Now this is what I'm talking about!
Not only is this an absolute CLASSIC song, it has a hilarious video to boot! I mean, its so awesome I can't decide wether I find the video better than the song itself! Yes, it's THAT good!
The brains behind it is music video genius Spike Jonze. The Jewish-American director was also responsible for other memorable greats such as the videos to Fatboy Slims "Weapon of choice" and "Praise you", Weezers "Buddy Holly" and "Undone" and "100%" by Sonic youth. So its no surprise this video ranks among the top clips to ever be shot. Even Sofia Coppola must've been impressed, she married the guy for crying out loud!
Focusing on the video - it is a near perfect replica (actually a near perfect parody) of a lot of old school cop shows. Think "Starsky and Hutch" and "The Streets of San Francisco", tough cops, shortsleeved shirts with whacky ties, lots of car and on foot chases, pistol whipping, questionable interrogation tactics and, of course, aviator sunglasses!
And as no amount of hype will come even close to representing the overall awesomeness which "Sabotage" encompases, lets just move on to the video!
If I have to be frank, I personally rank this song and video as Number 1 in the countdown and am only posting it as number 7 as this is the order in which the actual MTV countdown was listed. So "boo" MTV!
Friday, March 12, 2010
MTV Video countdown - Number 8 - Robert Palmer - Addicted to Love
If someone told me they were making a music video featuring 5 high fashion models rocking out to a song sung by Robert Palmer and I hadn't previously watched this video, I would've had just 1 word to say...AWESOME!
However, as it usually turns out in life, it sounds better than it looks.
The music video for Addicted to Love does indeed feature 5 model chicks playing as the rock legends' backing band, playing the drums, synthesizer, bass and lead and rhythm guitars. However, here's the kick...They're all in very heavy pale makeup and contrasting dark clothes, sport expressionless faces and do a VERY sloppy job of even PRETENDING to play! :)
Oh well...At least the song's great!
Here's some info from wiki -
"Addicted to Love" is a song by Robert Palmer first released in 1986. The song has now become known as his signature song, thanks in part to a highly popular video featuring high fashion models. Other artists have released versions since.
This is the third song on the Riptide album. The most commonly heard version runs around four minutes, but the full album version runs a little over six minutes.
The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as spending two weeks atop the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart, and it peaked at #5 on the UK Singles Chart.
Originally intended to be a duet with Chaka Khan, her record company at the time wouldn't grant her a release to work on Palmer's label, Island Records. Chaka Khan is still credited for the vocal arrangements in the album liner notes.
The guitar part on the song is played by Eddie Martinez, then a member of Palmer's band, and keyboards by Wally Badarou. The song is also notable for the unaccompanied drum opening, which plays at 7/4. The rest of the song is in common 4/4 time.
However, as it usually turns out in life, it sounds better than it looks.
The music video for Addicted to Love does indeed feature 5 model chicks playing as the rock legends' backing band, playing the drums, synthesizer, bass and lead and rhythm guitars. However, here's the kick...They're all in very heavy pale makeup and contrasting dark clothes, sport expressionless faces and do a VERY sloppy job of even PRETENDING to play! :)
Oh well...At least the song's great!
Here's some info from wiki -
"Addicted to Love" is a song by Robert Palmer first released in 1986. The song has now become known as his signature song, thanks in part to a highly popular video featuring high fashion models. Other artists have released versions since.
This is the third song on the Riptide album. The most commonly heard version runs around four minutes, but the full album version runs a little over six minutes.
The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as spending two weeks atop the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart, and it peaked at #5 on the UK Singles Chart.
Originally intended to be a duet with Chaka Khan, her record company at the time wouldn't grant her a release to work on Palmer's label, Island Records. Chaka Khan is still credited for the vocal arrangements in the album liner notes.
The guitar part on the song is played by Eddie Martinez, then a member of Palmer's band, and keyboards by Wally Badarou. The song is also notable for the unaccompanied drum opening, which plays at 7/4. The rest of the song is in common 4/4 time.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
MTV Video countdown - Number 9 - 2Pac - California Love
THE definitive West Coast artist, Tupac Amaru Shakur, commonly known by his stage-name of 2Pac, is up next with maybe his best known (or at least most commercially successful) 1995 megahit "California Love".
The song features Mr. NWA - Dr. Dre and funk legend Roger Troutman (of Zapp fame).
"California Love" was Shakur's only entry on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, ranked #346 and #51 on VH1's countdown of the 100 Greatest songs of the 90s.
Lets listen in, shall we?
Here's some info from wiki in the meantime -
Two versions of music video exist. The first video (directed by Hype Williams) was inspired by the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and takes place in a desert in the year 2095. The casting includes singer George Clinton as the evil tribal chief, actor Chris Tucker[2] (then-known only for his role in the film Friday) playing the evil tribal chief's yes-man, Tony Cox as the dwarf soldier and Roger Troutman (formerly with the band Zapp) carrying a talk box. The shooting took place in the Thunderdome set[2] known from the movie. It ends with a cliffhanger cut by a To Be Continued closing. An alternative version, featuring the remix song re-cut, removes the final caption and features 2Pac and Dre naming West Coast towns.
The first video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video in 1996. It achieved #9 of the top 10 on MTV's 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made list in 1999. In April, 2005 it reached the Bronze medal spot on MTV2 and XXL's 25 Greatest West Coast Videos. It also achieved #1 on the French MTV's 100 Greatest Rap Music Videos in 2006 (featured from 23 till 30 of July).
The song features Mr. NWA - Dr. Dre and funk legend Roger Troutman (of Zapp fame).
"California Love" was Shakur's only entry on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, ranked #346 and #51 on VH1's countdown of the 100 Greatest songs of the 90s.
Lets listen in, shall we?
Here's some info from wiki in the meantime -
Two versions of music video exist. The first video (directed by Hype Williams) was inspired by the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and takes place in a desert in the year 2095. The casting includes singer George Clinton as the evil tribal chief, actor Chris Tucker[2] (then-known only for his role in the film Friday) playing the evil tribal chief's yes-man, Tony Cox as the dwarf soldier and Roger Troutman (formerly with the band Zapp) carrying a talk box. The shooting took place in the Thunderdome set[2] known from the movie. It ends with a cliffhanger cut by a To Be Continued closing. An alternative version, featuring the remix song re-cut, removes the final caption and features 2Pac and Dre naming West Coast towns.
The first video was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video in 1996. It achieved #9 of the top 10 on MTV's 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made list in 1999. In April, 2005 it reached the Bronze medal spot on MTV2 and XXL's 25 Greatest West Coast Videos. It also achieved #1 on the French MTV's 100 Greatest Rap Music Videos in 2006 (featured from 23 till 30 of July).
MTV Video countdown - Number 10 - Madonna - Express Yourself
I will probably make a whole separate post dedicated solely to the Queen of Pop so for the time being lets have a look at her 6th number 1 hit "- Express yourself". And, as this is music video week, lets check out what the most expensive video (at that time) looks like -
Well...I think 5 million dollars could've been put to better use, but then again, this IS directed by DAVID FINCH! Yes, the same David Finch who directed "Se7en", "Fight Club", "Alien 3" and a personal favorite - "The Game". I'm guessing half of the 5 mil was his commission :)
And yes, $5 million is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a 4 minute video, and, yes, it was the most expensive video at the time, until it got trumped by Madonna herself in 2002 with the video for "Die another day". There is another video which tops the list, but lets keep it a secret for now, as it will make an appearance on the list later on ;)
Well...I think 5 million dollars could've been put to better use, but then again, this IS directed by DAVID FINCH! Yes, the same David Finch who directed "Se7en", "Fight Club", "Alien 3" and a personal favorite - "The Game". I'm guessing half of the 5 mil was his commission :)
And yes, $5 million is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a 4 minute video, and, yes, it was the most expensive video at the time, until it got trumped by Madonna herself in 2002 with the video for "Die another day". There is another video which tops the list, but lets keep it a secret for now, as it will make an appearance on the list later on ;)
Top 10 MTV Music videos countdown
Well, since we managed to steer the blog into the commercial direction already, lets at least make good use of it.
I'm gonna try something new here - a weekly countdown, posting 10 videos in the next week, 2 videos today, 2 tomorrow and ending next Thursday with the number 1 video from the countdown...
And thus began "MTV Music Video week"...
I'm gonna try something new here - a weekly countdown, posting 10 videos in the next week, 2 videos today, 2 tomorrow and ending next Thursday with the number 1 video from the countdown...
And thus began "MTV Music Video week"...
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Speaking of animated music videos...
...how about this fantastic effort by Seattle's' alt rock / grunge band Pearl Jam collaborating with Kevin Altieri (of Batman: The Animated Series fame) and Todd McFarlane (better known for his work with the popular comic book Spawn)!
The video was produced by Joe Pearson and was written and developed by him and Altieri with input from McFarlane and Vedder over the course of 4 months.
The video premiered on August 24, 1998 on MTV's 120 Minutes and received a 1999 Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form.
Collage of scenes from the "Do the Evolution" video featuring an archetypal representation of death as a seductive female among other scenes of post-apocalyptic industrialization.
Throughout the video, a black haired woman (similar in appearance to the character Death from the DC comic book series, The Sandman) dances and laughs, representing "Death" as it follows mankind through all of its history. The video is misanthropic in its underlying message. The video begins with the evolution of life, from the smallest cell to the extinction of dinosaurs and reign of homo sapiens. The video then cuts back and forth throughout human history, depicting man's primitive, violent nature as essentially unchanged over the centuries. Such depictions include a knight preparing for the coming slaughter during the Crusades, a ritual dance by America's KKK (the dance is repeated with other groups throughout the video), a rally by Nazi-esque troops (with a symbol reminiscent of the Sig Rune instead of a swastika), Auschwitz-like prisoners with the stripes going vertically instead of horizontally on their uniforms, carnage upon a World War I-era battlefield (apparently a tribute to Peace on Earth, a 1930s MGM anti-war cartoon directed by Hugh Harman), the apparent rape of a woman, and the bombing of a Vietnamese village by an American jet, the pilot of which removes his mask to reveal a skull laughing wildly. Every scene portrayed complements the song's meaning and tightly follows the lyrics. When Vedder sings "Buying stocks on the day of the crash," a scene is shown where businessmen are committing suicide by jumping from buildings, similar to Black Thursday and the resulting suicides from the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Other social and environmental issues such as whaling, Manifest Destiny, vivisection, pollution, genetic modification and techno-progressivism are included. The music video blames humankind's brutality on leadership; with various scenes depicting a cardinal or priest, an American President, and an Asian leader. It is eventually revealed that the world leaders are being controlled as puppets by the hand of Death. The video concludes in what seem to be future scenarios of the self-destruction of the human race, including the carpet bombing of a city of clones by futuristic aircraft, computers hijacking the human mind, and finally a nuclear explosion which leaves a city in ruins. During the sequence of flashing images near the end of the video an image of a yield sign being smashed at the corner can be seen, which references the album title and cover art.
Absolutely fenomenal animation work, going along nicely with Mr. Vedders screams of "IT'S EVOLUTIONS, BABY!". And don't you just love the female character acting as "Death" in the video?
Just as eery as she is cute...and vice versa!
The video was produced by Joe Pearson and was written and developed by him and Altieri with input from McFarlane and Vedder over the course of 4 months.
The video premiered on August 24, 1998 on MTV's 120 Minutes and received a 1999 Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form.
Collage of scenes from the "Do the Evolution" video featuring an archetypal representation of death as a seductive female among other scenes of post-apocalyptic industrialization.
Throughout the video, a black haired woman (similar in appearance to the character Death from the DC comic book series, The Sandman) dances and laughs, representing "Death" as it follows mankind through all of its history. The video is misanthropic in its underlying message. The video begins with the evolution of life, from the smallest cell to the extinction of dinosaurs and reign of homo sapiens. The video then cuts back and forth throughout human history, depicting man's primitive, violent nature as essentially unchanged over the centuries. Such depictions include a knight preparing for the coming slaughter during the Crusades, a ritual dance by America's KKK (the dance is repeated with other groups throughout the video), a rally by Nazi-esque troops (with a symbol reminiscent of the Sig Rune instead of a swastika), Auschwitz-like prisoners with the stripes going vertically instead of horizontally on their uniforms, carnage upon a World War I-era battlefield (apparently a tribute to Peace on Earth, a 1930s MGM anti-war cartoon directed by Hugh Harman), the apparent rape of a woman, and the bombing of a Vietnamese village by an American jet, the pilot of which removes his mask to reveal a skull laughing wildly. Every scene portrayed complements the song's meaning and tightly follows the lyrics. When Vedder sings "Buying stocks on the day of the crash," a scene is shown where businessmen are committing suicide by jumping from buildings, similar to Black Thursday and the resulting suicides from the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Other social and environmental issues such as whaling, Manifest Destiny, vivisection, pollution, genetic modification and techno-progressivism are included. The music video blames humankind's brutality on leadership; with various scenes depicting a cardinal or priest, an American President, and an Asian leader. It is eventually revealed that the world leaders are being controlled as puppets by the hand of Death. The video concludes in what seem to be future scenarios of the self-destruction of the human race, including the carpet bombing of a city of clones by futuristic aircraft, computers hijacking the human mind, and finally a nuclear explosion which leaves a city in ruins. During the sequence of flashing images near the end of the video an image of a yield sign being smashed at the corner can be seen, which references the album title and cover art.
Absolutely fenomenal animation work, going along nicely with Mr. Vedders screams of "IT'S EVOLUTIONS, BABY!". And don't you just love the female character acting as "Death" in the video?
Just as eery as she is cute...and vice versa!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Dire Straits and MTV Europe
I was informed that my writing should be a bit more neutral, so without bashing MTV again, lets see an interesting video by Dire Straits -
Hear the falsetto "I want my MTV" in the intro? That, my friends, is non other than mr. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, more popularly known as STING!
This was the first video to be shown on MTV Europe and is actually one of my all-time favorite songs!
From wiki -
Money for Nothing" is a song recorded by British group Dire Straits, which first appeared on their 1985 album Brothers in Arms and subsequently became an international hit when released as a single. It peaked at number one for three weeks in the United States, becoming their most successful single, and also peaked at number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In the band's native UK, the song peaked at number four. The recording was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's falsetto introduction and backing chorus, "I want my MTV". The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network started on August 1, 1987.
The lyrics did stir up some controversy though -
The observations of the character included references to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and a description of a singer as "that little faggot with the earring and the makeup", and lamenting that the artists got "money for nothing and chicks for free". These lyrics were widely criticized as sexist, racist and homophobic statements, and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother": "little mother, he's a millionaire".
When the song is included in rotation as part of a music feed played in stores, or restaurants "faggot" is usually turned backwards.
The entire second verse was edited out for content and length for radio and video airplay, and on the 7" single. This edited version is included in the compilation albums Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits and Money for Nothing.
In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:
I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London - he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct. In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.
Wonderful, 1 "faggot" in the lyrics and the whole world goes wild and tries to put down a perfectly wonderful song! Way to miss the point of the song itself!
The lead character in "Money for Nothing" is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He's singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real....
Not one mention of homosexuality now, is there? The "guy" simply hates the fact he has to "Install microwave ovens" while the guys on TV get their "money for nothing and chicks for free".
Just about as working class as it gets...
ps.
Oh, by the way, anyone else see Knopflers headband as a wicked awesome pair of futuristic eyegear?! :D
Hear the falsetto "I want my MTV" in the intro? That, my friends, is non other than mr. Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, more popularly known as STING!
This was the first video to be shown on MTV Europe and is actually one of my all-time favorite songs!
From wiki -
Money for Nothing" is a song recorded by British group Dire Straits, which first appeared on their 1985 album Brothers in Arms and subsequently became an international hit when released as a single. It peaked at number one for three weeks in the United States, becoming their most successful single, and also peaked at number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In the band's native UK, the song peaked at number four. The recording was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's falsetto introduction and backing chorus, "I want my MTV". The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network started on August 1, 1987.
The lyrics did stir up some controversy though -
The observations of the character included references to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and a description of a singer as "that little faggot with the earring and the makeup", and lamenting that the artists got "money for nothing and chicks for free". These lyrics were widely criticized as sexist, racist and homophobic statements, and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother": "little mother, he's a millionaire".
When the song is included in rotation as part of a music feed played in stores, or restaurants "faggot" is usually turned backwards.
The entire second verse was edited out for content and length for radio and video airplay, and on the 7" single. This edited version is included in the compilation albums Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits and Money for Nothing.
In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:
I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London - he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct. In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.
Wonderful, 1 "faggot" in the lyrics and the whole world goes wild and tries to put down a perfectly wonderful song! Way to miss the point of the song itself!
The lead character in "Money for Nothing" is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He's singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real....
Not one mention of homosexuality now, is there? The "guy" simply hates the fact he has to "Install microwave ovens" while the guys on TV get their "money for nothing and chicks for free".
Just about as working class as it gets...
ps.
Oh, by the way, anyone else see Knopflers headband as a wicked awesome pair of futuristic eyegear?! :D
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Enough of the history already....
Ok, ok, I hear you, however, we will need to kick it off with another seminal piece, which forever changed music AND television history.
The song itself - a new wave / synthpop disaster going by the name of "Video Killed the Radio Star" by presumably gay duo "The Buggles" (Trevor Horn (vocals, bass guitar, guitar) and Geoff Downes (keyboards, drums, percussion)).
While I enjoy and respect all forms of music, I have my own personal beef with Mr. Horn and Mr. Downes and its related to the way the song was used to open up what would be the beginning of commercial music as we know - MTV.
From Wiki -
"It was the first music video shown on MTV in North America at 00:01 on 1 August 1981."
And while I did enjoy MTV in the first couple of years it was running, I have nothing but resentment for what it has become today - a tool to morally influence large numbers of kids, showing them whats "right" and "in". /rant
Enough about that, lets hear the first song played on MTV!
"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song by the British synthpop/New Wave group The Buggles, released as their debut single on the 7 September 1979, on Island Records. It celebrates the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by television. The song topped the music chart in several countries and has been covered by many recording artists. It was the first music video shown on MTV in North America at 00:01 on 1 August 1981.
Group member Trevor Horn has said that his lyrics were inspired by the J. G. Ballard short story "The Sound-Sweep", in which the title character—a mute boy vacuuming up stray music in a world without it—comes upon an opera singer hiding in a sewer.[2] He also felt "an era was about to pass." The theme of the song is thus nostalgia, which is also echoed in the tone of the music. (The vocals are initially limited in bandwidth, giving a "telephone" effect typical of early broadcasts.) The lyrics refer to a period of technological change in the 1960s, the desire to remember the past and the disappointment that children of the current generation would not appreciate the past. In the 1950s and early 1960s, radio was an important medium for many, through which "stars" were created.
The song was written by Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. Horn has claimed that Woolley was primarily responsible for the musical content, while Horn wrote most of the words. Woolley was responsible for the addition of the words 'put the blame on VTR'. The first version was recorded by Woolley & the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) for his album English Garden, which was a hit in Canada. The Buggles later recorded the song and it reached number one in the UK charts the week of 20 October 1979, the first-ever number one for the Island Records label. It also would top the Australian charts, and made the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, debuting on 10 November 1979, and peaking at number 40.
It appears on the album The Age of Plastic, where it has an additional piano coda. The complicated arrangement and production of the song, which includes a chorus sung by a group of very high-pitched backup singers, foreshadows Horn's later career as a producer.
(note: If you ARE interested in the history of recorded music, watch this space, I will make it a point to provide interesting tidbits of knowledge every couple of days (probably weeks))
The song itself - a new wave / synthpop disaster going by the name of "Video Killed the Radio Star" by presumably gay duo "The Buggles" (Trevor Horn (vocals, bass guitar, guitar) and Geoff Downes (keyboards, drums, percussion)).
While I enjoy and respect all forms of music, I have my own personal beef with Mr. Horn and Mr. Downes and its related to the way the song was used to open up what would be the beginning of commercial music as we know - MTV.
From Wiki -
"It was the first music video shown on MTV in North America at 00:01 on 1 August 1981."
And while I did enjoy MTV in the first couple of years it was running, I have nothing but resentment for what it has become today - a tool to morally influence large numbers of kids, showing them whats "right" and "in". /rant
Enough about that, lets hear the first song played on MTV!
"Video Killed the Radio Star" is a song by the British synthpop/New Wave group The Buggles, released as their debut single on the 7 September 1979, on Island Records. It celebrates the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by television. The song topped the music chart in several countries and has been covered by many recording artists. It was the first music video shown on MTV in North America at 00:01 on 1 August 1981.
Group member Trevor Horn has said that his lyrics were inspired by the J. G. Ballard short story "The Sound-Sweep", in which the title character—a mute boy vacuuming up stray music in a world without it—comes upon an opera singer hiding in a sewer.[2] He also felt "an era was about to pass." The theme of the song is thus nostalgia, which is also echoed in the tone of the music. (The vocals are initially limited in bandwidth, giving a "telephone" effect typical of early broadcasts.) The lyrics refer to a period of technological change in the 1960s, the desire to remember the past and the disappointment that children of the current generation would not appreciate the past. In the 1950s and early 1960s, radio was an important medium for many, through which "stars" were created.
The song was written by Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. Horn has claimed that Woolley was primarily responsible for the musical content, while Horn wrote most of the words. Woolley was responsible for the addition of the words 'put the blame on VTR'. The first version was recorded by Woolley & the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) for his album English Garden, which was a hit in Canada. The Buggles later recorded the song and it reached number one in the UK charts the week of 20 October 1979, the first-ever number one for the Island Records label. It also would top the Australian charts, and made the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, debuting on 10 November 1979, and peaking at number 40.
It appears on the album The Age of Plastic, where it has an additional piano coda. The complicated arrangement and production of the song, which includes a chorus sung by a group of very high-pitched backup singers, foreshadows Horn's later career as a producer.
(note: If you ARE interested in the history of recorded music, watch this space, I will make it a point to provide interesting tidbits of knowledge every couple of days (probably weeks))
What came next?
Enter none other than the person widely regarded as the most prolific inventor in history - Thomas Alva Edison and an invention which would change the history of sound recording - the phonograph.
Below is what was considered the first recording of a human voice meant for playback.
Mr. Edison spoke into the phonograph and recited the first stanza of childrens favorite "Mary had a little lamb" to test his invention. This was back in 1877, making it second audio recording to be successfully made and played back and whats more exciting is the fact that it is mindblowingly clear! Just listen!
"The first words I spoke in the original phonograph. A little piece of practical poetry. Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go."
Now this is how you make history!
Below is what was considered the first recording of a human voice meant for playback.
Mr. Edison spoke into the phonograph and recited the first stanza of childrens favorite "Mary had a little lamb" to test his invention. This was back in 1877, making it second audio recording to be successfully made and played back and whats more exciting is the fact that it is mindblowingly clear! Just listen!
"The first words I spoke in the original phonograph. A little piece of practical poetry. Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go."
Now this is how you make history!
The FIRST song ever recorded
Well, how did we get here?
It all started with the first known song to ever be recorded on a sound recording device - the phonautograph.
On the 9th of April, 1860, 28 years before Edisons phonographic recording of a Handel chorus from the oratorio "Israel in Egypt", Mr. Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville unleashed the below monstrosity of what was possibly his own voice, performing the French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune".
Initially it was believed this was the inventors own daughter singing, before experts discovered that the recording was played at twice normal speed and was probably monsieur Scott de Martinville own voice.
Yes, its creepy...But it was a start...
It all started with the first known song to ever be recorded on a sound recording device - the phonautograph.
On the 9th of April, 1860, 28 years before Edisons phonographic recording of a Handel chorus from the oratorio "Israel in Egypt", Mr. Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville unleashed the below monstrosity of what was possibly his own voice, performing the French folk song "Au Clair de la Lune".
Initially it was believed this was the inventors own daughter singing, before experts discovered that the recording was played at twice normal speed and was probably monsieur Scott de Martinville own voice.
Yes, its creepy...But it was a start...
What this blog is all about
Greetings and felicitations, children of technology!
Simply put, I LOVE MUSIC and I love to know the facts behind all the songs and bands I listen to. I will do my best to update this blog every day with a new song and the facts behind it. Any questions, remarks, input - lemme know :)
Simply put, I LOVE MUSIC and I love to know the facts behind all the songs and bands I listen to. I will do my best to update this blog every day with a new song and the facts behind it. Any questions, remarks, input - lemme know :)
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