Tom: Wait, the Proclaimers? Those Proclaimers? Yes. Lead single off their ninth album. The trouble is, no matter whatever they try, after 500 Miles they’re always going to get filed under “novelty song”. And this is…
Tom: …yep, it’s a novelty song.
Tim: You sure about that? They’ll always be ‘those guys that did 500 miles’, but this is a perfectly competent song, no?
Tom: It’s in waltz time. It includes the lyric “let me donate something to a kids’ charity… of your choice”. Sorry, Proclaimers. But with those lyrics, those accents, and that instrumentation… no matter what you’re aiming for, and what your fans think, the rest of the public is going to go – in order – “wait, they’re still going?” and “that’s a novelty song” and “they must be hard up”.
Tim: So you reckon it’s down to public opinion whether a song is a novelty or not?
Tom: Hm. I had to think about that, but yes I do. And songs can move into that category as well, despite being serious when they were released.
Tim: Because I’d disagree – it might get (unfairly) filed under ‘cheese’ by a lot of people, but I think novelty on its own is— actually, I think we’re just getting into semantics here.
Tom: Okay, here’s a definition for you: “for the general public, it’s only going to get played at weddings and kids’ parties”. I’d be surprised if this falls outside that definition.
Tim: It’s probably not what most people would call ‘decent music’ (and by most people I mean the sort of people that generally disagree with us about music), but that doesn’t make it novelty. And now that’s a word that’s started to lose all meaning.