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Posted

I'm old. But can someone young and smart and good looking becalse explain how the song "Mo Bamba" became a cultural phenomenon?

I thought about posting this on the basketball board but the irony is that this song is going to outlive and be more remembered than anything the actual player and namesake will ever do in his career.

Every football game and event I've gone to in the last few years plays this song and the crowd gets HYPED. No matter what state or college. Even the aggies, who ostensibly will boycot and despise anything to do with has adopted it.

Is there a 30 for 30 someone can direct me to on this? It's truly breaking my brain when you search youtube for Mo Bamba it's compilations of insane crowds like Penn State and Aggy going nuts to the song.

 

 

 

Posted

it's effectiveness results from a blend of music theory and crowd psychology. as someone that spends a lot of time wrapped up in music theory applied to composition and to eliciting emotional responses...it's a bit of a fascinating phenomenon but ultimately, the explanation is pretty simple.

mo bamba is simplicity defined with extreme repetition but built around tension building and anticipation at the very beginning with the high band twinkle melody...getting the crowd primed and lubed up for the drop. using the distorted 808 and ultimately the sub bass at the call and response of the lyric in unison combined with the simplicity creates a visceral shared experience. while i certainly don't think shek was was contemplating this when putting it together, the lyrics and vocal performance are ideal for crowd chanting. simple phrases that are simply sustained for a long time doubled with the sub-bass and not a lot of notes. participatory minimalism...there are three total notes to yell to complete the call and response. effectively, you can just yell it and don't have to sing it.  also, tons of 40-80 hz low frequency emission creates a felt response in the body that gets people's adrenaline up and the sensation is force multiplied when hearing 100K other people going nuts. finally, at this point, it is ubiquitous enough that it has a shared cultural context in which the crowd is sharing the goal-oriented moment.

it will eventually run its course due to overuse. the thing about penn state is they are judicious with its use. they don't play it on every third down like dumbass aggy does. that helps keep some of the hype. that said, the moment its use broke through to become a cultural phenomenon at the beginning of the michigan game should have been a penalty against penn state. once the team is set for play, the piped in music has to stop...they played it for a long time after michigan was set for play.

it is odd but the simplicity combined with a very clever use of sub-bass response creates a frenzy. listen to the below at 0:25...the 40hz is so powerful but it is so low that the official recording can't even pick anything up but distorted mess. meanwhile, all those dumbass white kids were having their nuts and ovaries rattled.

 

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Posted
20 hours ago, sidis said:

it's effectiveness results from a blend of music theory and crowd psychology. as someone that spends a lot of time wrapped up in music theory applied to composition and to eliciting emotional responses...it's a bit of a fascinating phenomenon but ultimately, the explanation is pretty simple.

mo bamba is simplicity defined with extreme repetition but built around tension building and anticipation at the very beginning with the high band twinkle melody...getting the crowd primed and lubed up for the drop. using the distorted 808 and ultimately the sub bass at the call and response of the lyric in unison combined with the simplicity creates a visceral shared experience. while i certainly don't think shek was was contemplating this when putting it together, the lyrics and vocal performance are ideal for crowd chanting. simple phrases that are simply sustained for a long time doubled with the sub-bass and not a lot of notes. participatory minimalism...there are three total notes to yell to complete the call and response. effectively, you can just yell it and don't have to sing it.  also, tons of 40-80 hz low frequency emission creates a felt response in the body that gets people's adrenaline up and the sensation is force multiplied when hearing 100K other people going nuts. finally, at this point, it is ubiquitous enough that it has a shared cultural context in which the crowd is sharing the goal-oriented moment.

it will eventually run its course due to overuse. the thing about penn state is they are judicious with its use. they don't play it on every third down like dumbass aggy does. that helps keep some of the hype. that said, the moment its use broke through to become a cultural phenomenon at the beginning of the michigan game should have been a penalty against penn state. once the team is set for play, the piped in music has to stop...they played it for a long time after michigan was set for play.

it is odd but the simplicity combined with a very clever use of sub-bass response creates a frenzy. listen to the below at 0:25...the 40hz is so powerful but it is so low that the official recording can't even pick anything up but distorted mess. meanwhile, all those dumbass white kids were having their nuts and ovaries rattled.

 

If you didn't use chatgpt for this answer you are a genius. thank you.

Posted
3 hours ago, Vegas64 said:

If you didn't use chatgpt for this answer you are a genius. thank you.

no, i don't utilize chatgpt. knowing your proclivity for using it and the fact that you took the time to start this thread, i would have assumed you already queried it and did not get a satisfying answer anyway.

that said, your question did cause me to play the key elements of the song on the piano to see if there was anything else theory wise that could explain its effectiveness and i am pretty damn sure playing along with it that...to the extent you could say it has a key and mode...it is is in E phrygian. it's key chords are b diminished, g, c, and f. if it was a class pop song, you would replace the bdim with an a minor and you'd have classic happy and resolved sound.

however, the use of that bdim drastically changes everything and basically makes it an E phrygian which is not a very common key/mode signature. the bdim is effectively a vii° leading chord. phrygian is absolutely a go-to mode if you are looking to build obvious tension and darkness. again, i have no idea what thought went into this but purposeful or not, e phrygian is dark stuff.  moreover, on the sung/yelled melody, where it goes from the long sustained "hoes" to "calling," that is a single semitone jump up. that is a class tension and foreboding feeling. think of williams's theme from jaws...same thing.

anyway, all of it ultimately contributes to a vibe. gets boring quick though just listening to it as music...as does a lot of effective "stadium hype music."

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