Pop Culture

A dissection of whale social norms applying theories of Ethnomusicology to argue whale songs as a
social and cultural tool.

Despite being known for its calming properties, the discovery of baleen whale songs was actually a result of political conflict.  During a military research mission in Bermuda where American engineers were sent to record underwater sounds to locate Russian submarines, biologist Roger Payne was called to identify a mysterious muffled noise that continued through many of their recordings. Upon recognizing these calls as whale sounds, Payne returned to the United States to continue studying these audio recordings. After extensively re-listening to his recordings, Payne and his zoologist wife, Katy Payne, discovered that whales were able to cyclically repeat the exact patterns and melody of their calls–thus the term ‘whale song’ was coined. By 1970, Payne had produced a hit album, Songs of the Humpback Whale, which remains foundational to both today’s understanding of marine sciences and non-human culture. 

Before Payne’s contribution in the 1960s, marine scientists understood whale calls as simple expressions that held no significance. As whales don’t possess vocal chords, scientists felt safe to conclude that whales therefore do not communicate vocally. Later research that followed Payne’s contrastingly determined that baleen whale songs are one of the most complex animal communication systems known to humankind–making them the ultimate composers of the animal kingdom. It’s hypothesized that baleen whales possess a distinct organ–the U-fold–that allows them to create vocal vibrations similar to human choirs without having to exhale underwater. Despite the differences in our vocal mechanisms, humans and whales both have a popular music culture. Within entire populations of male humpback whales, there exists song revolutions in which one song will continuously be sung by that population until a more novel song re-initiates the revolution This cultural exchange between the widespread population of humpback whales can be traced eastward between the West Australian population to those in French Polynesia (Allen). Due to the immense accuracy of these transmitted song patterns, it’s speculated that these social learning behaviours primarily occur at points of significant acoustic contact such as feeding grounds or migration routes (Allen). Alan P. Merriam’s Anthropology of Music can therefore be used as a tool to understand this species and further expand beyond our understanding of non-human cultures. At first glance, it’s easy to think about the absurdity of ‘whale culture’ given our opposable thumbs and ability to form languages and speech. However, this ability to mimic complex patterns and notes is evidence of social learning within baleen whales–which is similar to how humans pass on their culture. 

While there are many theories as to why whales can sing, there has yet to be a definitive answer–however, it is speculated that they serve many functions. Although Alan P. Merriam originally wrote Anthropology of Music to help us better understand music within a human context, we're also able to apply his theories of music uses and functions in ethnomusicology to better understand our aquatic mammal counterparts. Marine biologists have been able to determine correlations between whale migration patterns and their vocal behaviours–indicating transitions from their feeding grounds to where they breed. Whales who were feeding tended to sing during the night time whereas migrating whales sang during the day (Oestreich). If humans are able to use these patterns to determine the migratory patterns of whales, we can thus infer that whales are also able to learn about the norms of their society via music. Agreeing with Merriam’s consideration of music as a “function to enforce conformity to societal norms”, we can understand whale songs as a practice of guiding other members of their pods through their migratory route in the dark ocean. Whales’ use of song to communicate their actions and migratory status is comparable to how human parents will often use songs to help teach their children things they’re expected to know in order to function in society. Just as we use the alphabet song to ensure children are able to read to aid survival in human society, we can deduct that whales may sing to help their children understand things that will help their survival. Across both species, these functions of songs facilitate harmonious living within a community that better their respective chances of survival and reproduction. 

Furthermore, whale songs also have the “function of contributing to the integration of society” (Merriam 226) in a literal sense. As social creatures, whales tend to travel in ‘pods’–consisting primarily of males and one female–that allow males to join via a musical audition (Dunlop). If a male baleen whale would like to join the group, the newcomer will approach and join the pod while singing. Then once a whale begins to sing as a signal to join a pod, it is expected to continue singing after it has been allowed in. It is yet unclear whether the singing is directed solely at males or females but it is believed that whales will sing before an audience for multiple reasons. If determined that the targeted audience pod is ideal–in which there is not a strong presence of male competition already in the pod or nearby–males sing to emit a breeding signal in the presence of their female counterparts (Janik). Similar to buskers, whales have to understand the ideal conditions to perform depending on their audience and environment to optimize their chances of survival. Whales can monitor their environment before making ‘vocal decisions’–refusing to sing if they're aware of other potential performers nearby to avoid disclosing information and display themselves to unwanted bystanders. It’s also arguable that within this audition process, music is also used to evoke a physical response from its audience. Whales within a pod then decide as to whether this newcomer should be allowed to join their society, as well as whether the female of the pod is willing to reproduce with her suitor. If the pod agrees to allow the newcomer, the physical action of making space in their pod is evoked. Again, as the buskers of the ocean, whales are made to sing for their reproductive security.  

Like much human-made music, whale songs can also be employed to “communicate direct information to who understands the language in which it is couched” (Merriam 223).  While Merriam states that the function of communication is the least understood purpose of music, it is in whales that we can fully grasp this capability in songs. Another manner in which whale songs have social implications is through the function of self-expression–the communication of one’s identity and personality.  Within each mainstream song revolution, individual whales will form their variations of the song based on their response to local conditions and genetic predispositions. Another recent study suggests that whales are capable of changing songs within their conformity to create distinctive patterns that function as a method of conveying individual qualities to advertise themselves as potential mating partners (Lamoni). 

Other functions of whale songs can be studied through humans–starting with the father of whale research–Roger Payne. With Humpback whales becoming heavily endangered during the mid-1960s due to heavy whaling practices, Payne was determined to help this dwindling population flourish once more with the help of musicians and human empathy. Payne stated his primary goal was to “build [whale songs] into human culture” (May), encouraging all artists to work with his recordings however they pleased so long as it made people empathize with these large mammals enough to help save them. Payne pioneered the anti-whaling movement by finding a way to connect humans and whales using emotion. Despite the lack of lyrics and our human mind’s inability to comprehend the structure and logic of whale songs, they are still able to serve as a function of emotional expression. Although whales themselves do not produce these songs to evoke emotions, Payne had initiated a cross-species cultural transmission in which he took advantage of the emotional appeal that whale songs have to humans. He leveraged our human ability to empathize to further transform the purpose of whale songs into something that inspired compassion and action–leading to the anti-whaling movement in the late 20th century.. Payne’s  ability to get humans to ‘humanize’ whales–that is view them as living creatures worthy of having a safe home–is a cultural phenomenon that once again challenges human understanding of what music is. Payne’s conservational work is an excellent example of music functioning as a symbolic representation. These audio recordings of whale songs continue to serve as a reminder of human self-importance and symbolize the underwater lives we have taken for the sake of our pleasure solely since they don’t fit our standards of intellect.

Considering the diversity behind the various uses and functions of whale songs across species, we must reevaluate our understanding of ‘culture’. From serving basic biological communication strategies to helping upkeep societal norms, the music of the whales should be considered to have as much cultural importance as traditional human music within their respective cultures. Popular definitions of culture continue to be centered around humans by including concepts such as race and religion. It prioritizes collective human capabilities as the defining factor for cultural transmission yet whales have been capable of the same practices far beyond human understanding. These magnificent creatures have paved the way for humans to understand the world beyond themselves. Whale songs have had a bigger impact on human culture than humans have had on whale culture. Each new study done on whales reveals to us the formidable intellectual capabilities of these mammals–yet we continue to claim that humans are the only creatures capable of building culture. Merriam claims that music is not universal–yet cetacean music has transcended the boundaries of race and speciation in a manner that human music can only ever dream of achieving.

References

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Allen, Jenny A., et al. "Song Complexity is Maintained during Inter-Population Cultural 

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Janik, Vincent M. “Whale Song.” Current Biology, vol. 19, no. 3, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.11.026. 

Oestreich, William K., et al. “Animal-Borne Metrics Enable Acoustic Detection of Blue Whale
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May, Michael. “Recordings That Made Waves: The Songs That Saved the Whales.” NPR.org, 26
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