Title: Call On Me
Informant info: Informant requested to remain anonymous. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran. Informant enlisted in the Army in 2005 and was a member of the Army Infantry 10th Mountain Division of Fort Drum, New York. Informant served in Iraq from 2006 to 2007. Informant is 28 years old.
Type of lore: Customary, Ritual
Language: English
Country of Origin: USA
Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about certain superstitions or rituals that they had experienced during their time in the military. The informant described that before they would go out on missions, they would watch the music video Call On Me that was sung by Eric Prydz, to get them pumped up and ready for their missions.
Associated file: Informant requested to remain completely anonymous. This is the link to the music video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQSYo_pC-QA
Transcript:
[I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: Sometimes when we go out on missions. Like right before, we would uhhh. We would, we would put on the video Call On Me by Eric Prydz, which would get us pumped up and ready to remember what we’re fighting for. And that’s women who don’t have to wear very much when they go to the gym and do aerobic exercises while wearing leg warmers. (laughing) It’s very important. It’s a very patriotic thing. Although I’m pretty sure all the women in that video were mostly European and stuff but that’s beside the point. Heavily marketed anyways.
Informant’s comments: Informant mentioned that the video made them reflect on what they were really fighting for, which is women wearing little clothing exercising (which is shown in the video). He noted that, though he used sarcasm toward the end, watching the video did pump them up.
Collector’s comments: Due to informants request to remain anonymous, I attempted to include various displays of emotions within the interview using parenthesis. The informant laughed before they began speaking, and laughed while describing the story.