The Slowed Song Trend

I happened to be pursuing through YouTube as I usually do, and I happen to see some recommendations for me. I see this video titled, Meg Myers - Desire (slowed). I originally didn't think anything of it, until more videos like that one popped up on my feed. I finally took a chance on one of them and that was Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness in a slowed version. It was intriguing and entertaining to hear the same song, but altered just slightly to hear Summertime Sadness for the first time again.

This has been an interesting new take of remixing a new or old song to be different. Usually remixes add extra music or track mixing to shake up the song. But this new trend of lowering the pitch of the voice and slowing the song down in verse, it's intriguing. This has been going since mid 2019 and I've only discovered it last week. Now I have a playlist on YouTube and I get to listen to all my favorite songs again for the first time.

This is very unique of a trend to get that first experience of listening to that song all over again. But with the altered vocals and music, there is a different feel to the edits of those songs. Getting to listen to it differently and altered to a different kind of song. For instance, take We Are Young by fun. for this example. It's a song that has the lyrics that place you in some kind of a crowded bar with a pissed off partner. Listening to the slower version, it has a different feel of atmosphere and story. It feels like a party is crashing. These songs can easily be conducted to be an entirely new song, but it's still the same.

The reactions I've read about how people have felt about these "re-verbed" songs has been divided between positive acclaim and jokes. Many of the comments I've read have been meme jokes which of course is OK that it's still a positive reaction to this new trend.

I'll use one of my current favorite slow edited songs as an example for how interesting and diverse this trend is. Before, listening to Nelly Furtado's Say It Right was a hypnotic song about a moving on from a broken relationship. In a way it as already sort a slow song . But listening to it slower, that dimension within the song, is harmonized to the exact criteria of the song. This altered version just hits me right in my soul with that sound that truly enraptures to lose to that love that has soured. Now I'm torn between the original song that I've loved for fourteen years and then how it was crafted to another way to be expressed.

Give it a listen and see for yourself. Really listen to it. It changes the song entirely without changing it too much.

It seems to be a trend that people can participate in. Having a movie maker or sound mixer to change the song. Then after the song is edited, there is a thumbnail made by making their own promo photo for the song. As a homemade alternative album cover of sorts. If you type in a song, any song there is a good chance that someone has taken that song and slowed it down.

The one thing I've enjoyed about the slower songs is the perspective change. There's always the thought about what if the original song could be different? To make an alternative atmosphere. Another example I'll make, a fast pop song like Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan. Originally it has the ambiance of a sassy club song. Listening to the slower version, it feels like something is going wrong in the club or a weird song when the drug haze kicks in kind of a vibe. Killing Butterflies by Lewis Blissett, that was already a sinister song, but by slowing it down, it defiantly feels more malevolent.

There are some songs that I've never really listen to before, never gave time or day to listen to it. As I saw other suggestions for a re-verbed version, I opted to listen to that version are chosen to be re-verbed, now I have a different perspective on a song that I may have not paid attention to and the altered version changed my opinion now that I've heard it slower. Honestly some of the songs I would hear re-verbed and then go to the original, I found myself liking the slower version because I felt it fit better. We all have different tastes, there are some things that we are more inclined to gravitate to for how we like a certain song to go.

I don't know if this new form of music remix is here to stay. Most altered music or remixed music can hold up very steady in relevance or fade out of viral fame. With the positive comments and continuation of the slower songs, it's made a mark with bringing something new to current, past, and forgotten songs. New trends come and go, but this one, I'm glad it was made to have that experience the euphoria of listening to a song for the first time again as with many others getting a different perspective.

This could expand and become a staple in remixing music, we'll just have to find out.

But I don't see this trend slowing down anytime soon.