The Most Popular Song In The World

EPISODE #46

The Nokia ringtone used to be heard more than a billion times per day, making it one of the most popular songs in the world. We tend to consider cellphone rings as somewhat antithetical to music. There is a whole subset of YouTube videos dedicated to the perverse thrill of watching a delicately beautiful musical moment ruined by the harsh cry of a default ringtone. In this episode, we zoom in on one of these annoying melodies to see if there’s not some hidden musical craft present in the ubiquitous bleeps and bloops that envelop us. Later, Charlie shares a piece made solely of this sonic detritus, and a data scientist locates surprising musical patterns in a most unexpected source.

Redaction: An earlier edit of this show made in insensitive and inappropriate quip about an act of war, which we have removed. We apologize to our listeners.

MORE

Jonathan Berger’s Article in Nautlius: How Music Hijacks our Perception of Time

Famous Cell Phone Rings Played on the Piano by Tony Ann

Greg Hochmuth‘s work

SONGS DISCUSSED

The Nokia Tune

The Beatles – She’s So Heavy

One Direction – Live While We’re Young

Francisco Tarrega – Gran Vals

Charlie Harding – Bowl Arrow