We now find ourselves in the blustering middle of October, which means that, if you are a student, you are now well and truly in the flow of studying, reading, writing and crying on a daily basis. Freshers week is far behind you and it’s time to nail down some of those wavy conversations outside the kebabby at 3am into actual functioning friendships. This is a particularly pressing matter for those just arriving at university, but whether you’re a fresher or a post-grad, there are people to meet and you’ve gotta go meet them. So, you walk confidently into some social gathering full of these new people and you are armed with the holy trinity of icebreakers:
- What is your name?
- Where are you from?
- (The kicker) What are you studying?
(Image: student-rag.co.uk)
However, as many of us have found out, this tri-force will only take you so far. They are not open-ended. They provoke very little discussion and generate very few follow-up questions. So where do we go from here? We turn to what I consider to be the God of all icebreakers:
“Is there a difference between a ‘banger’ and a ‘tune’? If so, what do you think it is?”
At first glance this may seem like a joke, a trap perhaps, but I can assure you that this question will draw a different answer from every person you ask, and it will spark some really lively discussions. People around you will start to swivel themselves towards your conversation because of how God damn interesting you are. Because, really, what is it that makes us respond to a good song by pointing our index finger upwards, nodding our heads and saying ‘ahhh banger’ or ‘ahhh tune’?
To demonstrate how conversations on this query could go, here are some responses I’ve had from people I have met in my first two weeks at university:
Chloe, who lives across the hall from me, said “so to me, a banger is a song that everyone can get down to and everyone sings along to, whereas a tune is something way more personal.”
(Image: 10best.com)
Alright. Cool. So in this sense, the banger (or bangerism) is something created by mass social approval, but tunehood is totally subjective and whether a song is a tune or not is relative to each person. Chloe has provided us with an excellent and intriguing starting point, but we still lack solid criteria, something we can measure or test, to settle this debate once and for all.
An idea for said criteria comes from former music journalist Ross, who elaborates that “the term ‘tune’ is normally used with songs that are either new or [that you’ve] just found, but a ‘banger’ is like one you know well but’s still f***ing sound”.
Okay. So NOW we have something to measure: time. Ross’ suggestion follows on from Chloe’s idea that what makes a song good is one’s own personal response to it, but Ross proposes that songs can be categorised into tunes and bangers based on their age. Like cheese, songs change and improve as they get older. So a Rossian take on the conundrum could mean that tunes are like red leicester and bangers are like Cathedral City extra-mature cheddar. Maybe?
(Image: splendidtable.org)
While Ross expands no more on exactly what he means by “f***ing sound”, Creative Writing MA student Alex Smith wrote to me passionately:
“A banger: it’s 2am, you’re sitting in a bar, you should’ve gone to the club an hour ago but you didn’t and now it’s too late, you sat down a while ago and you aren’t planning on getting up again until you leave, which will probably be soon because you’re bored and tired and full of regret. But then a BANGER comes on and suddenly you’re like “damn, this is a banger,” and you get this sudden rush of energy for the duration of the song and you’re back on your feet going wild.
A tune: you’re lying in bed, music on your speakers, just a normal night not much going on, you’ll probably turn the music off and go to sleep soon, and then a TUNE comes on and you’re like ‘damn, this is a tune,’ and you don’t get up or even move necessarily but you do get a powerful flush of positives vibes and good feelings that stays with you for the song’s entirety.”
(Image: alamy.com)
So according to Mr. Smith, the difference depends on both the circumstance in which the song is being played and your emotional, and perhaps even physical response to it. For Alex, both bangers and tunes can only appear in times of hardship or deflation. Alex’s definition flows into a follow-up question of what it is that causes this “sudden rush of energy”; is there something neurological at play here? Can science give us the answers we seek?
And what about the actual music components of the song? Is there some specific type of formula, some kind of secret melody, rhythm or instrumentation that can make a track either a banger of a tune?
This is not for me to decide. The point of this article was not to find a definitive answer, merely to demonstrate just how stimulating this topic can be. It is an icebreaker which everyone can sink their teeth into. And, of course, this does not only apply to students, but to everyone, whether you’re getting coffee in the break room, sitting down for a family dinner, or just waiting for the bus with total strangers.
Try it! Try it and observe what kind of beautiful Frankenstein of a conversation can form out of it, and when (and only when) the group feels they have settled on their two definitions, ask them what constitutes a banging tune. Good luck!