Just words

Just words, originally uploaded by dbwalker.

Sometimes words have no meaning.

I was listening to a Radiolab episode (WNYC Podcast) that was talking about the world wide popularity of traditional country music. Turns out that the aborigines in Australia's outback have an unquenchable thirst for chortling yodeling country music.

The reasons proffered by the podcast were interesting. As it turns out, the "cry break", the yodel-esq twang that is a signature of country music singing, is a universal sound that strikes a chord in many people, regardless of the meaning of the words in the song.

This sound, said the podcast, evokes a longing for home, a nostalgia for times gone by, a universal plaintiff wail that crosses the lines of language.

You don't need to know the words to know what the song is about.