For his fans, Gotye’s YouTube mash-up made entirely from covers of his hit “Somebody That I Used to Know” is one doozy of a love letter.
The Belgian-Australian artist (real name Wally De Backer) released the video via his YouTube channel this weekend. It features nearly six minutes’ worth of fans covering his 2011 single. “Somebody That I Used to Know” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been the best-selling digital single of the year in the U.S.
Called “Somebodies: A YouTube Orchestra,” the video showcases amateur musicians playing the song on sax, harp, banjo, piano, bouzouki (a type of lute), and more. Also look for the full chorus, a capella singers, the acoustic solo, and animated scenes. Plus, clips from parodies of Gotye’s original music video, featuring Legos and Muppet-like puppets.
Consider the plight of an aging pioneer in the golden age of gangsta rap. It’s not so different than that of a dotcom era startup entrepreneur like Marc Andreessen, who went from cofounding seminal web browser Netscape to funding the next generation of tech entrepreneurs via his Silicon Valley venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz. Or Elon Musk, who made his millions as cofounder of PayPal and now builds Tesla electric cars and spaceships. Snoop’s 40. He has a couple of options. He could become a permanently faded parody of his younger weed-smoking self. Or he could change strategy without changing his vision. He could acknowledge his hardcore, street life-focused past while embracing a more universal aspect of his personality. He’s found that in his reggae music pivot, he says.
“My studio’s always in my house. I want to wake up and be like, ‘You know I’m gonna make music today in my underwear. You know what I’m gonna be in my pajamas. You know what, I’m actually just gonna stay inside for the next three days so I can make music.’”
Nowadays, there are kids who come complete with Twitter followers and Facebook likes and YouTube hits that get close to the millions, if not more. You’re finding more and more of that, especially during the “post-Soulja Boy era.” Those numbers help. It shows the brunt of the work to develop you and give you a following is already taken care of. All [a label] has to do is water the plant, turn it into a beanstalk.
Then, earlier this year, she donned an electric-blue bubble dress and a rust-colored puffy wig, and took to a very different kind of stage than she’s used to: The New York Hall of Science, where she spent a month-long residency doing multimedia concerts for adults and tech-science-music workshops for public-middle-school students. “I was kind of thinking of me when I was, like, 8 and what would be the best thing that could happen to me in music school, and the whole thing is kind of designed around that format,” Björk says.
The kids learned rudimentary music theory, played with the apps, then started creating their own songs. Björk’s work paired perfectly with the Hall of Science’s installations—her track “Moon” corresponded to a “Search for Life Beyond Earth” exhibit, for example—so that children could follow their interests to discover bigger ideas. Her audience cheered in their own way, especially after tapping a screen to make a Tesla coil spark. “I am Thor!” shouted a gaggle of 13-year-olds.
Having reinvented himself a few dozen times, he clearly feels the occasional need to destroy something beautiful. And it’s his knack for creative destruction that earned him a spot as one of our 100 Most Creative People 2012. He joins us today to talk about the three businesses he’s hatched, all of which have a shot at shaking up entertainment as we know it.The One & Only Golden Tickets is a Willy Wonka approach to online concerts, offering all access to digital VIPs. His digital ticketing business, VyRT, is the more like the general admission component—don’t call either sophisticated service “streaming,” though. On the artist side, he’s forged The Hive, a powerful social media consultancy based on best practices he picked up with his own band and their rabid social followers.
The most challenging thing about a live shoot is that the artist is under no control whatsoever. It’s totally an ad lib situation. It’s important to be as inoffensive as possible when trying to shoot the artist—that way they’ll cooperate with you. One of the tricks I’ve done over the years is to wear the same hat for every concert. What happens is that everybody sees the black beret and they know it’s me. Then they come over and play almost directly to me sometimes. It was sort of a trick I learned early on to orient an artist to who I am if there are a lot of photographers shooting at the same time.
Rock and roll photography veteran Robert Knight talks to Co.Create about shooting music legends from Led Zeppelin to Slash, what you need to know before attempting to shoot a rock star, and how to ditch Instagram and get real.
Ssense, a luxury retail company based out of Montreal, has recently introduced what they’re billing as the “world’s first interactive shoppable music video.” And yup, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. I Think She Ready features Diplo, FKi, and Iggy Azalea all decked out and styled in brands and items carried by the site, while WireWax technology, which enables users to tag videos in essentially the same way they would a Facebook post, makes the “interactive shoppable” part possible.
Spotify introduced its embeddable play button today, but this one isn’t working for me — and it won’t work for many international readers either. Working for you?
Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda talks about his first experience scoring a film (The Raid), how his band became the biggest on Facebook (with 40 million “likes”), and what online innovations fans should expect from their next album. Read on->
“Vevo is using our playlist engine to turn any Vevo play into a Vevo station that’s personalized based on your music tastes,” says Echo Nest CEO Jim Lucchese. “We can analyze your iTunes library on an opt-in basis to understand your overall music personality, and from there generate a customized Vevo channel using any seed artist or track.”
Japanese musician Masaki Batoh’s unconventional new album Brain Pulse Music features the artist getting busy on an instrument of the most unorthodox kind — a freakish, EEG-enabled headset that turns brain waves into sound waves.
It wasn’t long ago that the Grammys were snarkily dubbed the Grannies. Notorious for performances from artists that you vaguely remembered from your parents’ LP collection, the show was teetering on the brink of irrelevance. But over the last five years, through its working relationship with its agency TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A., the brand has undergone a shift.
A new medical sensor can be powered by remote vibrations—especially those found in hip-hop. Grab your insurance card and head immediately to the nearest car stereo installation center. Dr. Dre will see you now.
Booming System Monitors Your Health With Sick Beats
![Nowadays, there are kids who come complete with Twitter followers and Facebook likes and YouTube hits that get close to the millions, if not more. You’re finding more and more of that, especially during the “post-Soulja Boy era.” Those numbers help. It shows the brunt of the work to develop you and give you a following is already taken care of. All [a label] has to do is water the plant, turn it into a beanstalk.
Hip-Hop HR: Tips From The Man Who Signed 50 Cent](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m53hy5ndOX1qzt7h7o1_500.jpg)
