# Sea shanties and waulking songs—is there a more genereal term?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-and-waulking-songs-is-there-a-more-genereal-term/718081>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 20, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-and-waulking-songs-is-there-a-more-genereal-term/718081 "2015-04-20T00:56:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CoastalMaineiac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CoastalMaineiac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoastalMaineiac)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-and-waulking-songs-is-there-a-more-genereal-term/718081/1 "2015-04-20T00:56:26Z")

</div>

These are both types of songs that were sung primarily to keep people in time with each other while working. For example: pulling up a heavy ship’s anchor is much easier if everyone pulls at the same time.

Is there a general name for a such a song? If I’m not working on a ship or making cloth, but need workers’ movements to be in synch, what do I call the type of song?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-and-waulking-songs-is-there-a-more-genereal-term/718081/2 "2015-04-20T01:01:17Z")

</div>

[Work songs.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_song) Slaves in the South had them when they were working the fields, and it looks like other songs of the genre date back to prehistory.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sea-shanties-and-waulking-songs-is-there-a-more-genereal-term/718081/3 "2015-04-20T01:09:03Z")

</div>

Wikipedia lists 7 sub-categories of work music:

> **[Category:Work music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Work_music)**
>
> This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total.
> The following 12 pages are in this category, out of 12 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.