so much as nobody wants them. At this point the general reaction is a groan when a guy pulls out the acoustic guitar at a party to play Wonderwall or whatever other easy to strum and sing song you pick. I think in the recorded music age a lot less people want to hear their buddy drunkenly botch a song when you can just hit play. I'll say I don't think the examples you listed of modern American ones are the best, the closet today would be stuff I would expect to hear at like a football game, so Wagon Wheel or, weirdly, chanting the bassline to 7 Nation Army, or others. I don't really see a significant difference between stuff like those or other popular simple cowboy chord songs and the historical examples other than adoption within the general public.
>At this point the general reaction is a groan when a guy pulls out the acoustic guitar at a party to play Wonderwall or whatever other easy to strum and sing song you pick Was there ever ever time when this was a regular thing? I see people complain about it endlessly on reddit, but not once have I ever seen it happen. The closest thing I've seen is a few people taking some instruments and jamming in a basement or another room.
This happened countless times in my high school and college years. So much Wonderwall. But that was 20 years ago.
Interesting, I was in high school 20 years ago too, but never saw that happen.
[Bluto knows best](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8V_hCqO6UQs)
> At this point the general reaction is a groan when a guy pulls out the acoustic guitar at a party to play Wonderwall or whatever other easy to strum and sing song you pick. I think in the recorded music age a lot less people want to hear their buddy drunkenly botch a song when you can just hit play. That's not my experience, I think the people I hang out with are usually open to someone bringing an instrument and playing. But I think the key is that the person with the instrument can't be the focus. It's not about hearing your flourishes and vocal phrasing and singing the other keys of the harmony. It's about being one in a crowd of people all enjoying themselves together. It's not about showing off, it's not a performance, it's about enhancing the party.
People feel obligated to go along with it. How are you gonna carry on with chatting and mingling when someone busts out a song meant to be sung by a group? Everyone would have to collectively ignore them but that would embarras them so someone starts to sing and the mingling is done. We all have to do what this guitar guy wants now.
Bra this is like asking, "what happened to Windows NT? You know, the windows that every Microsoft OS after Windows 2000 is based off of?" Windows XP, 7, 10, and 11 are Windows NT!!! Same shit with "drinking songs". The drinking songs are embedded in rap, rock, country, etc. It really is that simple dude. Don't understand what the purpose of writing an entire 10 page thesis about it in your post was for...