<p>Since the second season of the hit American black comedy-drama ‘The White Lotus’ dropped last October, remixes of the theme song ‘Renaissance’ haven’t died down.</p>.<p>Its oscillating harp notes have spread across SoundCloud and TikTok, in the EDM community, and at clubs and music festivals. Thousands of videos have flooded Twitter and Instagram, with users setting the earworm to their kooky dance moves, frying eggs, and lawn manicuring.</p>.<p>An instrumental, ‘Renaissance’ is a variation on the series’ Season 1 ‘Aloha! — Main Title Theme’, and features drums and bird songs, which won an Emmy for the ‘Best original main title theme music’. ‘Aloha’ had the same choppy melody but it did not take off online or spawn a club following like ‘Renaissance’. What’s different? Viewers found the high-pitched yodelling danceable, and that it climaxes to a throbbing EDM beat.</p>.<p>Edward Venn, a professor of music at Leeds University in England, broke it down for a magazine: “It’s the way that the initial minor chord moves to the major — offering a sense of hope, of respite — only for it to slide back, continually and unstoppably, to the threatening implications of that minor chord.”</p>.<p>It turns out that the operatic discothèque sound bath — punctuated by human screeches — works well. American rapper and ‘Euphoria’ star Dominic Fike closed a set at a music venue with the eerie melody in December, the latest instance of a tune from TV becoming a party staple.</p>.<p>Likewise, American rock band The Killers opened several stadium shows in December with the song, and Dutch DJ Tiësto spinned a mash-up on New Year’s Eve. A music festival in Australia played the song, to which many in the crowd of bucket-hatted revellers tried to vocalise — erm, sing? — along.</p>.<p>A heart-pounding remix of the ululating anthem even made an appearance at the end of a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit, played by the killer robot doll M3GAN from the self-titled movie.</p>.<p>Fist pumps, waving arms and synchronised — or not — flailing limbs seem to be popular dance moves. “It captured the feral nature that’s inside all of us and that especially comes out on the dance floor,” says New York-based DJ Tyler Morris.</p>
<p>Since the second season of the hit American black comedy-drama ‘The White Lotus’ dropped last October, remixes of the theme song ‘Renaissance’ haven’t died down.</p>.<p>Its oscillating harp notes have spread across SoundCloud and TikTok, in the EDM community, and at clubs and music festivals. Thousands of videos have flooded Twitter and Instagram, with users setting the earworm to their kooky dance moves, frying eggs, and lawn manicuring.</p>.<p>An instrumental, ‘Renaissance’ is a variation on the series’ Season 1 ‘Aloha! — Main Title Theme’, and features drums and bird songs, which won an Emmy for the ‘Best original main title theme music’. ‘Aloha’ had the same choppy melody but it did not take off online or spawn a club following like ‘Renaissance’. What’s different? Viewers found the high-pitched yodelling danceable, and that it climaxes to a throbbing EDM beat.</p>.<p>Edward Venn, a professor of music at Leeds University in England, broke it down for a magazine: “It’s the way that the initial minor chord moves to the major — offering a sense of hope, of respite — only for it to slide back, continually and unstoppably, to the threatening implications of that minor chord.”</p>.<p>It turns out that the operatic discothèque sound bath — punctuated by human screeches — works well. American rapper and ‘Euphoria’ star Dominic Fike closed a set at a music venue with the eerie melody in December, the latest instance of a tune from TV becoming a party staple.</p>.<p>Likewise, American rock band The Killers opened several stadium shows in December with the song, and Dutch DJ Tiësto spinned a mash-up on New Year’s Eve. A music festival in Australia played the song, to which many in the crowd of bucket-hatted revellers tried to vocalise — erm, sing? — along.</p>.<p>A heart-pounding remix of the ululating anthem even made an appearance at the end of a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit, played by the killer robot doll M3GAN from the self-titled movie.</p>.<p>Fist pumps, waving arms and synchronised — or not — flailing limbs seem to be popular dance moves. “It captured the feral nature that’s inside all of us and that especially comes out on the dance floor,” says New York-based DJ Tyler Morris.</p>
