Did Chain Swing Help Build A Community?
by TheOtherRainMan, HSM team writer
Although some here may argue differently, the early days of Home…weren’t all that exciting.
The only real places to hang out were The Mall, Sully’s Bar, the Bowling Alley — and, of course, Central Plaza. Seeing that I had no money for the Mall, Sully’s Bar would get crowded quickly, and Echocrome was getting boring fast, I often hung out at Central Plaza. It was there that I met many fantastic people, including some that I am still friends with to this day. It’s also where I discovered Home’s most well-known and performed action: dancing.
Central Plaza had a small alcove dedicated to previewing tons of different music, ranging from orchestral score pieces from recently released games to songs from well-known artists. What would happen is that Home users would vote up the song they wanted to hear next, and the song with the highest number of votes would get played next.
One of those songs — which would become a staple for all my Home memories — was “Chain Swing”. Every time I’d head over to this dance floor, I’d see a large group of people dancing together, and the chat box filled with “VOTE UP CHAIN SWING”.
Although Chain Swing would eventually be phased out for other songs (and then phased back in later on, only to be presently blown to bits by the Helghast at the time of this writing), it still stands as a defining Home moment. Yet, on the other hand, it also shows how people can come together under a common trait, yet be so different.
(Editor’s note: Chain Swing is sort of like the “Friends” theme — incredibly catchy, but today a victim of its own popularity. Inevitably, just like nearly any popular movement, a backlash must arise. Although mentioning the song in Home today does produce a collective groan in some circles, I’ll wager you thought it was pretty darned catchy too, the first time you heard it. Oh, and Sony…bring back “Danger Room EX” by Dan the Automator. Kthx.)
Like Sports, Right?
Dance is an expression of self. We dance to how the music makes us feel. For example, let’s say a DJ for a nightclub begins to play Katy Perry’s bi-curious masterpiece, “I Kissed A Girl.” Considering the song’s sexual vibe, one might start rubbing their hands all over their body as they move their body. Another might get closer to another individual. On the other hand, someone else might not react in a sensual way at all and dance the same way they dance to “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees.
That’s where the difference is. Unlike sports, dance has meanings — and it’s based on how you feel at that moment.
While emotions do have a central role in how athletes perform, their performance is strictly meant to best the opposing force. With dance, we dance exactly how we feel and how we want. There’s no competition when we’re on the dance floor. There’s no wrong or right way to dance. It’s all in how we view the song. And in Home, a social environment, dance is one of the best ways to convey personality (until such time as Sony gives us a wider range of emotes, anyway).
The Home Connection
As I recall from my early days in Home, I spent a lot of time in Central Plaza dancing to that ever-popular song. As I “casual” danced my Home shoes off, I felt in touch with an online community; I was a part of something, for the first time in my pretty short life. Considering my Catholic upbringing and small-town-boy lifestyle, that’s saying something.
Sadly though, as time passed and Chain Swing was eventually removed, I forgot about my late nights dancing my virtual booty off. New spaces opened up, new friends made, a new President was elected without any controversy from the Supreme Court, new college surroundings, new crappy artists emerged (such as Justin Bieber, the fourth Biblical sign of the impending Armageddon), and ultimately new life experiences happened.
Just recently, I came across the Konami Penthouse, which houses a huge dance floor replete with J-Pop tunes. As I started to get comfortable with my surroundings, I began to notice a lot of “This song is AMAZING!” and “I love this song” comments.
It was these comments that brought me back to the time when the chat box was flooded with “VOTE UP CHAIN SWING,” and when the song playing mentioned Dr. Phil “bending down” and “holding my chain when the lights go out,” it brought back memories of old Home.
As I was reflecting on those old memories, I began to remember how people danced to this. While I always danced using casual, people around me danced to Body Pop, Rock, Running Man…everything, really.
At that point, I understood what makes a community. I remember how, in those formative days of Home, we all united under this one song and we all found a unique way to make it our own and show ourselves as individuals.
Think about it. We all heard the same song, but yet we each interpreted it differently. We all felt that a different dance best exemplified the song and how we felt. This is akin to two people hearing Ravel’s “Bolero” and alternately picturing either a military march or a passionate romantic interlude.
Sometimes music transcends itself. Sometimes it brings people together.
Granted, not that much later, Sony would unleash Xi unto the Home community — and from what I gather, a lot of people feel that this brought them together as a community. While Xi may have done that on an international scale, I feel that Chain Swing has left much more of an imprint on me, and perhaps others as well. While Xi was a gigantic cooperative gaming event, Chain Swing will live in infamy for the early users of Home.
(As Stryctnin pointed out in a recent article, it’s sort of like the Chamber Apartment: it’s a delineating point for what is still a very young Home society. You were either there for it or you were there after it.)
For me, Chain Swing was the song — the social experience — that taught me what a community is.
Chain Swing is like that gym class parachute, in which a lot of people from my generation partook, that often involved raising a parachute up and down to make a little mushroom tent and so on. It was only a part of my life for a short period of time, and I’m glad for every minute I spent hanging low and letting my chain swing.
Further Reading
February 13th, 2011 by TheOtherRainMan | 15 comments
TheOtherRainMan, a.k.a. Rain, is a budding filmmaker, cinema lover and video game enthusiast ever since the PS1 days. When he is not fighting off his girlfriend's evil-exes, traversing The Grid, working for the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department, or simply soaking in the latest terrible thriller, he spends his time on Home. He is currently a team writer and videographer for HomeStation Magazine. He is also pursuing a BA degree in Radio-TV-Film at Rowan University.
He can be contacted at rainman@hsmagazine.net
OMG! Now I feel ashamed for all those disparaging remarks. Hey, whatever yanks your chain!
Well, it takes all kinds as they say. Personally, I can’t listen to that song all the way through even one time -- not even close. I think I’d rather listen to Justin Bieber, lol.
That song was so annoying and sexist… chainswing? not a metaphor for a penis??? nooooo never!
Lol It never was a metaphor for a penis. “Just bend over and lean and let your Chain Swing!” xD
This song taught me how to go into settings on the PDA and turn the master volume down. I heard a lifetimes worth of this song in a couple of days of Home, hated it the first time I heard it and would get violently angry at hearing it now. Of all the millions of songs in the world why did they choose this? Then you think they’ve taken it away and it comes back. Then for the kicker they throw it at you for an April Fools day joke as the only song, so that it plays non stop.
Back in early 2009, this video was playing in the Home Square in EU. Everyone *always* danced around it. So much so that when the advert was removed people requested it back for the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfH94lsE__g
Yup. Can remember that. Text-bubbling along with the tune in Events Landing. So funny.
As far as Chain Swing goes… meh. What can we do? When users keep choosing it over and over, and cry and moan to bring it back after its removal, it was obviously wanted by the Home community. Just because most of the “mature” users hate it, doesn’t mean the majority does.
I’m starting to feel that Chain Swing is a lot like the old cartoons from childhood -- we only think they’re great and classic because they defined a moment of our past, not because of their quality. Because, I’ll be honest, Chain Swing is nowhere near quality song writing.
The guilty Central Plaza playlist pleasure for me: “Danger Room EX” by Dan the Automator. Good lord, I listened to that song *constantly.*
I guess that I am one of the only ones to say that I am very neutral of the song. To me, there wasn’t a lot of good songs to choose from because before they were to have one of the musical scores from MAG and I would remember this one song that was played to death. Granted the song wasn’t bad but it was too stagnant for my taste, where there were other songs that was better. Chain Swing was somewhat similar but I felt that it was a catchy song that was about “letting loose and let your Chain Swing” i.e. “having a good time and go crazy!” versus other songs that didn’t catch my ear.
Other songs that I felt that should’ve been played more were…
“Reborn” by Jax f/ Cage
“Raekwon” by Raekwon
“Don’t Front Mix” artist unknown (Sony, I assume)
And this one more that I can’t recall. But those songs were great but was taken off the list for no apparent reason. I understand how the Chain Swing song could be annoying at times. This is why I have it on my PSP Playlist so I can listen to it at my own leisure.
But I did also wanted to say that the song did pull the community together. I personally think it is just a catchy song that I had no mind listening to. Hey, to each its won, eh? Good article and thanks for sharing.
I just hope that Sony will return the songs that bring people together and maybe Sony can add some older game soundtracks like Final Fantasy VIII or Castlevania SOTN just an idea but overall great article TheOtherRainMan.
Wow! Bibliographic links! I am SO going to do that in my next article!
please, no ‘ibids’ ‘op cits’ etc. the kids might learn something. (JK) and it will just encourage Norse to become even more prolific with the obscure references.
Don’t worry. I won’t even cite
Weitbrecht, B. E. 1984. Muscular anatomy of Trochochaeta multisetosum (Polychaeta; Trochochaetidae). Proc. 1st Int. Conference, Sydney. 4-9 th July 1983. pp. 401-412.
Oh, wait. I just did.