# New age music with whale songs - what's the deal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 19, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309 "2006-08-19T02:55:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/1 "2006-08-19T02:55:57Z")
If I’m stuck someplace where new agey music is playing, one thing I’ve always noticed about that genre of music is that so many songs seem to have random whale sounds in it. What’s the deal with that? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/2 "2006-08-19T03:20:15Z")
Cheaper to get whale samples than a theremin player? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/3 "2006-08-19T03:38:48Z")
Well, firstly, ASCAP doesn’t represent cetaceans, so no royalties. It’s bigotry, pure and simple, but whaddayagonnado? More seriously, New Age philosophy tends to consider whales as gentle giant shamans of the ocean with Much To Teach Humanity. Yeah, it sounds like bullshit to me, too. But again, whaddayagonnado? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/4 "2006-08-19T04:47:27Z")
If I may be allowed a bit of a hijack, is there a law somewhere that says that every pop/rock song made in the last ten years must contain at least one line where the artist stops singing and simply screams the line out at the top of his lungs? It’s usually near the end, and it drives me crazy because it never sounds good. It’s like there’s some Official Checklist for Modern Rock Songs, and one of the items on that list is “angst-ridden shouting,” and God help you if you don’t shoehorn that in somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/5 "2006-08-19T04:54:26Z")
How old is New Age, anyway? Judy Collins released _Whales and Nightingales_ in 1971. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/6 "2006-08-19T05:31:14Z")
Nothing to add to this thread except that I had a friend whose son used to sing along to whale songs. You can talk all you want about unusual cover artists - but you ain’t heard nothing until you’ve heard a four year old trying to imitate a whale. ---
**Author:** ![Tully\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@Tully\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tully_Mars)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/7 "2006-08-19T13:30:39Z")
Way back when, about 1985, I was attending UTA (University of Texas, Arlington) which had a serious parking problem. To work around the problem, they provide shuttle busses to and from remote parking lots. One of the shuttle bus drivers played, endlessly, a cassette of whale noises. It was hard not to laugh out loud at first. After several trips, I wanted groan along with the whales. Thank goodness it was a short trip. Another jab a new age music: What’s up with the Native American flute thing? During a trip to Mesa Verde years ago, I noticed that all of the souvenier shops were playing this haunting, breathy, no-form flute thing in the background. It was also in all of the video narratives. I took a few yoga classes and the Native American flute pervades yoga music. It seems this sound is used anytime someone wants to invoke images of the “Native American at one with Mother Earth” myth. I can visualize an Anasazi time traveling to the present and hearing that damned flute and saying (in Anasazi, of course), “What the hell is that damned racket?” This thread also reminds me of a tired old joke: Do you know what you get when you play new age music backwards? … … New age music. ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/8 "2006-08-19T14:22:39Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Nothing to add to this thread except that I had a friend whose son used to sing along to whale songs. You can talk all you want about unusual cover artists - but you ain’t heard nothing until you’ve heard a four year old trying to imitate a whale. [/QUOTE] Did it involve gurgling from glass of whater? Accompanying a tape playing whale calls? 'Cause I’d pay to see that. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/9 "2006-08-19T19:23:15Z")
I knew a guy who used to play whale songs on a guitar with a violin bow. Sounded JUST like them. It was eerie. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/10 "2006-08-19T19:28:00Z")
It’s this guy: [http://www.scotthuckabay.com](http://www.scotthuckabay.com) I don’t see any of his older stuff on there… I remember him sitting in my living room jamming out on his guitar in his own world back in… probably… 1991 or 1992. I don’t know if his newer stuff has the whale stuff in it or not. His bio has this in it: "Scott attributes his incredible healing to this new music and to a year spent swimming with wild dolphins and whales, his Angels of the Sea. " ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/11 "2006-08-20T18:00:15Z")
[QUOTE=Tully Mars] Another jab a new age music: What’s up with the Native American flute thing? During a trip to Mesa Verde years ago, I noticed that all of the souvenier shops were playing this haunting, breathy, no-form flute thing in the background. It was also in all of the video narratives. I took a few yoga classes and the Native American flute pervades yoga music. It seems this sound is used anytime someone wants to invoke images of the “Native American at one with Mother Earth” myth. I can visualize an Anasazi time traveling to the present and hearing that damned flute and saying (in Anasazi, of course), “What the hell is that damned racket?” [/QUOTE] I heard that shit everywhere when I lived in New Mexico. I’ve even seen Gorham-ish art posters depicting Native Americans sitting at the edge of a mesa or the top of a mountain or someplace like that, all alone, playing a flute. Bonus points if a howling coyote or saguro is depicted anywhere. No-form is right; it just seems like random tooting and warbling. I guess it’s good for meditation, though, preferably if you’re perched at the edge of a mesa. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/12 "2006-08-20T18:23:28Z")
[Ultimate new age song?](http://www.mooload.com/new/file.php?file=files/200806/1156098128/ultimate_new_age_song.mp3) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/13 "2006-08-20T19:23:26Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] More seriously, New Age philosophy tends to consider whales as gentle giant shamans of the ocean with Much To Teach Humanity. [/QUOTE] Especially if you want to know where all the Krill are. This may be a big downer for the ‘gentle shamans of the deep’ theory: [Dolphins are Stupid](http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7FF1A9D2-FEEB-4340-A0DA-DE92AF6C49EC.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-age-music-with-whale-songs-whats-the-deal/369309/14 "2006-08-20T19:59:49Z")
I once heard some folk-singer or other (Judy Collins? Might have been) sing a whaling song a capella… except for a recording of whale song in the background. I think she missed the point, somehow.