Rock-n-roll is all about being a rebel and going against The Man and The Corporation.
To hear Dee Snider tell it, it’s also not wearing a pledge pin on your uniform.
That’s why Dee Snider has asked the Internet to come together for one singular cause:
Web Watch was at a music video shoot many, many years ago. It consisted of standing around a concert stage in an empty arena for hours on end while the same song got played over and over for the artist to lip-sync. It really wasn’t as much fun as we were promised, and no pizza was provided. Through the magic of editing, the crowd shots in the finished video look much more packed than what was really there.
So have you ever wanted to be in a music video, but were never in the right place at the right time? Now’s your chance.
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Kids today love music, and they love their YouTube.
So why not put the two together into a LIP DUB? It’s a better group activity than Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and can even result in some kids getting grades if they do this as a special project in the classroom (as seen in the amazing backwards video below).
What is a Lip Dub? It’s a homemade music video done as a single tracking shot through a school, office, mall, or other environment. All the participants are dancing around the camera into and out of the shot, and the main person on screen is lip-syncing the song. There are no rules – more than one person can sing any part of the song, and random costumes are encouraged. The term “Lip Dub” itself is traced to Jakob Lodwick, founder of the Vimeo video service.
If you get your office together to create a lip dub, you can even submit your production to OFFICE LIP DUB.
We won’t get into the details surrounding the hows and whys behind some of these lip dub videos, but you can click through to the stories behind the stories for full details. Let’s just say that some of these folks may have too much time on their hands, but they’re making stuff that’s wildly creative and entertaining.
The bigger question for these students is going to be whether making lip dubs and posting them to YouTube and other video sharing services is legal or not.
Jakob Lodwick’s Vimeo openly solicits for lip dubs to follow their original creation of Flagpole Sitta. Now, Vimeo is being sued by the record labels for encouraging these flagrantly illegal lip dub videos to be made in the first place. One side says that the homemade videos’ use of songs qualify under fair use; the labels say that doesn’t count since the entire songs are usually used.
Watch these videos, and decide for yourself if the music labels have a point:
HEY YA! by Outkast
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So by now, Web Watch hopes that you have taken the time to view the Muppets’ version of Queen’s BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY.
If you haven’t, we’ve included it here. (If you have, we know you’re just going to click PLAY again, if only to watch Animal’s segment one more time.)
Obviously the highlight of the video for most people is Animal’s part. Web Watch, on the other hand, enjoyed noticing the many lesser-known Muppets that were included in the video, including Mahna Mahna.
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TOO MUCH JOY was a band in the early 90’s that not a lot of people knew about, although they had a reputation for being one of the best live bands around. Web Watch knows this first-hand, having been lucky enough to have the chance to see them play more than a few times over the years.
If you’ve seen the film SHAKES THE CLOWN, then you’ve heard TMJ’s song “CLOWNS
In other words, Too Much Joy has been around the block a few times. They’ve released a few albums, made national news covering other people’s songs, had some radio play, have celebrity fans, and have done pretty well for themselves in the subsequent years. They’ve even been called “sell-outs” by some of their fans. What’s not to love?
Tim Quirk, lead singer of Too Much Joy and now an executive at the music streaming service Rhapsody, knows the answer to that question: the music royalties.
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If you’re looking for some free Christmas or holiday music, you need to pay attention this month.
AMAZON.COM has decided to share FREE MP3 DOWNLOADS
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A few years ago, Web Watch posted a piece on using a MUSIC ROYALTY CALCULATOR TO DETERMINE ALBUM PROFITS, and we thought that it was a good time to revisit that topic.
Why?
Because many things have changed in the music industry since we we wrote that original piece. That music royalty calculator link is still valid, but we found another one that you might want to look at as well.
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Neil Diamond is one singer who refuses to sing one song that he is quite famous for. Name it. (Web Watch will post that song at the end of this post.)
In the meantime, here is a list of 10 BANDS AND THE SONGS THAT THEY REFUSE TO SING.
Why do they hate these songs so much? Various reasons. They could be bored with the song, not proud of having written it in the first place, or maybe it represents a time in their lives that is no longer relevant in today’s day. Click the link to see the actual reasons given.
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