It used to be in the early 1900s you could turn on the television and find someone playing an accordion almost anywhere. Lawrence Welk and any number of "Variety Hour" shows prominently featured one. Fast forward a couple centuries and now there's not a single accordion to be found in music videos. Why do you think this is?
shareJust remember 4L, we will always have this Nirvana unplugged performance which prominently features use of the accordion
https://youtu.be/bVjeYbRmkQ4?si=rhOIMLRCem5vZn1a
It really did add something to that performance. Accordions are vastly underrepresented in today's world.
shareBecause the accordion is second to the bagpipes in being annoying. OK a distant second, but still...
Seriously though, I Googled "how come no one plays the accordion" and got lots of hits!
Was the accordion itself annoying, or was it the people playing it? It seems like many accordion players wore straw hats and shirts with stripes and kicked their legs around a lot.
shareAnd have a chimp...and no lice-sahns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGb8EKwDkBE
The funniest aspect of that clip was when the blind guy was using his hand to pat down Clouseau to confirm he was a cop and then reached down and felt him between the legs. I almost did a spit take of the 7Up I was drinking!
shareIt plays a big role in southern German, Austrian and northern Italian "Volksmusik" (not sure what the correct English term for it would be, something like "folk music") to this day.
Here's a fun cover version where there is one in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbsEZzgCwmI
Here's a band that has two of them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk_DAtMGg5w
And here's a modern adaptation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naz9ZFUoq68
Okay, that version of Sweet Child o' Mine was wonderfully and unusually awesome. However the completely unrelated lyrics
"Mama's got a squeeze box
She wears on her chest"
... kept going through my mind for some reason.
A common term in colloquial language in German when you want to make fun of the instrument is "Quetschkommode", which literally translates to "squeeze chest".
shareWell, I was referring in part to the singer.
shareI know perfectly well what you were referring to and I had a long list of possible answers in my mind, but then I thought I better not go there.
shareI did notice they stuck the accordion player in the corner. I guess he was just lucky to be there.
shareHe's part of that band, they have other songs where he is more in the front.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3D5yhttEjg
Kids in Bavaria- I love it! They're quite clever. Glad to see the accordion was still going strong as recently as 2021.
shareTrue story. Unfortunately.
My grandfather played the accordion and by all accounts, well.
When I was a child I was given a musical aptitude test of some kind and failed miserably.
I share in the responsibility for the decline the accordion.
I just don't see velour and an accordion pairing well anyway.
shareThis immediately made the think of The The.
https://youtu.be/Nxazmzy0vAo?si=AKPgGL3I9lIjK_T4
When I was a kid the accordion player reminded me of the spooky hearse driver from Burnt Offerings (1976). Lol
I think the accordion adds something to that song. And even though I'm usually quite silly, I'm not being silly right now. I just don't think the singers of today have the nerve to try something as out of the box as the accordion!
share“the accordion adds something to that song”
It certainly does.
Tiens, juste pour toi:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xPvu2Nx38F4&list=PLp9IXJZ4dTRGgj1qL522_otn4dWSSLcar&index=20&pp=iAQB8AUB
Beau! Je pense à la musique française quand je pense à une musique qui fait fortement appel à l'accordéon. Je pense que cela peut paraître nostalgique et beau.
shareLife is very short, and there's no time....
For fussing and fighting my friend. I have always thought.....
Only song I can think of with the accordion.
Wait, I think John Mellencamp has one, too. I can hear it in my head...
Say yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah
Might be called "Cherry Bomb'
Yeah I think you might be right that John Mellencamp has some accordion in his songs. There are probably plenty of older songs with the accordion but it seems to have fallen out a favor these days.
shareI looked it up for fun.
Ok, the first song, I'm sure you knew was The Beatles. "We Can Work it Out" - released in 1965
The second song, by JCM, was in fact "Cherry Bomb". This one was released in 1987.
I don't know of any other songs with the accordion in it.
Maybe it was popular at one time ( I see you mentioned Lawrence Welk).
IN the pop music era though, yeah, seems to have disappeared.
NO idea why.
Admittedly I was being silly in the OP, but it has been cool to see all of the good songs posted here that contain the accordion. 😀
Maybe Taylor Swift needs to make an accordion-heavy album.
My mother used to tell me that she played the accordion while pregnant with me and it supposedly explains my innate sense of rhythm and love of music. And yeah, she was a die hard fan of Lawrence Welk.😁
shareThat's a sweet story. I'm pretty sure Lawrence Welk was on in the background at my grandparents house. I didn't watch it myself but it still represents to me an innocence and nostalgia of times gone by.
shareYou're right about the accordion having really receded into the background.
Here's an obscure and soulful instrument I had never heard of before this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jaGPxHMX1I
Lovely.
It would be interesting to see a list of instruments that were commonly used in popular music between 1900-1980 and then between 1980 and now. When the synthesizer took over I just feel like other instruments may have gradually been discarded. Could be wrong.
One of my favorites of his.
shareMY MOTHER WAS BORN IN 1952....SHE PLAYED THE ACCORDION THROUGHOUT HER YOUTH....AND IMMEDIATELY STOPPED FOREVER WHEN SHE STARTED HIGH SCHOOL.
shareI think it was an instrument that was far more popular in the 1950s and '60s, and sadly probably didn't maintain a reputation for being very "cool" (Weird Al Yankovic's use of it probably eventually furthered that notion) so over time it was phased out. I've been introduced to and reminded of songs that contain the accordion during this thread, and added at just the right moments it can actually be quite lovely.
share