Awesome Music On The Awesomer

Julian Palmer of The Discarded Image takes a look back at the unique sound textures found in movies from the 1980s. While some of the highly-synthesized soundscapes feel dated or shallow, others were pioneering and perfectly suited the content on screen.

Bill Wurtz latest little ditty has a decidedly “glass half-full” vibe to it, as he does his best to convince us to look on the bright side of (or simply turn a blind eye to) some of the more catastrophic possibilites in life. It’s gonna be a fine swell day!

(PG-13: Language) ThunderCats’ malevolent antagonist channels Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and tells us how much he likes it raw in this hilarious edit of cartoon footage by swedemason. It makes perfect sense, because Mumm-Ra is a bit of an ODB himself.

“I’m gonna get some peaches, gonna put ’em in a pan…” You don’t need to know K-Pop boy band BTS to get a chuckle from Bad Lip Reading’s latest music video. Funny thing is, these could be the actual lyrics to IDOL, and it would make just as much sense to us.

“It’s the stuff that’s organic, and the stuff that’s not. It’s the cars that won’t fit in the parking lot.” If you’ve ever shopped at a Trader Joe’s, you will immediately relate to every single word in carlsfinefilms‘ little ditty that dates all the way back to 2009.

YouTuber t.p. took animator Guy Collins‘ amazing Kaizo Trap video, and reworked it with a fresh electronica soundtrack that fits perfectly with the protagonist’s challenging journey into a platform video game world. Even if you’ve seen the original already, it’s worth a rewatch.

Musician Peter Bence previously wowed us with his cover of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. Now, he’s back to blow us away with an incredibly energetic version of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, performed on the grand piano, with the help of some looping and effects pedals.

In the latest installments of The Tonight Show’s Classroom Instruments segment, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots teamed up with Aerosmith for a thoroughly entertaining remake of their classic track Walk This Way, performed entirely on low-fidelity toys.

Just because your bass guitar only has one string doesn’t mean you can’t make music with it. Guitarist Davidlap proves just that with this medley of bass riffs he cranks out without the benefit of three of his strings.

What happens when Nelly meets up with Queen? In the hands of musical mashup artist DJ Cummerbund, strange magic, that’s what. Though things start going off the rails when the track starts running backwards at the end.

After wowing us with acoustic versions of songs by U2, RHCP, and AC/DC, the incredibly talented Luca Stricagnoli is back with a captivating three song medley of Iron Maiden’s tracks Fear of the Dark, The Trooper, and Phantom of the Opera.

Trombone player Christopher Bill and 27 of his closest friends joined together at the 2018 International Trombone Fest perform the richest and most layered cover of Queen’s classic rock opera that we’ve ever heard. Galileo, Figaro! Magnifico!

Michael Jackson truly lived up to his “King of Pop” nickname. Nerdwriter1 looks back on the musical mastermind, and attempts to deconstruct what made his tunes so popular. As we previously learned, repetition and variation in rhythms had something to do with it.

Musician and arranger Seb Skelly presents a wonderful one-man performance of Queen’s energetic and uplifting 1978 track Don’t Stop Me Now, played on horn, tuba, trombone, and a pair of trumpets. Feeling ambitious? Grab the sheet music here.

(PG-13: Lyrics) Musician Leo Moracchioli asks us to do it like they do on the Discovery channel with his metal-edged cover of Bloodhouse Gang’s dirty-minded 1999 hit, complete with a deranged looking bunny rabbit egging us on.

Feng E may only be 10 years old, this kid sure can play ukulele. Watch him jam out amazing covers of Classical Gas, Blackbird, and Beat It, then check out more of his performances on both uke and guitar on his YouTube channel.

The talented musicians of Scary Pockets teamed up with singer-songwriter Reeve Carney for a phenomenal cover of Never Gonna Give You Up, boiling down Rick Astley’s hit into a soul-stirring new version, thanks in large part to Carney’s smooth and powerful vocals.

Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma lights up the NPR offices with a moving solo performance, playing three pieces from J.S. Bach, Prelude (from Suite No. 1), Sarabande (from Suite No. 6), and Gigue (from Suite No. 3), regaling us with a story about why each piece is meaningful to him.

We are the music makers… and we are the dreamers of dreams. Remix artist Melodysheep presents a colorful new take on Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with a chill hip-hop track made with footage and sounds from the 1971 classic. We love the transitions he added.

In talking about his book Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction, Derek Thompson explains the balance of repetition and variation which drive us to enjoy some songs more than others. He goes on to show how similar patterns apply to language.

Synthesizer fanatic Look Mum No Computer (of Furby Organ fame) turns in a crunchy and funky electronic cover version of TLC’s 1999 hit track No Scrubs, with a fantastically analog sound provided by his wall of modular synths, and an audience of Furbies looking on.

(PG-13: Language) “I ain’t walking in a trap with a crowd of mobsters, this is a comprehensive rap all about lobsters.” Mac Lethal is sick and tired of played-out rap themes, so he’s decided to do something about it. In his new series, he’ll rap about anything but the usual tropes.

Is the whole of two memes put together greater than the sum of their parts? You be the judge with this mashup of the iconic startup screen of the Nintendo Gamecube and A-ha’s hit track Take on Me, smooshed together by Fuou Marinas for no particular reason.

“Jupiter is the largest, all the planets could fit inside…” Learn a thing or three about the planets in our solar system with this catchy little ditty by Clare and Si Bennett of Planet Custard. A kid-friendly track that’ll have adults tapping their feet and singing along too.

Görkem Sen performs an improvised piece on a custom-built acoustic instrument called the Yaybahar. The unusual instrument gets its ethereal sound by bowing strings that conduct vibrations down through its neck onto coiled springs, connected to a pair of drum heads.