Youtube Orchestra "Somebody That I Used To Know"

I remember this interview with actor Mark Hamill, who talked about the two roads he could have taken.

One way to was do everything in his power to distance himself from "Star Wars."  He could stay away from any and all Sci-Fi roles.  He could avoid the Comic-Cons of the world.  He could walk around like his co-star Harrison Ford, with a shirt like this --->>>

The other way was something he had seen Janet Leigh do.

Leigh, an accomplished actress who appeared in dozens of films (including notable ones like "The Manchurian Candidate" and "Touch Of Evil") is mostly remembered for three harrowing minutes in a shower in the movie "Psycho."

He noted that she could have just stopped giving interviews on the subject of "Psycho" and the shower scene, but instead she embraced it.  She became an expert on it.  She did not fight against her own public image.

Similarly, Hamill embraced the fact that he is seen by most as Luke Skywalker, and will do "Star Wars things" (like show up at Comic-Con or spoof himself on shows like "The Simpsons").

I thought of this when I saw this mega-mix of "Somebody That I Used To Know."

If a million Youtubers are going to cover your song, why not embrace it?

Gotye grafts together portions of dozens of homemade covers to create something as fun and as viral as any of the overly sincere or gimmicky cover versions out there.

If you're going to be known for one song, don't be afraid to embrace it.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Gotye "Eyes Wide Open"

So here's the follow up post . . .

After writing about Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" as a "phenomenon" song, the follow-up question in the follow-up post is . . . what do we think of the follow-up song?

Phenomenon songs don't have a great track record.  By definition, they probably can't . . .

Songs like Dido's "Thank You" caught on due to forces much larger than the song itself.  And those forces aren't in play on the second single.  Eminem couldn't have sampled Dido's "Hunter" too (which was her follow-up single to "Thank You").

Many of the phenomenon songs that stick out in my mind, like One Eskimo's "Kandi" and Primitive Radio Gods' "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand", relied heavily on guest vocals (in both of these cases, sampled vocals) for their weird phenomenonic charm.

And other phenomenon songs just struck a particular, peculiar emotional chord, like Yael Naim's "New Soul" or Des'ree's "You Gotta Be."

Both of these traits apply to the first (successful) Gotye song.

And then there are phenomenon songs that herald the beginning of a long career, not unlike Sheryl Crow breaking through with "All I Wanna Do."

Gotye could go either way, building on early, surprise, massive success . . . or, just fading away.

The only way to answer the question, I guess, is to listen to the song . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Dido "Thank You"

Way back in January, I wrote about the Goyte song "Somebody That I Used To Know."

I don't know if it came through in the post, but I was pretty on the fence about the song and whether or not the station should play it.

Of course, if you've listened to the station since January, you haven't heard the tune, so you would have assumed that we came down on the side of not playing it.

Then again, maybe you've listened to the station in the past two days, heard the song, and wondered, Why did they decide to start playing it now?

Okay, here's the thought process I went through . . .

Without a doubt, this is a great song. I never really questioned that. Was never on the fence about the quality of the tune.

But the question I'm always asking is, Is this a good mvy song?

On the plus-side? It sounds quite a bit like Peter Gabriel, who is certainly a core artists for us. And it's musically/sonically quirky enough to really stand out (in a good way). And the whole album is strong (that is, we don't usually go for novelty songs, one-hit-wonders, or artists who have a great single but a shitty record).

On the negative side? I could tell it was going to be a Pop radio hit. And generally, if an artist is going to quickly cross over to the Pop world, we don't waste time with it. The 3rd "A" in Triple A stands for "Alternative." And if we fancy ourselves as an alternative to the mainstream, then we let Pop radio have the big Pop hits to themselves.

And that's where we were from January, to about last week.

Then the Dido thing happened.

Waay back in 2000, British singer Dido released the single "Thank You" to Triple A radio. Many Triple A stations played it, but Barbara (who was mvy's Program Director at the time) passed on it. It did become a popular crossover hit, cracking the Top 10 on the Pop charts.

At the same time, Eminem sampled part of "Thank You" in his song "Stan." This was at the height of Emenem's fame, MTV was playing the hell out of his video, and Dido was reaching a wider and wider audience.

And that's when the song moved from being just a big hit, to a full-on phenomenon. It seemed to transcend genres or formats. People who didn't usually listen to Pop radio were hearing the song (because it was so culturally ubiquitous), telling us how great it was, and asking us to play it. We added it to rotation.

Something similar has happened with the Gotye song.

I see people of all stripes posting this song on Facebook, and talking about it with friends, and reacting to it. The raw emotion in the song, the unique-sounding musical dynamics, the "I've been there" subject matter---it's all striking a chord. A deep chord.

So at this point, it's hard to ignore the song. It's something that people who listen to mvyradio, by and large, seem to like. It's bigger than just Pop. Or Triple A. Or any sub-category.

It's in a league of its own, like Dido's tune and a handful of other rare songs that seem to have everyone's attention.

You can't ignore it. You just have to accept it and say "Thank You."


Hear Dido on Youtube.


Hear Gotye on Youtube.


Hear Eminem on Youtube.

Gotye "Somebody That I Used To Know"

Here's another "Should mvyradio play this?"

A record promotions friend of mine (who isn't even working this record) said to me, "Man, you must be the only station not playing Gotye."

He's a multiple ARIA winner (the Australian equivalent of the Grammy), now finding success in the USA.

I do love me an emotional duet. And a good stop motion video. But I'm not sure it's really our style.

Should we be playing it?


Hear the song on Youtube.