This is too freaking fun.

via boingboing Thanks @tone_def

**UPDATE**
EMI (well, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, apparently) forced this one off Youtube for copyright reasons, so here it is again. Sorry, it’s only a link though.

http://www.kontraband.com/videos/23502/Newport-State-Of-Mind/

That’s Newport, Wales. Kudos to my wife fer finding this cracking piss-take of Alicia Keys and Jay-Z. And cheers fer reminding me of one of those towns that will be forever “well, it’s okay, I suppose”. I lived thereabouts fer nearly four year (specifically Caeleon – which gets a mention – and Risca – which doesn’t. Thankfully.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNfbX6uvA6s

Best bit for me is 2:38 in, where our rapper appears to be a little freaked out by his companion…

In case you missed it.

I spend a great deal of time criticizing Hollywood for its uncreative greediness and I am sure you get sick of my angry attitude. So, let’s switch gears for a moment. No I am not going to be positive, I am just going to complain about the music industry’s uncreative greed.

Just watch it. Hilarious.

I bet this girl is the intended audience.

I’ve ranted enough about crap music and the pathetic approach that the big corporations take to music these days for you to realise that I’m not going to take the soft line when it comes to my opinions.
That’s why, when Jay dropped me this clip via FaecesBook, I was mightily pleased. The rib-tickling didn’t harm either.
One thing I don’t understand, though, is just when did Jack Black find the fountain of youth and ditch Kyle Gass? Okay, so it’s just Axis of Awesome, “Australia’s most tolerated band”.

That’s all you need, then folks; four chords, the ability to play them in various guises and someone to put words into your mouth. Status Quo, step forwards.
Amazing, really, that so much has been done with so little…

…um… maybe not then…

It is with no small amount of sarcasm that I proudly grudgingly introduce to you the future of pop music: Wall-Eve and the MOs

OK, so they don’t exist and probably never will. However, the fact remains that far too much of the pop and R’n'B music scene is treating the Auto-Tune function as de rigeur. X-Factor rejects (yes, because they never won) JLS seem to have based an entire career upon it, while Owl City have gone one stage further and apparently admitted that Wall-E is actually part of their band. Don’t believe me? Listen to their bafflingly popular hit single ‘Fireflies‘. It looks like the guy is singing, but I reckon it’s just lip-synched – Wall-E’s somewhere out of shot. Especially on the chorus (around 0:46 etc).

And that’s just the British side of things. Over in the good ol’ US of A, Cher opened the floodgates with ‘Believe‘ and the industry hit the ground running. Apparently, there’s someone with as little skill with a keyboard as she has in the vocal department by the name of Ke$ha. I have no idea what she sounds like, but if this video by College Humour is anything to go by, I really don’t want to find out.

Now, the thing is I didn’t know who it was about, but that’s fine, because it’s about pretty much everyone that seems to want to take a short cut to the pop charts and the glory (hole) of fame.
Gah. Time for a remedy, I think. Here’s a bunch of blokes whose spelling is also suspect, but their music not so. (and it also qualifies for this week’s Way Back Wednesday)

Following on from the not-so-recent attempt to get Jediism recognised as a legitimate religion, a guy called Jeremy Flynn has apparently opened a gym specifically for folks who want to channel The Force – And Star Wars characters themselves – in an attempt at self-betterment.
Please note my use of the word ‘apparently’.

Oh, and it’s well worth reading the notes on the clip AFTER you’ve watched it.

Cheers to George over on Facebook fer this one.