The result is hundreds of versions of popular sea shanties with satisfying layers of harmonised voices, sung by people who have never met — and a boost to a genre that was previously relegated to being a niche, even novelty, branch of folk music.
“I hadn’t listened to many sea shanties, and then when that video took off I realised that people actually really liked that kind of music, and I found I enjoyed doing them,†he said.
Arguably, both the biggest instigator and beneficiary of this trend is the Bristol band the Longest Johns, who are veterans of the sea shanty game, having formed in 2013.
But in late 2020, after the Longest Johns allowed Twitch streamers to use their music free of charge in the background of their streams, one song in particular exploded.
The Wellerman, a sea shanty originally from New Zealand, is currently No 5 in the world and no 2 in the US on Spotify’s viral chart, a list that takes into account listens and shares.
Even more impressively, on Wednesday the Longest Johns’ version of The Wellerman entered Spotify’s top 200 most-streamed songs in the entire US.
His 43-second video, singing along to the Longest Johns’ version of The Wellerman in the car with his 21-year-old brother Frank, charts the sincere emotional trajectory familiar to new sea shanty fans and has had tens of millions of views.
The Longest Johns credit the genre’s simplicity and approachability for this.
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