Nonsense song

A nonsense song is a type of song written mainly for the purpose of entertainment using nonsense syllables at least in the chorus. Such a song generally has a simple melody and a quick (or fairly quick) tempo.[1]

History

The roots of this song type can be traced as far back as "Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me" and "Jimmy Crack Corn" to the 1890s "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay". This last was a kind of can-can with an obvious accent on the "boom." Mostly it was a way of letting off steam.

Every era has had its own nonsense songs. The turn of the 20th century had "Row, Row, Row", with lines like:

And then he'd row, row, row,
A little further he would row,
Oh, oh, oh, oh,
And then he'd drop both his oars,
Take a few more encores
And then he'd row, row, row.

The jazz age created many nonsense songs, such as "Ja-Da".

Ja-da, ja-da
Ja-da, ja-da, jig, jig, jig[1]

Examples

See also

References
  1. Citron, Stephen (1998). Song Writing. Limelight: New York.
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