The 80s band Van Halen famously (or infamously) had a rider in its contract which required promoters to provide the band a large number of M&Ms in the dressing room. But brown M&Ms were forbidden. If the band found a single brown M&M, the promoter forfeited his earnings. Why? David Lee Roth explains in this video.

It was actually a clever test. Van Halen stage shows were elaborate productions. To get ready, a promoter had follow a set of lengthy, complex instructions provided in the contract. The brown M&M provision was buried, at random, among these instructions. If the band members went backstage and found brown M&Ms, that meant that the promoter had not read the instructions and there were potential problems with the show.

-via reddit

Why do some songs - take Adele's hit pop song Someone Like You, for example - bring us to tears?

Science came up with the formula why certain songs can induce strong emotions in people:

When the music suddenly breaks from its expected pattern, our sympathetic nervous system goes on high alert; our hearts race and we start to sweat. Depending on the context, we interpret this state of arousal as positive or negative, happy or sad.

If "Someone Like You" produces such intense sadness in listeners, why is it so popular? Last year, Robert Zatorre and his team of neuroscientists at McGill University reported that emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel good and motivates us to repeat the behavior.

Measuring listeners' responses, Dr. Zatorre's team found that the number of goose bumps observed correlated with the amount of dopamine released, even when the music was extremely sad. The results suggest that the more emotions a song provokes—whether depressing or uplifting—the more we crave the song.

Michaeleen Doucleff of The Wall Street Journal has more: Link

The pianist is Lise Linde Kronenberg, filmed on her first birthday.  It’s not clear whether the piano music was overdubbed on a pre-existing melody, or whether the orchestral accompaniment was created specifically to harmonize with her extemporaneous creation, but the result is fascinating.  Try playing it for someone who can’t see your monitor, and ask them what they think of this “nouveau” piano style.

And it has an LOL ending.

(Video Link)

If you’ve played Skyrim, then you’ll not only appreciate the song and video, but you’ll also realize how much work they had to put in to fill all those rooms with mead bottles at the end of the video.

Via Geeks Are Sexy

It happens every time some new technology threatens to put people out of work: a public campaign to save jobs. One example was in the 1920s and ’30s, when synchronized sound was added to movies, which meant that theaters no longer had to pay live musicians to accompany the films. The Music Defense League sprang into action, with a $500,000 advertising budget to rally the public against soundtracks recorded by just “300 musicians in Hollywood.” Read about the battle against canned music in theaters at Paleofuture. Link

(Video Link)

Wikki wikki wikki what. Go Frenchie, it’s your birthday.

Via I Has A Hot Dog

Nine-year-old Jonny Mizzone can play the banjo! On fiddle, you hear his 12-year-old brother Robbie, and 14-year-old Tommy accompanies them on guitar. The song is Ralph Stanley’s “How Mountain Girls Can Love.” You can see more of the brothers at the YouTube channel Sleepy Man Banjo Boys. Link -via reddit

When Norwegian artist Morten Traavik traveled to North Korea, he met students from the Pyongyang Kum Song School of Music and gave them a CD of Euro-pop group a-ha. The students surprised him by performing "Take On Me" on accordions.

From Korea Realtime blog over at The Wall Street Journal:

After giving the students the CD on a Monday night, they surprised him by playing their own improvised version of “Take On Me” on Wednesday morning. Mr. Traavik made a video of them and decided to post it on YouTube to promote the festival. Since he put it up on Thursday, the video has gone viral, passed along by North Korea watchers and others mystified or intrigued by the idea of musicians in a collective society with traditional instruments playing one of the classics of 1980s Euro-pop.

Mr. Traavik said he’s noticed the video has attracted the normal skepticism about its origins and whether the musicians were threatened to learn the music or secretly dislike it. He said he views them as normal artists who, skilled at their instrument, did what was natural when presented with something they liked – tried to re-create it.

“I think it’s quite evident from the video that you can’t accomplish that in such a time if you would suppose those young musicians actually hate what they’re doing,” he said.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

Obviously, there's a lot of money to be made from hit pop songs. But can you predict or even make which songs will make it ot the top of the charts?

Bring in the scientists! Artificial Intelligence researcher Tijl De Bie and colleagues analyzed 50 years' worth of hit songs on Britain's top 40 charts and came up with a formula.

From an interview over at The Los Angeles Times:

You used artificial intelligence to devise an equation that could predict which songs made it to the top of the charts. How does it work?

To predict the hit potential of a given song, we used a computer to quantify how similar it is to previous "hits" and "flops." Time frame is important: If you're scoring a song from today, then we will consider the songs in 2011 more important than the songs in the '60s.

We represent each song using a set of 23 different features that characterize the audio. Some are very simple features — such as how fast it is, how long the song is — and some are more complex features, such as how energetic the song is, how loud it is, how danceable and how stable the beat is throughout the song. We also took into account the highest rank that songs ever achieved on the chart.

The computer can combine a song's features in an equation that can be used to score any given song.

We can then evaluate how accurately the computer scored it by seeing how well the song actually did.

Every single week now we're updating our equation based on how recent releases have done on the chart. So the equation will continue to evolve, because music tastes will evolve as well.

Any good examples of the computer guessing correctly?

Wiley's "Wearing My Rolex" did well, strongly based on loudness. So that was an expected hit. It went to No. 2 in 2008.

Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," which went to No. 1 in 2006, scored well thanks to its danceability, among other things.

Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds," which went to No. 2 in 1970, had a fairly simple harmonic movement, which at that time was a good thing if you wanted to score a hit.

Link

Previously on Neatorama: Is There a Scientific Explanation for Justin Bieber?

The vehicle plays the music in the new video from OK Go in conjunction with Chevrolet. This took four months of preparation and four days of shooting. From their website:

So let’s not forget the true meaning of Sunday — OK Go in a super-hacked Chevy Sonic, playing 288 guitars, 55 pianos, and 1,157 homemade instruments while Damian acts as a stunt driver. (He took lessons.) It’s truly the little things that are meaningful.

Link -via reddit

Who knew Sabotage was so perfectly written to become a venn diagram? Really though, sabotage should go into another bubble. After all, it’s sabotage.

Link Via Laughing Squid

It’s called “Circus Galop” or “Death Waltz”, and it’s used to test the performance of player pianos. No single person has ever played it…so far. But if we can put a man on the moon, surely we can genetically engineer a superhuman species that can perform it.

-via Boing Boing

The classic novelty song “I’m My Own Grandpa” can get confusing. Thankfully, YouTube user GordoTheHat diagrammed all of the relationships that result from the narrator’s father marrying his daughter-in-law. You’ll need some flexible genealogical software to chart this family tree properly.

-via Althouse

Hopefully most of you know that today’s date is Feb. 1, 2012. Or 2.1.12. If you’re a Rush fan, there’s a good chance that you’re geeking out over the fact that it’s as close as you’re going to get to the year 2112 — barring any success achieving the same immortality already enjoyed by Rock Gods Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart.

“2112? is, of course, the conceptual title track of the veteran Canadian rock trio’s masterful prog rock epic and breakthrough album from 1976 that, when boiled down from it’s far-out, intergalactic plot, basically sets the idea of individual versus the state. More important: it freakin’ rocks!

If you don’t have your favorite Rush songs handy, you can listen to eleven fine selections at Reverb. Link -via Rush is a Band

Science fan and mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn sings the ingredients of a Twinkie. That is all. -via Improbable Research

Giorgio Fareira and Tim Bittar serenaded a Sonic waitress with their order. The gap you hear in the communication was most likely when she ran and made all her co-workers gather around and listen. The guys, who make up the band The Interstate Life, say that the Sonic crew got every bit of the order correct. -via reddit

“Soul Train” was one of the longest-running syndicated shows in television history and played a critical role in spreading the music of black America to the world, offering wide exposure to musicians such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson in the 1970s and 1980s.

“I am shocked and deeply saddened at the sudden passing of my friend, colleague and business partner Don Cornelius,” said Quincy Jones, according to the Associated Press. “Don was a visionary pioneer and a giant in our business. Before MTV there was ‘Soul Train.’ That will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius. His contributions to television, music and our culture as a whole will never be matched. My heart goes out to Don’s family and loved ones.”

Mr. Cornelius, a former disc jockey, created the show in 1970 in Chicago on WCIU-TV and served as its writer, producer and host. Quickly becoming a success, the show was broadcast nationally in 1971, beginning its 35-year run. Besides the performers, the program showcased young dancers who would strut their stuff, laying the groundwork for countless dance programs , including current hits like Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance?” and MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew.” “We had a show that kids gravitated to,” Mr. Cornelius said.

Cornelius’ death is being investigated as a possible suicide. He was 75. Link

(Image credit: MadVision Entertainment)

(YouTube Link)

Scott Bradlee and Alex MacDonald got together and decided to add a touch of class to the Super Mario World theme song.

“What’s the best way to do this?” you ask nonchalantly, as you swish your cocktail around, ice clinking against the glass.

I reply enthusiastically “By adding tap dancing, of course!”

You nod, take a sip, and hit play on Super Mario World For Piano And Tap.

-cue the credits-

–via Best Week Ever

By Carl LaFong & the Spunk Holler Boys. From the YouTube page:

Not knowing the real lyrics to the song, Carl wrote his own and as a result debased a timeless traditional folk classic.

Warning: listening to this song may raise your cholesterol level. -Thanks, Steve Cloutier!

My friends all laugh at me, because whenever I drive anywhere, the first song playing from my iPod is generally from a video game or movie soundtrack. I’m a product of my environment, and my musical tastes are heavily influenced by movies, trailers, tv shows and games, and as such I have “terrible” taste in music according to everyone else. So be it.

Of course, taste in music varies, so others contributed suggestions in the comments. I thought of “Baba Yetu” from Civilization IV, the main theme from The Legend of Zelda, and of course, Tetris, but then I’m no gamer, so the list is all new to me. Try his ten out and let us know if your favorites are included. Link

(YouTube Link)

There are so many music video tributes on the interwebs that it’s nearly impossible to watch them all, but really easy to see when one musician stands out above the rest.

Richie Castellano is a perfect example of standout quality musician, and his version of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is so good that he deserves a 2 lighter salute!

I’m sure some of you are saying “Bohemian Rhapsody again?” but seriously, check it out if only to see Richie play every instrument and sing, he has some serious skills!

–via JazJaz

Here’s a little nugget of retro goodness for ya, courtesy of BoingBoing-it’s a comic handed out at a Madonna concert at Madison Square Garden in 1987, warning youngsters about AIDS and urging them not to disrespect those who have contracted the virus. It’s a delightfully colorful fear mongering flyer public service announcement, and look! Free Madonna pinup!

Link

(YouTube Link)

It’s impressive enough that ShadowCa7 decided to perform a musical version of J.R.R. Tolkiens “Over The Misty Mountains Cold/The Dwarven Song Of Old Wealth” and committed to doing all 27 verses, but the fact that she does all the harmonies by herself while playing acoustic guitar makes this a beautiful performance to behold.

It takes a bit of a commitment just to sit through the entire video, but it is so good from beginning to end, so throw up your hairy feet, pack a pipe and pour yourself a pint if you’re ready to go there and back again.

–via Topless Robot

(YouTube Link)

This is a crazy cool remix of the Alien video game theme song, a game which was released on the Commodore 64, appropriately being played on a Commodore 64, laptop and some other musical doohickeys. Add Southern Comfort as inspiration and a creepy green goblin looking mask and you’ve got old school awesome sauce. Makes me wish I still had my C64!

–via Obvious Winner

(YouTube Link)

No, this is definitely not the next keyboard cat, but Pancake could be part of KC’s band, like in the kitteh keyboard band of my dreams! In Pancake’s Meowsic Video, we see this tie clad little kitteh getting into some seriously heavy grooves, channeling Thelonius Monk on a kitteh shaped keyboard. It’s a meowsical delight!

–via BuzzFeed

(YouTube Link)

There are some really talented kids out there, and thanks to YouTube they can show the world their skills, hopefully without all the praise going straight to their head.

8 year old Zoe Thomson plays guitar like a champ, and I think she should team up with 8 year old hardcore singer Juliet and form their own kiddie metal outfit, seriously, who wouldn’t want to see that?!

–via BuzzFeed

Remember Vanilla Ice? The rapper turned real estate mogul (okay, not exactly mogul), is back. This time, as an indie rock hipster. So cool, right ;? <-- winkie to cover all of our bases!

It may be an elaborate scheme to sell his ice cube trays (a.k.a. Ice Ice Baby Makers) and get on the bill at Coachella, but Vanilla (can we call him Vanilla?) knows that in these trying economic times, indie rock fans are more willing and able to throw down some bills to buy records. E! show The Soup checked in with Vanilla Ice for a sketch, set after his recent move to LA’s hip Echo Park neighborhood and reinvention as an indie artist. Once you hear “Ice Ice Baby” a cappella with a toy glockenspiel, you’ll know it’s the right move for the rapper, who quite clearly knows how to laugh at himself.

Ice Ice Cube Baby Makers? We're so there! Link | Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]

(YouTube Link)

No one has ever accused me of being a fan of Wilco, or their alt-country sound, but I have been a huge fan of Popeye ever since I was a wee lad, getting in trouble for emulating the Sailor Man by beating up kids on the playground at preschool.

These days, I like my Popeye cartoons old and uncolored, and apparently so does Wilco, for they have cast a decidedly old timey version of the spinach munching tough guy in their new music video, which is the first hand drawn Popeye cartoon produced in over 30 years.

I yam what I yam, and that’s a Popeye fan, don’t hate!

–via ComicsAlliance

If “love will tear us apart”, then we’ll surely be left in one piece by this newest Disney oddity-the Mouse that helped create an empire meets the cover art of Joy Division’s album Unknown Pleasures in their newest t-shirt design.

Seeing designs like this coming out of the Mouse Factory makes me wonder if Disney’s design crew think about the subtexts relayed by their images, or if they see a hot trend happening and just follow right along. What’s next-emo Mickey complete with lame haircut and mascara?

–via DesignTAXI

Of course, the problem here is that skin and again can be made to rhyme, so what will happen if you don’t put the dishes in the dishwasher…certainly you won’t get the hose again. Then again, do you really want to risk finding out what Buffalo Bill will do to you if you defy him?

Link

Matt Mulholland (featured previously) sings all the vocal and instrumental parts as well on his very personal version of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This is from Mulholland’s album of cover songs. Link -Thanks, Muzition!

(YouTube Link)

Superstar rapper, actor and all around fly individual Ice Cube has come a long way from his days in the gangsta rap group N.W.A., or has he?

Turns out this boy from tha hood once studied Architectural Drafting, to perhaps design his own hood some day, and he found inspiration in the husband and wife design team Charles and Ray Eames.

The Eames’ have created everything from furniture to toys to architecture, and Ice Cube has chosen to celebrate the style and simplicity of the Eames House as part of the series PacificStandardTime: Art In L.A. 1945-1980 .

He’s got a lotta love for the Eames’ and the City of Angels, so haters need not apply.

–via BoingBoing

Animation studio Virtual Republic turned classical music by German composer Ferdinand Ries into a rollercoaster ride for this clever ad for the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

The musical notes are synchronized, so the visual part of the rollercoaster ride actually match what you hear.

Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] - via The Atlantic

Lukáš Kmit was playing his best at a concert at the Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Presov, Slovakia when someone’s phone went off. I think he handled it in as classy a manner as he could! -via The Daily What

(YouTube Link)

This 8 year old girl is about to change the world of heavy metal forever, by bringing some refreshingly new subject matter to the scene-household pets.

Watch as Juliet gets hardcore singing about how much she loves her goldfish, and her dog, don’t even think about messing with her dog, or she’ll jump off the trampoline and stomp you out! Warning- this video is seriously cute!

–via Geekologie

President Obama welcomed Rev. Al Green to a fundraiser at the Apollo Theater in New York yesterday with a few notes of “Let’s Stay Together.” It sounds like this was the result of a dare, but it’s still nice to know our Commander in Chief can carry a tune for at least a short time. Link -via Buzzfeed

Hello, my baby! Hello, my darling! Hello, my ragtime gal!
Send me a kiss subspace, baby, to my starbase!

Ragtime pianist and composer Tom Brier sent the 24th Century Back into the 1910s with this rendition of the theme music to Star Trek: The Next Generation. He improvises in the first part of the video. You can skip to 1:50 to see the finished product.

-via reddit | Previously: Mario, Harry Potter and Star Wars Music Played in the Ragtime Style

P.S. He also did a great Animaniacs cover!

Luc Bergeron, known as Zapatou, mixed 71 different cover versions of the song “Rolling in the Deep” to make this video. There are a lot of talented young people on YouTube. -via The Daily What

Hanson as a heavy metal ban? MMMBop to that! In his series DeathPop Club, designer Mark Hall-Patch created a set of logos for pop bands and singers in the style of heavy metal: Link - via Typo Graphical

A song from LaughPong about the SOPA and PIPA bills now before congress. While many sites have simply gone down for today in protest, Consumerist has a list of posts about the bills you can access to catch up on how the bills came about, why the internet is protesting, and what you can do. Link  -video via The Cheezburger Network

Who was it: Stefani Germanotta or Jerrica Benton? These singers are better known as pop star Lady Gaga and ’80s cartoon rock star Jem. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you’ll be given twelve statements, and you decide which diva it applies to. Believe it or not, I scored 75% without knowing anything about either of them! How did you do? Link

(YouTube Link)

Musical nerdery doesn’t get much more epic than this performance by Bit Brigade, where they play the soundtrack to Mega Man II while the entire game is being played on a screen behind them.

And when I say the entire game I mean THE ENTIRE GAME, this video weighs in at an impressive 44 minutes and, to top it all off, they’re actually a really good band, so the show isn’t all gimmick and flash, it totally rocks!

–via Topless Robot

It’s like all of cinematic history has been a grand conspiracy to express the lyrics of Lionel Richie’s song “Hello.” Thankfully, Matthijs Vlot has uncovered the truth.

-via Nerdcore | Vlot’s Website

He-Man footage is set to “I’m Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO. I will never be able to hear this song anywhere again without thinking of He-Man and his cartoon body. -via The Daily What

(YouTube Link)

This guy seriously shreds it on the guitar, and his heavy metal version of the Dragonborn Theme from the video game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim serves as great background music while you’re bashing Blood Dragons about the head with a magic mace.

–via Kotaku

Nick Bertke, also known as Pogo, loans his signature style of remixing to the ’90s TV sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The result is both hypnotic and nostalgic. -via The Daily What

Previously: Other Pogo remixes.

Sound Artist Diego Stocco is at the CES convention in Las Vegas. Sudden inspiration came from the resonant sound of a trash can, so he recorded this impromptu performance on his iPhone. -Thanks, Diego!

(YouTube Link)

If you’re fed up with simply eating celery, then why not take a note from this guy’s playbook and turn it into a musical instrument!

Watch as he sticks a custom made celery flute up his nose, then plays some sweet tunes for your enjoyment, tunes that can only be played via vegetable, or recorder, or any other toy flute ever made.

But hey, he’s obviously after style points with this one, and I’m sure he’ll get invited to lots of dinner parties once everyone sees his amazing talent.

Thankfully, he doesn’t eat his instrument when he’s finished playing. And, if you thought the celery flute was the extent of his power over vegetables, check out his other YouTube videos and be amazed at his homegrown musical skills!

–via Geekosystem

For nearly 31 years, this flash of distracting cognitive dissonance has struck each time Steve Perry’s bright tenor lands on the iconic but geographically flawed second line: “just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit.” Because, as anyone with a tie to the Motor City knows, South Detroit doesn’t exist, either as a term of art or a geographical locale.

East Side? Sure. It’s where Eminen spent his adolescence. West?* Home to the original Motown Records. Southwest? Best Mexican food in the state. But South Detroit is as fictional as the Shire of Middle-earth.

Even songwriter Perry did not realize that there was no such place until just a couple of years ago. He finally explains how it ended up in the song. Link -via Metafilter