<P> A great many of the performers of shanties do so in what might be distinguished as a "folk music" style . They tend to be more interested in the songs themselves and less in the "shanty style" of performance, in favor of music that may be considered more pleasant, less rough, and with more variation and interest than traditional shanties offer . Stylistic characteristics include lighter vocals with a "folk" timbre, livelier tempos, and instrumental interludes between verses . Invariably these performers choose to accompany themselves on instruments such as guitar and banjo . Their rhythms may be syncopated and quite different from work song rhythms, relying on the instruments to keep time rather than the voice . </P> <P> Still other performers come to shanties from backgrounds in pop, rock, or theatrical music, and perform in what may be called a "contemporary" style . Some of the preferred characteristics are smooth, pop - style vocal timbre, carefully worked out harmony, and engaging rhythms . </P> <P> Less commonly--though it was the case with their earliest commercial recordings--shanties are performed in a "classical" choir style . Choirs like the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Norman Luboff Choir, and The Seafarers Chorus have released entire albums of shanties and sea songs . </P> <P> Appearances of shanties, or songs and melodies labeled as "shanties," in popular media can be anachronistic and fanciful . In accord with popular perception of shanties as a genre many hundreds of years old, songs with documented existence to only the mid-19th century, at the earliest, have been freely used to portray scenes from the 18th century and earlier . By imagining modern shanties to have been in use during such eras as the Golden Age of Piracy and the French Revolutionary Wars, anachronistic associations have been formed between shanties and "pirates" or the British Navy . Evidence for all these uses and associations can be found in the examples that follow in this section . </P>

What song is johnny singing in the alley in sing