Canon

The Canon is a list of songs that are traditional and played at each dance (or every other dance). The list varies by site.

Sites not listed below may or may not have well-defined Canons. If you know yours, please add it! "American Pie," however is played last at every CTY dance at every site. The only exception involves a new tradition at Skidmore Session 1 in which "I'll Make a Man out of You" is played after Pie at the last dance. Also, some newly established sites, particularly those outside of the United States, tend to fail to play Canon.

Lancaster

At Lancaster, the Canon is divided into two sections: the "Upper Canon," (or "High Holy Canon") which is played at every dance, and the "Lower Canon," half of which is played at each dance (though the Lower Canon is generally not played at the final dance, but is instead played during lunch and dinner (usually a 5/4 split) the day of the final dance). Since Lancaster holds dances every Friday and Saturday, as well as the final Thursday (known canonically as Friday, since Dances can't happen on Thursdays), this means that each Lower Canon song is heard once each weekend.

The playing of the Lower Canon at lunch began in 2004 at the suggestion of RA Jeremy Orosz, who thought this system would allow for a night dance that was not comprised completely of Canon so that less traditional students would have a wider selection of music. In 2006, half the Canon songs were moved to dinner because, due to the staggered lunch schedule, no student would be able to hear all Canon songs just at lunch.

The Upper Canon songs are generally played (nonconsecutively) in the reverse of the order shown here (i.e. "Bizarre Love Triangle" is first). The last four songs of the dance are (in order): "Stairway to Heaven," a non-Canon song (in recent years, this has been "Mr. Brightside"), "Forever Young," and "American Pie."

Upper Canon

• American Pie - Don McLean
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
• Nightswimming - R.E.M.
• Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order

Lower Canon

• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
• Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
• Oh L'Amour - Erasure
• Rock Lobster - The B-52's (Second Session only)
• Dr. Mario - Super Smash Bros. Melee (First Session only)
• James Brown Is Dead - L.A. Style
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• Tunak Tunak Tun - Daler Mehndi
• The Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Sweet Transvestite - The Rocky Horror Picture Show (follows The Time Warp, only on Second Saturday)

History of the Canon

There was a clear Canon at least as early as 1985, which included "Rock Lobster," "The Time Warp," "Shout" (Isley Brothers), "Louie Louie," "Good Lovin'" (Rascals), and -- of course -- "American Pie." By 1988, students expected others certain songs at every dance, too (i.e., "No One is to Blame," "Mony Mony" (Billy Idol), "Boys Don't Cry," "Forever Young," "Summer of '69," "Twist & Shout," "Bizarre Love Triangle"). Though the name of "Canon" had not yet been applied, by the mid-1980's these songs were already being played at virtually every dance.

In 1987 and 1988, a group of RAs mocked these songs, especially "American Pie." Their behavior reached its nadir when, in 88.2, they convinced the RA DJs not to play "American Pie" at all at one of the later dances. Scores of students refused to leave the dance area -- the end of quad in front of the Marshall-Buchanan porch. A student housed in Dubbs turned his stereo speakers to point out his room's windows and played the song as loud as he could. As the students heard this, they moved under his window and sang loud enough to make up for the size of his speakers. In 93.1, the RA DJs again screwed things up by omitting some important songs at a dance on the first weekend. The following Monday, students circulated a petition demanding that the DJs play "Bizarre Love Triangle," "Rock Lobster," "It's the End of the World as We Know It," "Forever Young," and "American Pie" at every remaining dance, without fail. The word "Canon" was still not applied to this list.

Between 1994 and 1995, the Digiclan and LLRT, after lengthy online discussions, finalized the Canon, cutting it down from a list of over 50 songs. By 1996, all of the fourteen modern Canon songs except for "Tunak Tunak Tun" had appeared.

Every few years, there is a vote at Lancaster to put more songs on the Canon. Recent votes (in 2000 and 2003) did not add any new songs, though the High/Low status of some songs slightly changed. A vote 05.2 decided to keep "James Brown Is Dead" as part of the canon and add Daler Mehndi's "Tunak Tunak Tun" to the Canon one year after kids from First Dietz hall made a CTY-Lancaster-specific dance (modeled after Daler Mehndi's music video).

In 08.1, "Rock Lobster" was voted out of the First Session Canon. The next night, "Dr. Mario" was voted into the Lower Canon by a 53% percent majority. The staff confirmed that this vote would only have been conducted had "Rock Lobster" been removed first. However, "Dr. Mario" will be Lower Canon only on a one-year trial basis (another vote will presumably be conducted at the end of 09.1, but this is uncertain). At the last dance of 08.1, "Rock Lobster" was played one final time. Many will mourn its passing. However, "Rock Lobster" remains a part of the Second Session Canon.

Protest Example (05.1)

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/ctylan20051/3f03c748.jpg

Other Songs

Raving is very popular at Lancaster. Aside from "James Brown Is Dead," at least one techno/raving song is played at each dance, often Darude's "Sandstorm" or "Every Time We Touch." During 06.2, a new rule was instated at Lancaster that banned stringraving (and also lying on the ground after dark). This angered some students, especially since nobody was officially told that the PDA rule on hand-holding from the previous session had been lifted. Protests were planned; however, Rachel, then-Jesus, and Alexa, a onemore, worked with the site director to lift the ban. The string raving ban was changed to a restriction: that all raving be done on the hardtop. However, by the following year, the restriction had been lifted or ignored by administration.

Aside from the Canon, commonly played songs/dances include the CTY Shuffle, the Numa Numa Song ("Dragosta Din Tei"), "Cotton-Eyed Joe," the "Cha-Cha Slide," and "Sandstorm."

The song "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers has, since 07.2, almost always been played between Stairway to Heaven and Forever Young, especially in 07.2. Mr. Brightside was commonly accepted to be a slow dance.

For many years, beginning with Amish Dan and later encouraged by Nixon, Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl" was proposed as a canon song, but this vein of thought quickly died after Nixon's departure.

Completely unrelated to Canon, but also very important, is the song "The End of the Tour" which is always the last song played at the Electric Tree after the Passionfruit.

Also, "Iris"!

Carlisle

The Canon at Carlisle is over four hours long, and therefore is never played in its entirety. The songs are arranged in order of holiness.

The full list is too long to place here. See Canon/CAR.

Saratoga Springs (Skidmore)

I would appreciate it if someone would contact the copyright owner for this page and ask for permission to appropriate the material. Otherwise, we could just paraphrase the information ourselves. Also, perhaps someone should verify to see if the information is current.

This list was primarily compiled by Jon Good ('97-'00), a cult figure among Skidmore CTY students.

High Holy Canon

• American Pie - Don McLean
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• Let It Be - The Beatles
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• Nightswimming - R.E.M.
• I'll Make a Man Out of You - Mulan (SESSION 1 ONLY)
• Tunak Tunak Tun - Daler Mendhi
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
• Cotton-Eyed Joe - Rednex
• Sandstorm - Darude

Canon

• It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• My Sharona - The Knack
• Blister in the Sun - The Violent Femmes
• Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• The Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkel
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
• Love Shack - The B-52's
• American Music - The Violent Femmes
• Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
• Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice
• U Can't Touch This - MC Hammer
• Copacabana - Barry Manilow
• YMCA - The Village People
• Build Me Up, Buttercup - The Foundations
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
• I Don't Want To Miss A Thing - Aerosmith
• Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright

New addition 06.1 - "I'll Make a Man Out of You." It is considered to be the only song that is High Holy Canon AND an Afterdance. This tradition applies to Session 1 only and only after the last dance.

New addition 06.1 - Let it Be. However, instead "let it be", "synergy" is sung in honor of Bill.

Loudonville (Siena)

Note: If someone could sort out the ones that aren't played second session, that'd be great.

List compiled by RA Brendan (Loudonville 2006 Session 1 and 2)

As RAs, we got official CTY Canon CDs from ResLife to play at the dances. This is what was on them, for the curious (note that it's slightly different from the (I would assume) student-compiled list).

Upper Canon (every dance)

Played at every dance/official real canon:

• Blister in the Sun - The Violent Femmes
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants (banned 2005.1 because running around holding hands is too dangerous)
• Baby Got Back - Sir Mix-a-lot
• Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• Like A Prayer - Madonna
• I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
• Love Shack - The B-52's
• The Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison

In particular these last four played in this order as the last four songs:

• Nightswimming - R.E.M.
• It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• American Pie - Don McLean

Lower Canon

(on a 2nd CD, RAs had the option of playing some or all of these songs, but they weren't required)

• Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
• Sandstorm - Da Rude (de facto Canon)
• Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
• Dragosta Din Tei - O-Zone (de-facto Canon)
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
• Sell Out - Reel Big Fish
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• Piano Man - Billy Joel
• I Want You To Want Me - Cheap Trick
• Cotton-Eyed Joe - Red-Nex
• Heaven - DJ Sammy
• It's Raining Men - The Weather Girls
• Don't Stop Belivin' - Journey
• Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkel
• Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations
• Buddy Holly - Weezer

Other

These are other people's incomplete lists, could be cleaned up or compiled into something:

Canon but not always played

• Wonderwall - Oasis
• In My Life - The Beatles

Traditions but not Canon

• The Freshmen - The Verve Pipe
• Leaving on a Jet Plane - Peter, Paul, and Mary
• One More Chorus - Battlefield Band

Other

• Fight For Your Right - The Beastie Boys
• Origin of Love - Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• I Touch Myself - Divynls (not played LOU 05.1)
• Here's to the Night - Eve 6
• I'm the Only Gay Eskimo - Corky and the Juice Pigs
• Paradise City - Guns N' Roses
• It's My Life - Jon Bon Jovi
• Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) - Green Day
• Cupid's Shuffle - Cupid

Notes

• "Buddy Holly" in LOU 05.1 was revived at the last dance, but was not very popular.
• "Sandstorm" is, in the opinion of the Law and Politics B Session 2 2006, Fast-Paced High School Chemistry Session 1 2006, and Mathematical Logic Session 2 2006 classes, Canon.
• "Baby Got Back" may not be true Canon.
• Thank you to everyone continuing "One More Chorus." I was afraid it died after 2005.
• Siena traditionally does not chant, "Die, Die, Die, Die! Live, Live, Live, Live..." during "American Pie" because of a student who committed suicide during session one year. At Session 1, however, many students, perhaps from other sites, have adopted the chant as new tradition.

Los Angeles (LMU)

Upper Canon

• American Pie - Don McLean
• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
• It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
• Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants
• Sandstorm - Darude
• Nightswimming - REM
• Leaving on a Jet Plane - John Denver
• The Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Dragostea Din Tei - O-Zone
• Forever Young - Alphaville
• Cotton-Eyed Joe - Rednex
• Baby Got Back - Sir Mixalot

Lower Canon

• Thriller - Michael Jackson
• Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
• Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
• Love Shack - The B-52's
• Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
• Cha Cha Slide (remix)- Casper
• Birdhouse in Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
• Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
• I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing - Aerosmith
• Don't Stop Believing - Journey
• You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
• I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
• I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
• YMCA - The Police
• Tunak Tunak Tun - Daler Mehndi
• Kernkraft 400 - Zombie Nation
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel

Interestingly, some of the Upper Canon songs at other sites are not played here.

Mulan's "I'll Make a Man Out of You" is a highly traditional song sung at this site, but it is not played at the dances.

Easton

Upper Canon

• Swing, Swing
• All My Life
• American Pie

Lower Canon

• Numa-Numa
• Every Time We Touch
• The Cha-Cha Slide
• Cotton-Eyed Joe
• Stairway to Heaven