Rock the House — Gorillaz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRlmM88zzbY

I recently posted about Nujabes' Thank You, which also samples John Dankworth: here, it's much more obvious. I'm more taken aback by the different contexts and how they change the sample. The former makes it sound very jazzy, smooth and laid-back; the processing on the latter makes it sound more funky and up-beat.

I have lots to say about Gorillaz — the popularization of sample-based music, brilliant lyrics and a subtle multimedia experience which never quite came to fruition; a race-blind hip-hop; the combination of what seems like kids' animation with adult content; and, in particular, the role of the band Blur. I think I just said most of it, though, so... yeah. Enjoy this weird, weird video.

Song 2 — Blur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbBvKaM6sk

In praise of simplicity, form, structure: Song 2 is the second song off the album Blur, it's 2 minutes and 2 seconds long; it has 2 choruses, 2 verses, 2 bridges; it took minutes to record in the studio; it has a simple, meaningless riff and simple meaningless lyrics; the members of the band went on to do bigger and better things, but the song became incredibly popular — so incredibly popular that it outshines (in America) almost everything else Blur ever did, ignoring that the frontman left to form Gorillaz, ignoring the nearly twenty albums they made — and this was made intentionally to be careless, a purposeful departure from pop music with clever lyrics, this was a parody and an homage to and of American grunge, rock, intended to shock and be unique and different and a departure from any other work the band had done before.