You've heard Peter Bjorn and John's "Young Folks," the insanely catchy tune "built around a whistling hook so addictive that it has helped regenerate an art form long relegated to the realm of dog-walkers, bird-watchers, and the TV-hawked tunes of Roger Whittaker." Guess what? It's a big hit in Beantown! And you know what else? It is responsible for a renaissance of whistling in the hellhole by the harbor.

A year after the song was first released, folks young and old are still whistling it like mad: on subway cars and street corners; at house parties and in dance clubs.

At some music venues like Great Scott in Allston, "Young Folks" has turned the puckered lip into as much of a symbol of the indie pop scene as fist-pumping is at a punk concert or moshing is at a hard-core show.
Jeffrey Sullivan, a 27-year-old travel consultant from Somerville, has been swept up by "Young Folks" whistlemania.

He whistles the song in the shower, on bike rides, at nightspots. He constantly notices the song breezing by him from others, on the sidewalk, in the office.

"It's a carefree song," Sullivan says. "Around Cambridge and Somerville, I always hear people whistling that."

There is more - so much more - but we don't want to ruin it for you. Tune in next week, when the residents of one of America's racistest cities learn the fine art of ambulatory gum-chewing.

Finally! Whistling is cool again [Boston Globe]