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Frame from Blues Traveler - Hook (Official Music Video) Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Blues Traveler - Hook (Official Music Video)

BluesTravelerVEVO
Music
YouTube
Cited on HN 5 times, 2016–2026, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN mentions it mainly as a music example in threads on shared melodies and on how to craft a compelling hook, with a few jokes.

The official music video for Blues Traveler's song Hook, remastered in HD. The song is known for using the melody of Pachelbel's Canon while its lyrics comment on how hooks work.

“It is especially effective because he is doing all the things he is describing at a high level.” (HN, 2026)

3 citations · 2 jokes · Music

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@dumbotron May 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Cantonese Font with Pronunciation
> I suspect what's going on here is that in music, it doesn't matter if you understand it right the first time. So there's this [this video] and more interestingly [link]
Example of lyrics that need not be understood first time
@nyrikki Apr 2025 Cites it
on HN thread Shared DNA in Music
Read more
The same applies to risk-adverse, high profit genres and/or producer heavy ones like pop country. Obviously zeitgeist and even conventions and music theory play a role. Sir Mashalot had a few videos a while ago. [link] The Blues Traveler trolling with the song Hook using the melody from Pachelbel's Canon with lyrics explicitly calling this out wasn't noticed by almost anyone. [this video] Obviously Pop heavily samples too, E.G. Tom Tom Club Genius of Love being used by Mariah Carey's Fantasy, but it goes beyond sampling. The Rolling Stones pulling from artists like Fred McDowell and Led Zeppelin settled copyright suits on Lemon Song, Whole Lotta Love, Bring it on Home and Dazed and Confused etc... The invention of the Fairlight Sampler may have lead to groups like the Pet Shop Boys sampling dozens of other works, but as the Stones and Led Zeppelin show it wasn't unique. Well I guess the Pet Shop Boys were inspired by Grandmaster Flash, and if you listen to the original recording of West End Girls you can hear James Brown samples...not sure if that counts as "hip-hop" in that case or not. [link] As a bad guitar player, I can understand why even Rock and Roll pretty much grew out of artists copying R&B/Gospel artists like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, but inspiration vs copying is a fuzzy line. But basically the tooling changed, not the methods which have complex and intertwined causes, motivations, and effects.
Song uses Pachelbel's Canon melody with lyrics calling it out
@randycupertino Feb 2016 Makes a joke
on HN thread Was Uber’s Branding Done While Uber High?
Also Blue's Traveler's The Hook: [this video] "It doesn't matter what I say So long as I sing with inflection That makes you feel I'll convey Some inner truth or vast reflection But I've said nothing so far And I can keep it up for as long as it takes"

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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