I was listening the other day to a KEXP session from Jungle, which I recently rediscovered during my vacation in New York. On my birthday, I went to a bar with my brother to enjoy a nice beer. While drinking and sorting through the pictures of the day on my phone, a song played in the background that stole my attention and made me move my hips on the bar stool.
I looked up from my phone and saw the bouncer at the door dancing in his seat too, still swiping through his dating app. I looked around the bar—nobody else seemed moved by the music. I knew I know the song, but I couldn’t remember the band or the title, so I opened Shazam to find out. Strangely, Shazam couldn’t find anything, even though the music was clearly audible. I wondered how it didn’t recognize the song, which I didn’t think was obscure at all.
So I did what I often do: I asked the staff if they might know. Amazingly, the guy at the bar answered without even looking it up and said, “It’s Happy Man by Jungle.”
After an exhausting journey back home—out of the airport and onto public transport—I immediately put my earplugs in, started listening to the song, forgot my surroundings, and felt happy.
