(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

Stravinsky and Nijinsky

The most infamous riot in the history of the performing arts began with the violins in Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” But more remarkable than the fistfight was the way the piece revolutionized classical music and ballet.

On the night of May 29, 1913, an elegant Parisian crowd assembled for the first performance of Igor Stravinsky’s eagerly anticipated new ballet, “The Rite of Spring.” The opening seemed promising, but then the violins kicked in with a pulsing chord so dissonant that it made spectators wince. As the orchestra continued, the audience hissed and booed. They rose to their feet and shouted—some defending the music, but most denouncing it. People began whacking each other with canes, umbrellas, and, before long, bare fists. Stravinsky’s musical revolution had arrived.

Prelude to “The Rite”

By one account, the idea for “The Rite of Spring” came to Stravinsky in a dream. He envisioned a pagan rebirth ritual, with people throwing themselves before vengeful gods. Rather than a cheerful celebration of springtime, it was a dark and superstitious rite. To compose music appropriate for such a vision, Stravinsky tossed aside convention and broke new ground in rhythm and harmony. He constructed atonal chords never heard before and developed a meter so complex that he struggled to accurately record it on paper. At times in the piece, parts of the orchestra actually seem to be playing against each other.

Stravinsky first performed “The Rite of Spring” for ballet director Sergei Diaghilev and orchestra conductor Pierre Monteux. Both men were shocked and overwhelmed. Later, Monteux wrote that he didn’t understand one note of it and wanted to flee the room. Nevertheless, plans for the ballet got under way. Diaghilev entrusted the choreography to dance phenom Vaslav Nijinsky, whose steps proved just as inspired as the music.

Concept, costumes, and set designs by Nicholas Roerich.

The first signs of trouble came during rehearsals. The ballerinas complained that Nijinsky’s flat-footed, straight-knee jumps jarred them to their bones, and the musicians struggled to keep up with Stravinsky’s galloping pace. At one point, after practicing a particularly dissonant section, the orchestra couldn’t help but burst into nervous laughter.

The Least Quiet of Riots

On opening night, the scene was chaotic. Only minutes into the performance, the audience’s reaction was so loud that the ballerinas couldn’t hear the music. Horrified, Stravinsky fled backstage to find Nijinsky standing on a chair desperately calling out the time for the dancers. Meanwhile, Diaghilev was frantically turning on and off the house lights in an attempt to pacify the crowd. By intermission, the police had arrived, and the theater manager took to the stage, begging the audience to calm down.

The Ballet Russes 1913

The truth is that the spectators were reacting as much to the dancing as to the music. “The Rite of Spring” contained no elegant arabesques or ballerinas in tutus. Instead, the dancers moved more with their hips than their feet, evoking something raw and primitive. What’s more, they dressed as pagan tribesmen, wearing rough tunics and stylized masks on their faces. It was the antithesis of classical ballet. In one scene, the dancers encircle a girl who stands transfixed with fear. Tribal elders swarm around this “chosen one” until she begins to leap frantically into the air. Her dance becomes more and more frenzied until she finally collapses dead—a ritual sacrifice to spring.

After the Revolution

Vaslav Nijinsky and an unnamed ballerina.

For several more nights, Diaghilev and Nijinsky performed “The Rite” to outraged Parisians. Stravinsky, however, grew too sick to attend. Five days after the ballet’s premiere, he fell dangerously ill with typhoid fever. But the following March, the piece was played again in Paris as an orchestral work (without the ballet). This time, instead of rioting, the audience cheered and then carried the composer aloft on their shoulders.

These days, “The Rite of Spring” is more likely to elicit polite applause. The innovations that made it revolutionary nearly a century ago are staples of dance and music today. In the world of ballet, “The Rite” introduced the idea that dance didn’t have to be refined to be significant, and Nijinsky’s choreography deeply influenced modern dance pioneers, such as Martha Graham. In the realm of music, the impact was just as profound, advancing the notion that abrasive music could also be beautiful. The genius of the piece is that it contains all the basic principles of a successful composition—compelling melodies, dynamic rhythms, contrast, repetition—while also pushing them to extremes. After the scandalous riot, it only took a few short years for “The Rite of Spring” to be widely embraced. By the 1920s, it was being performed in the United States, and by the 1940s, it had become background music in a Disney movie. By expanding the boundaries of acceptability, Stravinsky made room for all the dissonant music of the 20th century, from Arnold Schoenberg to Sonic Youth, and changed the definition of music forever.

The Mouse & The Musician

In 1940, “The Rite of Spring” took a big leap from avant-garde to mainstream when Stravinsky let Walt Disney use the piece for an animated movie. In the score of Fantasia, a truncated version of “The Rite” plays during the scenes depicting the beginning of life on Earth, from the primordial ooze to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Years later, Stravinsky wrote critically about Disney, claiming the film company had pressured him into licensing the rights to the music. He went on to describe the performance as “a dangerous misunderstanding” of his composition. Disney representatives were baffled and offended. In response, they released photos of Stravinsky in the studio holding up animation mockups and smiling.

The Kirov Ballet

(YouTube link)

__________________________

The above article by Elizabeth Lunday is reprinted with permission from the July-August 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine.

Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!

(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

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

Modern technology might sound better, hold more songs and be easier to use than the vintage stuff, but it sure doesn’t have the same visual impact as a classic phonograph. Fortunately with this iPhonograph you get the stunning classic style blended with the beauty of new technology. If you’ve got the skills, Instructables has the steps to make your own.

Link Via Geekosystem

“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)

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

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

Tired of playing Skyrim on your console and want to instead play mandolin while living out your dreams as the Dragonborn? Then you’d better head over to TT Guitars on Etsy to get your own Skyrim electric mandolin. Of course, if you prefer bass or guitar, you can always try those as well, but somehow mandolin seems more appropriate for Skyrim.

Link Via Geekosystem

People around the world have been trying to regulate music for centuries, but in the 1980s, Tipper Gore launched the first campaign to rate albums. Here’s the story of how a vice-president’s wife took on graphic lyrics in music and won …sort of.

DARLING TIPPER

In 1984, Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator Al Gore, bought Prince’s Purple Rain album for her 11-year-old daughter Karenna. They put on the VD and Gore liked it …until she got to “Darling Nikki,” a very sexually explicit song, and one Gore thought was inappropriate for an 11-year-old. Had she known, she never would have bought the album.

Gore did some more “research” on the level of vulgarity in popular music -she watched MTV for a few hours and found more songs that troubled her, including Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher,” and Mötley Crüe’s “Looks That Kill.” “The images frightened my children, they frightened me,” she said. “The graphic sex and the violence were too much for us to handle.”

She started talking to some friends -wives of prominent Washington businessmen and politicians- and decided to use her influence to do something about it. With Susan Baker (wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker) , Pam Howar (wife of powerful realtor Raymond Howar), and Sally Nevius (wife of Washington City Council chairman John Nevius), Gore formed the Parents Music Resource Center, or PMRC, in 1985.

PMRC’s stated goal: to raise parental awareness of “the growing trend in music towards lyrics that are sexually explicit, excessively violent, or glorify the use of drugs and alcohol.” The group even suggested that the increase in some crimes in the previous 30 years directly correlated with the popularity of rock music -rape was up 7% since 1955 and teenage suicide was up 300%.

PMRC TO RIAA: X, V, D/A, O!

In early 1985, the PMRC sent a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA, the music industry trade organization) and asked it to stop releasing sexually explicit or violent recordings, or at the very least, give albums a rating so parents could judge for themselves if the music is appropriate for their child. “Exercise voluntary self-restraint,” the letter read, “perhaps by developing guidelines and/or a rating system, such as that of the movie industry.” Gore actually had a very specific labeling program in mind. Sexual content would be marked with an “X,” violent content would be marked with a “V,” drug and alcohol mentions got a “D/A,” and promotion of occult themes got an “O.” The letter, signed by the wives of over 20 Washington politicians and businessmen, was sent to 62 record companies as well. Only seven responded and all refused to implement any changes.

THE LINK BETWEEN MUSIC AND HEARING LOSS

In 1985, using their clout (i.e. their husbands), the PMRC convinced the United States Senate to hold hearings on the alarming content of popular music. The PMRC testified, detailing their concerns about the harmful effects of sex and violence in music. Several major musicians testified against the PMRC. John Denver said he was “strongly opposed to censorship of any kind,” partially because censors often misinterpret music. (In 1973, when the government was in the midst of an anti-drug crackdown, the FCC asked many radio stations the refrain from playing Denver’s song “Rocky Mountain High,” even though the song is really about enjoying nature.) Dee Snider of the band Twisted Sister argued a similar point: Gore said his song “Under the Blade,” which Snider said he wrote about an upcoming surgery, was about bondage and rape. “Mrs. Gore was looking for sadomasochism and bondage, and she found it. Someone looking for surgical references would have found those as well.”

But Frank Zappa gave the most pointed commentary. “The proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes on the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years with the interpretational problems inherent in the proposal’s design.”

Zappa went so far as to suggest that the RIAA and Congress had made a deal: The RIAA would agree to some meaningless, superficial labeling (to look good in the public eye. In return, Congress would pass a bill that the RIAA was strongly lobbying for: the Home Recording Act, which would outlaw copying music onto blank tapes (the RIAA said unauthorized copying had cost them billions in sales).

CENSORSHIP? OH, BE QUIET

Gore repeatedly assured the Senate and the public that what she was trying to do was create accountability, and let parents know what kind of music their kids were listening to -that it definitely not censorship. But was it? While the PMRC’s most talked-about goal was the labeling system, it actually had some other demands, too. They wanted to:

* establish a rating system for albums and concerts

* require song lyrics to be printed on album covers

* have albums with explicit cover art kept under store counters

* make record companies break contracts with performer who engaged in violent or sexually explicit onstage behavior

* pressure radio and television not to air objectionable artists

Some of those points were unrealistic (it would be impossible to print an entire album’s worth of lyrics on the cover of a CD or cassette), but politicians ultimately found themselves having to agree that forcing record companies or radio stations to ban any musicians the PMRC found offensive would violate the artists’ First Amendment rights.

DID IT STICK?

On November 1, 1985, before he hearings were even over, the RIAA bowed to the pressure of the PMRC (and growing public sentiment -a national poll said 75 percent of Americans favored a labeling system). Ultimately the RIAA agreed to place stickers reading “Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics” on albums deemed offensive. Record companies would do so (and determine what albums get stickers) at their own discretion. Every objectionable album would get the same sticker, not a specific label as Gore had initially proposed. The “Parental Advisory” sticker would have no legally binding effect on stores. It didn’t prevent stores from selling stickered albums to minors, nor did it require them to keep offensive albums behind the counter, unless they wanted to. Wal-Mart opted not to carry stickered albums at all (a poicy that still stands).

THE OPPOSITE EFFECT

So did labeling curb “offensive” music, or at least get kids to stop listening to it? Probably not. In fact in Heavy: The Story of Metal, a documentary about 1980s hard rock, members of the bands Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, and Poison all claim their album sales went up after getting stickered. “The sticker almost guaranteed your record would be bought by rebellious kids,” said Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx.

___________________

The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Music.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

Zooey Deschanel posted this holiday duet she did with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The two starred together in the 2009 movie 500 Days of Summer, and have been friends even longer than that. -Thanks, Bicycle Bill!

It was recently discovered that if you use Google Earth to view the Salford Lads Club in the UK you will find an image of the Mozster hanging out in front of the club, just like in this iconic photo of the Smiths from their The Queen Is Dead LP.

Now that’s what I call a dedicated Morrissey fan! I wonder who will have their image hacked into Google Earth next? My prediction- Elvis at Graceland.

Link

(YouTube Link)

These geektastic electronic musicians play the kind of songs that make you want to click your left mouse button excessively while nerding out online.

They have a style all their own, part electronic, part hip hop, with some nerdcore rapping thrown in. Their songs would make the ultimate soundtrack for nearly every video game ever made, plus you can dance to it!.

Speaking of video games, this time around the trio plays their own version of the song Earthquake by Labrinth using an app game called Grabatron.

It’s catchy, rugged enough to appeal to the hip hop heads that might get an earful, and I would have played their tracks non-stop in my walkman back in the day, as I worked at getting my initials on the high score pages of my fav arcade games. Geeks up, schmucks down!

–via GeeksAreSexy

Mental_floss magazine dug up songs that made the news in the past quarter-century. They may be from a different era, and most of them aren’t particularly popular or critically acclaimed (although some are), but they all made a difference in the world one way or another. Many different ways, actually. Read the stories of each and every song at the blog. Link

Artist and musician Rhe De Ville had recorded a danceable update to her joyful holiday anthem “Happy New Year” for 2012, with a new video, too! Of course, the original is nice, too. -Thanks, Rhe!

(YouTube Link)

We all need a Hall & Oates fix from time to time, and Michael Selvidge feels our pain so he created the Callin’ Oates hotline, a number you can call to get a daily dose of Hall & Oates.

The hotline contains such classics as: Rich Girl, Private Eyes, Maneater and a few more classic songs which will brighten your day and make everything right in the world once again.

And the topper? Hall & Oates aren’t going to shut the line down, and they are thrilled that so many fans keep calling and enjoying their songs!

–via Gothamist

Zach Braff and Donald Faison from the TV show Scrubs recorded a Christmas song and uploaded it to YouTube this morning as a Christmas greeting. -via reddit

Darth Vader directs a flashmob choir at Algonquin College. The Television Broadcasting students organized this with the help of the Ottawa Regional Youth Choir to lighten the mood during finals.

Please note: Lord Vader is not enrolled or on faculty at Algonquin.

-via Buzzfeed

Neatorama presents

You put your right foot in,
You put your right foot out,
You put your right foot in,
And you shake it all about
You do the hokey Pokey
And you turn it all around
That’s what it’s all about!

You put your left foot in,
You put your left foot out,

Etc. etc. etc.

For some reason, “The Hokey Pokey” always brings people up; it makes people happier. Why is the Hokey Pokey so popular and beloved? Well, you can come up with your own theory, but no other song seems to symbolize a good time for people and bring a smile to their faces to quite the same extent.

In 1942, Irish songwriter and publisher Jimmy Kennedy, best known for “The Teddy Bear’s Picnic,” created a dance and an instruction song to go with it called “The Hokey Cokey.” Written to entertain Canadian troops stationed in London, this song is similar to, but not the same as “The Hokey Pokey” we all know.

Composer Al Tabor was also entertaining Canadian troops in wartime London, and in 1942, he wrote a participation dance called “The Hokey Pokey.” He claimed the name came from the London ice cream vendors of his youth, called “Hokey Pokey Men.” The accompanying dance was very similar to Kennedy’s.

In 1946, totally unaware of the British “Hokey Pokey” and “Hokey Cokey,” two Scranton, Pennsylvania musicians, Robert Degan and Joe Brier, recorded “The Hokey Pokey Dance” to entertain summer vacationers at Poconos Mountain resorts. The song was a regional favorite at dances and resorts for the rest of the forties, but that still isn’t the song we know today.

As if to confuse matters even more, British bandleader Gerry Hoey also claimed authorship in 1940 of a similar tune “The Hoey Oka.”

The general belief is that Charles Mack, Taft Baker, and Larry Laprise wrote the American version of the song, “The Hokey Pokey,” in 1949 to entertain skiers at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho. The song was a hit at resorts, so Laprise recorded it. It flopped, but Degan and Brier found out about it and sued Laprise for ripping off their “Hokey Pokey Dance.” Despite the fact that his version came out after theirs, Laprise won the rights to anything to do with “The Hokey Pokey.”

(YouTube link)
The 1953 recording by Ray Anthony and his Orchestra featuring vocals by Jo Ann Greer.

In 1953, Ray Anthony’s orchestra recorded it -a double sided single with “The Bunny Hop”- and it went to #13 on the charts. This is the version we know today.

The origins of the song go back further than this, however. Some argue that “The Hokey Pokey” (or “Cokey”) is a corruption of “hocus pocus,” the familiar term used by magicians. “Hocus pocus” derives, in turn, from Catholic Mass: hoc corpus meum (“this is my body”), indicating the conversion of the communion bread into the body of Jesus Christ.

The dance that goes along with the song, in which the participants all dance in a ring, putting the relevant arm or foot in and out, and then shaking it about, goes back a fair way, too. Similar dances and songs were recorded in Robert Chambers’ Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1826), and other versions have been traced to seventeenth-century minstrels.

“The Hokey-Pokey” would appear to ridicule the religious rituals of the Shakers (so named for their jerky movements while engaging in worship), who both danced and sang during their services.

(YouTube link)
Comedian Jim Breuer shows us what the Hokey Pokey would sound like performed by AC/DC.

But the earliest accurate record, so far, of the song we all know and love is from an account, dated 1857, of two sisters from Canterbury, England, on a trip to Bridgewater, New Hampshire. During their visit, they taught the locals a song that went something like this:

I put my right hand in.
I put my right hand out,
I give my hand a shake, shake, shake,
And I turn myself about.

Apparently, the performance of the song -called “Right Elbow In” and several verses long- was accompanied by “appropriate gestures” and was danced in a slow, rhythmic motion.

Whether or not an earlier reference will ever be found, it seems the origins of “The Hokey Pokey” do not lie in America, as currently claimed. The song was merely exported there.

The song’s great popularity, however, remains in the hearts and minds of countless millions of Americans, and “The Hokey Pokey” is definitely a part of Americana.

(YouTube link)
The hip hop version of the Hokey Pokey by The Puppies was used for this dance recital from 2005.

(Title image source: I Can Has Cheezburger)

British sailors aboard the amphibious assault ship HMS Ocean lip-sync to Mariah Carey’s Christmas recording while on their way home from what was originally supposed to be a seven-week deployment -but then they were diverted to Libya, and seven weeks turned into seven months. After a 225-day mission (176 at sea), they are stoked to get back to the UK by this Friday, in time for the holidays! Link

Ralph ‘Whistler’ Giese performed “Georgia on My Mind” on the Detroit talk show Kelly & Company in the early ’80s. The audience reaction is priceless. See more of Giese’s video at Dailiy Picks and Flicks. Link -via Metafilter

Rock stars aren’t generally known for their amazing acting skills, but that doesn’t stop television executives from working them into different cameo roles whenever possible. Mental Floss has a great article with some of the greatest (and most terrible) musician cameos ever made. My personal favorite was Michael Stipe in The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Any of you remember these episodes?

Link

(Video Link)

Oh Mike, you went from being one of the most intimidating people in the world to being a comedic icon. Here he is further softening his image by softly singing “The Girl From Ipanema.”

Via BuzzFeed

Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, The Piano Guys brought us Cello Wars. Steven Sharp Nelson plays several of the various themes from the Star Wars films on two cellos with light sabers. Then Darth Vader and Chewbacca dance. I think you’ll enjoy it. -Thanks, Will Findlay!

Stuffed and mounted animals sing “Back in the Day” by The Erratic Man. Besides the video, there’s a choir of singing animals that you can add your pet to! Link -Thanks, James!

From YouTube member bd594, the same geek who brought us “Bohemian Rhapsody” by The Gadget Orchestra a couple of years ago, we now have the classic “House of the Rising Sun” played by various vintage electronic gadgets. The instruments:

a. HP Scanjet 3P, Adaptec SCSI card and a computer powered by Ubuntu v9.10 OS as the Vocals. (hey, the scanner is old)
b. Atari 800XL with an EiCO Oscilloscope as the Organ
c. Texas instrument Ti-99/4A with a Tektronix Oscilloscope as the Guitar
d. Hard-drive powered by a PiC16F84A microcontroller as the bass drum and cymbal

-via Metafilter

(YouTube Link)

Fans of the Mario Bros. video game franchise draw inspiration from the moustachioed plumbers in so many creative ways, but i’m generally most impressed by the musical tributes. This operatic styled song released on YouTube by legolambs has hilarious lyrics that go along with the gameplay so well that you’ll be entertained even though you’re watching someone play Super Mario Bros. for the millionth time.

–via Geekosystem

(YouTube Link)

Most of the songs on this list have been used so many times,on soundtracks for movies and television shows, that we know them by heart. I’ve heard them all a million times (except for Zombie Nation, which is apparently big with hockey fans), yet I was surprised to find that I only knew half the song names on the list. See how well you do, and if you knew them all you get a gold star!

Link

]]> http://www.neatorama.com/2011/11/23/15-songs-you-know-but-might-not-know-their-names/feed/ 12 http://www.neatorama.com/2011/11/19/tay-zonday-shows-how-the-economy-is-like-chocolate-rain/ http://www.neatorama.com/2011/11/19/tay-zonday-shows-how-the-economy-is-like-chocolate-rain/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 07:24:45 +0000 Zeon Santos http://www.neatorama.com/?p=56201

(YouTube Link)

The internet sensation behind the song “Chocolate Rain” returns to teach us a little something about the U.S. economy. Tay Zonday makes a little more sense than he did in his previous videos, but i’m still not sure I understand what’s happening with my U.S. dollar situation. Maybe somebody else needs to make an educational song about the economy, preferably someone with a degree in economics!

–via BuzzFeed

Juan-Diego was inspired by colors to write a song. The result is both cute and funny. Who knew a guy getting hit with a pie had so many colors? -Thanks, Juan!

The Koren Ensemble has an ode to today’s date: 11-11-11. The Koren Ensemble is eleven copies of Daniel Koren. -Thanks, Daniel!

How many internet memes are in this song by the GAG Quartet? All of them! Well, according to the YouTube page, there are forty -in case you want to try to find them all. -via The Daily What

This catchy video was created by Joe Sabia and Bryce Yukio Adolphson and set to the music of Paul Simon. It is the second video of a campaign called “Stop the Pity. Unlock the Potential Campaign” from Mama Hope, a nonprofit organization working to improve the living conditions of people in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Uganda. Link -via Boing Boing

Did you know that there was a serious film produced about Karen Carpenter that used Barbie dolls instead of actors? That the first pressing of the Thriller LP was much longer than the finished product? That Quentin Tarantino’s first film was ruined by a fire at the film-processing lab? There are plenty of pop culture recordings that you might never get a chance to experience -or by luck, you just might. Read about a lot of lost art at Wired. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

By the way, the Carpenter biopic is available online.

Can you imagine Saddam Hussein campaigning to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love you?” Now that’s just plain weird.

Link

There are plenty of musicians who claim they were born to do something, if you have a hard time remembering who was born to do what, then this street flyer by Natalie Hayter might help. Of course, it can also be used to show your pride in what you were born to do.

Link Via Laughing Squid

(Video Link)

Those of you who grew up on Pete & Pete are certain to appreciate this great shot for shot remake of the intro by the band Tara Melos.

Via BuzzFeed

Whether you love or hate seeing montages in movies, there’s no denying that they are an effective story telling tool – even if they were way overused throughout the ’80s. Regardless of how you feel about montages though, it’s hard to deny that they can easily ruin an otherwise good song by creating a scene so memorable that you can’t think of anything else but the movie whenever you listen to the track. Here are a few songs that are impossible to listen to without getting montages stuck in your head.

Rue The Day has seven such songs, plus a bonus song that’s about movie montages. Link

How many different songs can you include in a mashup and make it sound good? Chris from Ithaca Audio proves that if you know what you’re doing, the answer is “all of them.” The tune is available as a free download. Link -via Buzzfeed

If you can dance while wearing a marching band uniform with a drum strapped to your belly, then the world is pretty much your oyster. In this video, the Ohio University Marching 110 perform “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO. -via The Daily What

Experimental musician Diego Stocco passes in front of a dry-cleaning establishment almost every day. The sounds that came from the machinery there fascinated him, so he got permission from the owner to turn those sounds into a song. There are more details in his making-of post. Link

Previously: Music from Sand and Bassoforte.

(Video Link)

Living in San Diego, I sometimes take mariachi bands for granted, but this song reminded me just how delightful these groups can be when they cover classic rock songs.

Via Laughing Squid

Scott Benson made this animation for the song “The Murf” by the band Rendezvous.? It wordlessly tells the story of “growing up in the universe.” The storyline, and the making of the video, is detailed at Benson’s website. Link

Almost every sound in rock and pop history that’s caused your ears to prick up, or your eyebrows to raise, has been sampled or digitally reconstructed for our music-making convenience. But these sounds all started somewhere; a musician or a producer made a noise – often by mistake – and someone in the studio piped up and said, “Hey! Actually, that sounds quite good!” And so the palette of rock and pop music was formed – a series of happy accidents, developed, refined and combined, mixed down and presented to us. Here are some of the most distinctive and, in no particular order, the records that best showcase them.

The Word magazine has a list of 40 of those sounds, with the story behind each and samples for you to hear. Link -via the Presurfer

YouTube Link -via Arbroath

Grant Woolard is so patriotic, he sang the national anthems of six countries -and then mashed them up in this musical collage. It works surprisingly well! You’ll hear the anthems of Germany, Canada, France, the UK, Spain, and the US. -Thanks, Grant!

This is a really nice performance of the main theme from the video game The Legend of Zelda on a marimba, plus snare drum, cymbals, bells, timpani, and triangle. These guys used no sheet music -it’s all played by ear! -via Buzzfeed

This Twaggie is based on a Tweet by @thesulk. If true, it would go a long way toward explaining why Rachmaninov’s music is so difficult for us mere mortals to play. Link

Previously at Neatorama: Another possible explanation.