Music of Halloween

Songs for the dead

Feature 1

October in the United States usually means it’s time to cover the yard in stretched out cotton, put bedsheets on the bushes, and fake your own death with a personalized headstone on the front lawn.  Candy must be purchased, lanterns must be jacked, and lives must be lost.  This whole thing is about dead people, isn’t it?

              Well, mostly.   It’s also about music.  Halloween and Christmas are two holidays in the United States that share more then just a Tim Burton movie.  They also share the unique position of having a musical heritage, mostly developed as a result of American commercialism.  They also both share religious and pagan roots, involve door to door performance, and were first Christianized, then secularized, (in some cases, re-secularized) as a way to expand accessibility.

Many October celebrations enjoy a specific connection to music as an important part of the ceremonial components of their heritage.  For those specific to the United States, this isn’t really the case.  That doesn’t mean music doesn’t have a connection to American holidays- it simply means that the music isn’t as unique to the theme as it is with Halloween.  The 4th of July, Memorial Day, Presidents Day- even Labor Day and Thanksgiving don’t really have a musical heritage beyond maybe the National Anthem. Even Easter, another arguably Christianized pagan holiday, doesn’t really have an anthem. Christmas, on the other hand, has so much music that we can literally feel the collective nationwide groan emerge from grocery stores across the country once Halloween is over.  The eve of November could really be the last day any of us have before the terror really begins.  Christmas music starts in every retailer in the United States, come the end of October.

Halloween, on the other hand, has a whole different kind of music tradition.  Halloween music is spooky, fun, exciting, thrilling, and generally meant for partying and celebration.  There are plenty of “Top 10 Songs For Your Halloween Party” articles, and most of them aren’t complete without Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett (1962), Thriller by Michael Jackson (1983), and Ghostbusters by the Ray Parker Jr. (1984). The evolution of modern practices associated with Halloween are the result of a long history of honoring seasons, spirits, and the afterlife.  The collective mixing of a variety of cultural practices is impressive, and music has an integral part in its coming of age.

During the 19th century, the immigration to the United States of Irish and Scottish natives gave rise to the celebration of All Hallows Eve.[1] The holiday experienced today has many sources, though the Celtic Samhain ritual is one of the most commonly agreed upon as its root.  There are other proposed theories, though the European origins of the ancient Irish and Scottish cultures are closely aligned to the celebrations that we enjoy now.  Samhain was a celebration that took place during the transition from summer to fall, and was (and is, in many case) practiced by Celtic people living in Ireland from the Iron Age.[2] The ritual involved community gatherings, feasts, sacrifices, and offerings. Tribes would gather around spirit mounds that possessed portals to the afterlife. The Celtic people believed that during this time of the year, the boundaries between the spirit world and the living came down, and often times man interacted with the Gods.  Eriu, The Journal of the School of Irish Learning recounts many of these legends.  One of the most famous in association with Samhain is the Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, where the God Aillen, after lulling the villagers to sleep with music is struck down by the boy-hero Fionn’s spear[3].  As the legend goes, Finn (Fionn) uses the poison on his spear to evade the enchantment of Aillen.  As the God takes their offering and attempts to return to the spirt world, Finn kills them with his spear, and is crowned the leader of the fianna (tribe).

The lyrical poetry, songs, and dance associated with these celebrations were all part of the traditions of communicating with the otherworld. In some instances, the Gods allure or lull their human worshipers with songs, and in others, the Gods are manipulated through the music of humans, only to be betrayed or conquered. In one such tale, during Samhain, Acallam na Senórach ('Colloquy of the Elders') tells how three female werewolves emerge from the cave of Cruachan (an Otherworld portal) each Samhain to kill livestock. When Cas Corach plays his harp, they take on human form, and the fianna warrior Caílte then slays them with a spear.[4] In these early counts of Celtic legend, music is used as an interactive tool with the spirits and Gods.  For the ceremony itself, the performative ritual of story telling through music is a main part of the entertainment to honor, revere, fear, and respect the afterlife and its overlords.

This Celtic celebration was all but unknown to the New World.  When European settlers came to the Americas, the celebrations of Samhain were not part of the holiday practice. Our earliest evidence in the written record of these Celtic ceremonial legends (as of this writing) date back to the 10th century where Old Irish Literature[5] records the practices of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals. As Christianity made its way through the Ireland region, these practices were morphed into Allhallowtide.  This was a Western Christian ceremony that was believed to be formalized by Pope Gregory III (731-741), though in Ireland it wouldn’t be recognized in concurrence with Samhain until the 11th century after Abbot Odilo established it as a day for the monks of Cluny and associated monasteries to pray for the dead.[6] After it was linked with the Christian holiday, it didn’t appear in the Americas until the 18th century, when Scottish and Irish immigrants brought the tradition to the Eastern shores of the United States.

Some of the early celebrations the dead included the act of mumming and guising, which are basically variations of games and costumes that we would recognize in concurrence with the traditions we are familiar with today. Mumming was a costumed public play and guising (much as it sounds) the act of dressing to imitate those in the afterlife. In the 16th century, this involved people going house-to-house in costume (or in disguise), usually reciting verses or songs in exchange for food.[7] While this resemblance to Christmas Caroling is striking, especially as it was in reverence to the Christian saints that had passed on, this performative act of music in connection with Halloween is all but lost.  The “trick or treat” practice that has replaced it has more to do with mischief and mystery than music, though the performative aspect of the activity remains. Participants are still presenting themselves in costume for the entertainment of the host. Music of the ancient practice may have been for the purpose of ceremony, whereas by the 16th century it had become largely convivial and casual. Today, music serves an entirely new role in the celebration of Halloween.

Día de los Muertos:

As the merriment of Halloween emerged in North America, a different ancient ceremony was continuing in the more southern portions of the continent.  In southern Mexico and Central America, the commemoration of the dead had been going on for centuries, dating back to the Aztec Empire, and possibly before.  Dios de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead has been celebrated in America for generations as a way to honor, remember, and embrace lost loved ones. This festive occasion typically occurs over three days (Nov 1st-3rd) and is one of joy- involving offerings, parties, face painting, candle lighting, overnight vigils, and music. Some cultures observe the first day for children who have passed, and the second day for everyone else, culminating on the final day as a collective observance.  The 2017 animated Disney film Coco[8] brought the story of this celebration into the broad public audience, though the Mexican Government had made the day a National Holiday in the 1960s where it began to receive wider public notoriety. Though traditional Mexican music is part of the merriments, more recent reverence for the music itself is prevalent in the festivals that occur world wide as holidays have emerged in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia as the Latin communities in these countries have embraced the tradition. The city of Santa Ana in California in 2002 began celebrating the event honoring Día de Muertos and is widely recognized as the largest in Southern California.[9] Dallas, Texas in 2019 hosted a concert to tell the story of loved ones as they live again in celebration of the holiday. Sam Brukhman, Verdigris Ensemble's of the Arts Mission Oak Cliff artistic director, says:

"It's a beautiful holiday of remembrance and celebration. It presents opportunities both for scared and secular music because it has been intertwined with the church in recent history, but it stems from a secular culture. It's interesting to see how it has evolved over time," Brukhman said. "It's sacred, it's secular, it's ritualistic, it's celebratory."

The long-standing tradition of making music for the dead has been intertwined and an integral part of these cultures existing on nearly opposite sides of the globe.  The Central American Aztecs believed in communicating with the spirits of their ancestors as surly as the Gaelic people of Ireland held similar rituals to communicate with the open portal of the underworld. The music they used is fascinating in that its purpose centered not on entertaining the living, but dancing with the deceased.   With the collision of these cultures in North America, a grand new celebration has grown.  The United States today has a developed its own traditions of singing to the other side.  Beginning in the 1960s, a new path has been carved by way of pop culture for dancing with the afterlife.

A significant part of the story of Halloween for the United States is not invested in the origins of the holiday, but rather, as Nicholas Rogers writes, “…how people have appropriated parts of Halloween’s past in fashioning their own meaning of the holiday.”[10] This is especially true in the case of modern immigration of people who have no personal cultural knowledge of the occasion.  The modern commercialization and secularization of Halloween as compared to its ritualistic roots and pagan origins give the appearance that its American evolutions are unique and of their own creation. Rogers observes the connections to the southern American traditions in Mexico and Central America, commenting,

“The question of how people from diverse cultural backgrounds might handle Halloween is dramatically posed in the American Southwest, where  two different ways of celebrating October 31st and the days that follow confront one another, namely, Halloween and its Mexican counterpart, the Day of the Dead.”[11]

Of the varying contributing factors to the diminution of American reverence of the dead in place of fascination with the supernatural, on might consider the increasing technological advancements in medical science.  Rising lifespans and decreases in infant mortality rates, especially after the discovery of vaccines and penicillin meant that by the early 20th century, death had little dominion over the American public. Día de los Muertos connects with this Americanized mockery of the specter of death in modernity, as represented in the woodcuttings of Jose Luis Guadalupe Posada. Rogers writes, “Posada creates a buoyant urban vernacular art form that satirized Mexican society of the late 19th and early 20th century. On the Day of the Dead, Posada portrayed “vivid and lively skeletons and skulls with grinning teeth, dancing, cycling, playing the guitar, plying their trades, drinking, masquerading,”[12]  Additional pop culture manifestations of the modern relationship with medical science and its advancements emerge in tales like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Mummy.  By the middle of the 20th century, America had developed a much more candid, festive, and defiant relationship with the spirit world.

The Monster Mash:

The packaging, marketing, and commercialization of fear could only be an endeavor of the United States.  Franklin D. Roosevelt famously told the world that “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself,” and the marketplace gave it an advertising campaign and a price tag.  Halloween not only endeared itself to Americas youth in its sense of festivity, costumes, make-believe, and wonder, but the young adults saw it as an outlet for expression and an excuse to party.  The Monster Mash of 1962 was a perfect example of how music was now a primary vehicle for the celebration of the season, ushering its own dance craze.  The Monster Mash came with it a variation of the “mashed potato”, except with outstretched arms in a parody of Frankenstein’s monster.  Written by Bobby “Boris” Pickett, it would become his classic hit and remain a primary part of his musical repertoire throughout his life and much to his amusement.  To his credit, as Drew Millard writes,

“The track was a smash upon its August 1962 release, and charted again in 1970, and 1972. “Monster Mash” is a popular cover song among punk bands, its pre-Beatles grooves and campy horror movie-inspired lyrics hitting the same sweet spots that bands such as Misfits and The Ramones took dead aim at. Meanwhile, it enjoys a perennial presence in film and television, having shown up in the likes of The Simpsons (twice!), Happy Days, True Blood, Cheers, and the films Halloween III and Must Love Dogs. Every October, the song sees a spike in iTunes sales—it reached number 25 on the iTunes sales charts in 2012, and currently sits at #49 on Billboard’s Digital Charts.”[13]

The expressive attitude musically had certainly made a dramatic shift from the lyrical poetry, liturgical recitation, and reverent mysticisms of the earlier culture. The media markets had made it clear: America was ready to face fear, and the music was ready to take it to a party and bob for apples with it while dancing the Transylvania Twist. One of the first live performances of the song was with the then-unknown Beach Boys.  “Monster Mash” had become the anthem for Halloween, and several other artists would follow in its wake to add a new tonality to this annual celebration.  It is hard to imagine a Halloween that doesn’t feature this iconic song.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

Halloween’s cultural impact in the modern era transcends just the conversation with the deceased.  In many ways, American culture has appropriated these conflicts with fear to include not only death, but the concept of exclusion or social invisibility.  Halloween began to be a voice for the socially outcast, persecuted, and strange as a means for expression early in its shifted identity in pop culture.  The Monster Mash’s parody of early horror film expanded the social use value of such caricatures as vehicles for gender expression and sexuality.  In fact, the use of the holiday for parades to celebrate sexual orientation are a predominant part of the San Francisco practices. The Greenwich Village Halloween parade attracts millions of participants and spectators every year and infuses an estimated $60 million into the local economy.[14] In terms of musical celebration for Halloween, this proclivity for the LGBTQ community to have a safe avenue for social expression made some of its early appearances with the Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is based on the 1973 musical comedy, “The Rocky Horror Show”, and for many of all genders, orientations, and identity include it as part of their Halloween traditions.  This shift in the use of Halloween to conduct a conversation with the dead to the ability for voices of a societal caste that is viewed as invisible is a major change and a reflection of the impact of modernity on the holiday. The Rocky Horror Picture Show tells the story of a young couple whose car breaks down in the rain.  The seek refuge in a nearby castle inhabited by Dr. Frank N. Furter, an apparent mad scientist who is also an alien transvestite.  The couple are separately seduced by the doctor and are eventually released by the servants who take control. It’s topical significance in the challenges associated with equality and freedom of expression may be obvious, but the use of music as a primary means to connect it to public audiences is vital. As a result of the popularity rise in music videos, the ability to corroborate music, transsexuality, and amplify the voice of the disenfranchised meets a pinnacle point.  As Dave Thompson writes,

“In 1973, when Dr. Frank-N-Furter first donned his trademark fishnets, corsets, and gorgeous tattoos, and set about building himself the perfect husband, homosexuality had only just been decriminalized in the UK, and was still a   long way from there in almost every other country. And remember, decriminalized (his italics), not legalized.  Meaning, you could no longer be arrested for expressing your love for a same-sex partner. But you did not actually have the right to do so.”[15]

The cultural intersections of Halloween have given a platform for these issues of expression and the Rocky Horror Picture Show remains an early transformation in the musical practices of celebrating Halloween.

Thriller:

Michael Jackson’s 1982 hit “Thriller” is another monumental musical moment for more than just it’s connections to Halloween.  The fact that the theatrical opportunities that evolved with Halloween made it a perfect vehicle for the media accomplishment that Thriller became is telling all by itself.  All of the components of the horror film genre, in connection with the youth culture attraction the celebratory functions of Halloween, and the precipice of art significance that the music video industry was perched upon made Thriller a slam dunk venture for Jackson to make a mark with. This project was the most popular, critically acclaimed music video in history- from which the album would become the highest-selling in music history, with some estimates claiming over 100 million copies sold worldwide.[16] Halloween had shifted from being a seasonal ceremony that connected cultures to the spirit world to the subject matter for a new celebration for facing fears.

Thriller’s accomplishments for the advancement of black people in the music industry was incredible.  In addition to its record-breaking sales, it made huge waves in how stories were told through the medium.  It was nominated for 12 Grammys and won a record 8 and was the first-ever music video added to the Library of Congress National Film registry.  If “Monster Mash” was the initiation of radio pop culture into the American Halloween lexicon, Thriller was its induction into the music video realm of cultural importance. Michael Jackson’s Thriller would be the launching point for many other explorations into the music video as a platform for storytelling, but it’s place in the collective soundtrack for Halloween celebration in the United States is set in stone.

Conclusions:

The cultural practices of Halloween in the early 21st century largely reflect the established mores of the late 1900s.  Though acknowledgements of historical contributions and shifting values in terms of the expression of heritage and integration of celebratory practices may vary, the accepted Halloween tradition still remains as it was at the turn of the millennia.   Children still dress up as vampires, young people still gather for costume parties and dance the night away, and parents still decorate the house, put on spooky atmosphere albums, and nearly go bankrupt buying candy in hopes that they appease the neighborhood house-egging/pumpkin smashers. While playlists add a random newcomer now and again, the “classic” list posted by the majority of sites include 8 out of 10 selections that predate the 1990s.  Oingo Boingo’s 1985 hit, “Dead Man’s Party” is the most modern song on many a suggestion.  United States media outlets are hardly the barometer, and cannot attest for specific preferences, but on a mass appeal, the American tastes for Halloween music expression still seeks to celebrate in the face of fear, rather than appeal to the spirits of the dead. 

The roots of this holiday have surprising connections to religious ceremony from a broad spectrum of human experience.  Cultures throughout the world seems to have a proclivity for communion with those that have passed on.  The enumeration of this communion didn’t fade from cultural norms until medical science had begun to dispel some of the mysteries to longevity.  Perhaps as our lives continue to benefit from the merging of science and superstition, so to will our practices, along with the musical expressions of this long held tradition of spiritual communication.

Bibliography:

·       Rogers, Nicholas (2002). Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, pp. 49–50. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 0195168968.

·       Lang, Cady (2018), What Is Samhain? What to Know About the Ancient Pagan Festival That Came Before Halloween. Time Magazine, https://time.com/5434659/halloween-pagan-origins-in-samhain/

·       Meyer, Kuno (1904), The Boyish Exploits of Finn. P 180, The Journal of the School of Irish Learning, Ed. Kuno Meyer & John Strachan, Vol. I, Part II. Dublin, 1904

·       Dooley, Ann; Roe, Harry, eds. (2005). Tales of the Elders of Ireland: A new translation of Acallam na Senórach. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0199549856.

·       Maureen O'Rourke Murphy, James MacKillop. An Irish Literature Reader. Syracuse University Press. p. 3.

·       Lillie, Eva Louise; Petersen, Nils Holger (1996). Eva Louise Lillie, Nils Holger Petersen (editors), Liturgy and the Arts in the Middle Ages (Museum Tusculanum Press 1996 ISBN 978-87-7289361-7), p. 172. ISBN 9788772893617. Retrieved 30 October 2014.

·       Hutton, Ronald. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press, 1996. pp. 365–369

·       Carolyn Giardina (Dec 2017). 'Coco': How Pixar Brought Its "Day of the Dead" Story to Life https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/coco-how-pixar-brought-day-dead-story-life-1065932

·       Viva la Vida or Noche de Altares? Santa Ana's downtown division fuels dueling Day of the Dead events". The Orange County Register. Archived from the original on November 3, 2015. Retrieved November 2, 2015.

·       Rothenstein, Julian. J.G. Posada Messenger of Mortality. (London Redstone Press, 1989) P187

·       Millard, Drew (Oct 2014), Long Lost Daughters, Beach Boys, and Disco Toilets: The True Story Behind "Monster Mash” Looking at the legacy of Bobby "Boris" Pickett, the man behind "Monster Mash." Noisey, Music by Vice, https://web.archive.org/web/20190510134941if_/https:/www.vice.com/en_us/article/rmm4ar/monster-mash-investigation-2014 

·       Kugelmass, Jack. MASKED CULTURE; the Greenwich Village Halloween parade, (New York 1994)

·       Thompson, Dave. The Rocky Horror Picture Show FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Campy Cult Classic. (Milwaukee, WI 2016)

·       Romano, Aja (Oct 2018) Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is the eternal Halloween bop — and so much more Here are all the things you didn’t know about the 35-year-old scarefest. Vox.com, https://www.vox.com/2018/10/31/18046940/michael-jackson-thriller-facts-trivia-making-of-john-landis

[1] Rogers, Nicholas (2002). Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, pp. 49–50. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 0195168968.

[2] Lang, Cady (2018), What Is Samhain? What to Know About the Ancient Pagan Festival That Came Before Halloween. Time Magazine, https://time.com/5434659/halloween-pagan-origins-in-samhain/

[3] Meyer, Kuno (1904), The Boyish Exploits of Finn. P 180, The Journal of the School of Irish Learning, Ed. Kuno Meyer & John Strachan, Vol. I, Part II. Dublin, 1904

[4] Dooley, Ann; Roe, Harry, eds. (2005). Tales of the Elders of Ireland: A new translation of Acallam na Senórach. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0199549856.

[5]  Maureen O'Rourke Murphy, James MacKillop. An Irish Literature Reader. Syracuse University Press. p. 3.

[6]  Lillie, Eva Louise; Petersen, Nils Holger (1996). Eva Louise Lillie, Nils Holger Petersen (editors), Liturgy and the Arts in the Middle Ages (Museum Tusculanum Press 1996 ISBN 978-87-7289361-7), p. 172. ISBN 9788772893617. Retrieved 30 October 2014.

[7] Hutton, Ronald. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press, 1996. pp. 365–369

[8]  Carolyn Giardina (Dec 2017). 'Coco': How Pixar Brought Its "Day of the Dead" Story to Life https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/coco-how-pixar-brought-day-dead-story-life-1065932

[9] Viva la Vida or Noche de Altares? Santa Ana's downtown division fuels dueling Day of the Dead events". The Orange County Register. Archived from the original on November 3, 2015. Retrieved November 2, 2015.

[10] Rogers, P8

[11] Rogers, P130

[12] Rothenstein, Julian. J.G. Posada Messenger of Mortality. (London Redstone Press, 1989) P187

[13] Millard, Drew (Oct 2014), Long Lost Daughters, Beach Boys, and Disco Toilets: The True Story Behind "Monster Mash” Looking at the legacy of Bobby "Boris" Pickett, the man behind "Monster Mash." Noisey, Music by Vice, https://web.archive.org/web/20190510134941if_/https:/www.vice.com/en_us/article/rmm4ar/monster-mash-investigation-2014

[14] Kugelmass, Jack. MASKED CULTURE; the Greenwich Village Halloween parade, (New York 1994)

[15] Thompson, Dave. The Rocky Horror Picture Show FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Campy Cult Classic. (Milwaukee, WI 2016)

[16] Romano, Aja (Oct 2018) Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is the eternal Halloween bop — and so much more Here are all the things you didn’t know about the 35-year-old scarefest. Vox.com, https://www.vox.com/2018/10/31/18046940/michael-jackson-thriller-facts-trivia-making-of-john-landis