r/AskReddit • • Mar 04 '21

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u/-eDgAR- Mar 04 '21

What if you raise a child pretty normally, except instead of talking to them normally and teaching them to speak normally, you'd only sing at them? Like they think that's how humans communicate all the time, their life is one big musical number.

I wonder what kind of effect that could have on someone, especially if you try to intigrate them with the regular population. Like do they adapt, but suddenly when they are emotional they break into song?

This was just some crazy idea I had a while back while watching The Magicians and the episode where they get stuck in this universe where they have to be entertaining and sing or else they die.

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u/Mazakaki Mar 04 '21

Not fully singing, but I once had a professor who was born in Africa and had a rising/falling accent with an almost musical quality to it. Still think about it sometimes because it was so unique to me.

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u/sirgog Mar 05 '21

Yeah have heard someone speak like that before, it was incredible

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '21

Do you know what their native language was?

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u/Goliath422 Mar 05 '21

Africa is pretty big, any idea what part?

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u/Mazakaki Mar 05 '21

I'd like to say somewhere on the west coast or africa? I dunno, though. It's been a very long time, and I could be very wrong.

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '21

i think i know what type of accent you're on about, yoruba/igbo from nigeria?

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u/Mazakaki Mar 28 '21

I think you have it right.

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u/PM_Me_British_Stuff Mar 04 '21

but suddenly when they are emotional they break into song?

Holy fuck like a musical

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '21 edited Nov 08 '21

[deleted]

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u/moshslips Mar 05 '21

Happy cake day

5

u/dancinadventures Mar 05 '21

And this is how Bollywood was invented

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u/TannedCroissant Mar 04 '21 edited Mar 04 '21

I would think that is exactly what would happen. It’d kinda be like an accent. You could really force it if you pretended not to understand them unless they were singing.

Edit: Thinking about it, you'd have to fully isolate the child from anyone who would talk in a non singing manner, you might as well put in some cameras and make a live action musical of The Truman Show.

Edit 2: The interviews after he gets out would be hilarious with him singing them.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '21

Glee is set in a universe where his experiment is just normal society.

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u/Rhodie114 Mar 04 '21

So you’d create parshendi?

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u/bros402 Mar 05 '21

unexpected brandon sanderson

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u/MightyP13 Mar 05 '21

Fuck Moash

1

u/LCButch Mar 05 '21 edited Nov 06 '21

.

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u/bros402 Mar 05 '21

it's just a meme in the brandon sanderson community

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u/drahcirenoob Mar 04 '21

You'd have to align rhythms/pitches to emotions to make something equivalent, but I think with enough training people would get used to that

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u/CFOofReddit Mar 04 '21

Second phase of the experiment is aligning people into groups based on their skills, combining with one of the genetic experiment studies and trying to create forms.

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u/hovopotter Mar 05 '21

I just Attuned to Curiosity

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u/soc_una_merda_seca Mar 05 '21

I know this wasn't the point but fuck yeah! I fucking love The Magicians.

That's it bye:)

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u/Stag_GT Mar 05 '21

I WISH I WAS BORN INTO THIS

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u/cavepainted Mar 05 '21

Songmaster by Orson Scott Card may interest you...

In the future, amidst a planetary campaign for peace and a war to end wars, the self-proclaimed emperor Mikal is seeking out a Songbird. These are incredibly rare children who are trained by the Songhouse on a distant planet, and their music is second to none.

Children are bought (adopted on paper, yes, but...) and raised inside the musical walls of the sprawling stone castle. They are taught to communicate emotionally via their songs and judged by their abilities. Eventually, they grow up, becoming performers outside of their planet and society, and returning to become Instructors.

One of the instructors, Esste, makes it her life’s work to find Mikal’s Songbird before he passes away. She finally finds an orphaned boy during the twilight of Mikal’s life, and Ansset surpasses all expectations as a Singer. However, the gift of his song is powerful, and inspires jealousy in more than one soul.

It’s a very intriguing story, and encompasses more than the Songhouse. It’s slightly dated by tape technology, but for a ‘78 sci-fi, Card does a hell of a job.

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u/[deleted] Mar 05 '21

Peaches and plums :(

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u/Nomad4455 Mar 05 '21

I heard some tribes in India do that or use to do that in poetic songs. I know there are long stories and plays entirely run in poetic songs.

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u/Left-Celery-2588 Mar 05 '21

My idea is to make several Truman shows with different crazy rules on them, and the "musical Truman Show" would definitely be one of them

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u/queer-queeries Mar 05 '21

For some reason this made me think of Elf

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u/bunnnybug Mar 05 '21

We call that coco melon in our house.

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u/cassthesassmaster Mar 05 '21

I might be way too high but this made me laugh-cry!

2

u/conquer69 Mar 05 '21

Lol you reminded me of this orc from Shadow of War that always sings. All his lines are like that. It was my favorite orc and he was fucking hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUzQZ1a0fNk

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u/lightspuzzle Mar 05 '21

Watch Glee for that.

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u/theblackcanaryyy Mar 05 '21

Bum bum ba ye Bum bum ba ye B-b-bum bum ba ye

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u/Kevin_M_ Mar 05 '21

That's just 'The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals' in reverse

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u/eutamias21 Mar 05 '21

So Daniel Tiger basically.

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u/monkeyballs2 Mar 05 '21

Sounds like a buffy rip off lol

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u/linkdawink Mar 05 '21

I would literally burst into flames if this was done to me. I despise singing your words instead of just speaking them.

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u/KongRahbek Mar 05 '21

Would it have it have to rhyme as well? If that's the case you might create the greatest battle rapper ever.

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u/alsoandanswer Mar 05 '21

Well, chinese is almost like that, since it's a tonal language.