Awesome Music

The earliest forms of vocal amplification date back over 1000 years, but microphones as we know them are less than 100 years old. Cheddar looks at how mics changed the way vocalists perform when recording and in live shows, and how they put singers front and center.

Musical mashup maker Bill McClintock presents his latest masterpiece, combining Queen’s We Will Rock You, Sly Fox’s Let’s Go All the Way, The Temptations’ Shakey Ground, Metallica’s Sad But True, and The Jackson 5’s ABC into a single party anthem.

Filmmaker Pablo Mengin (aka Megalopolis) created this intense and surreal music video for NYC rapper Bashton by painting 2000+ images over the course of 18 months. Each of the video’s individual frames could serve as a framed work of art all on its own.

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.

Video editor Matthijs Vlot aka “Unusual Suspect” must have spent a ton of time finding all the movie clips needed to create this version of M.I.A.’s hit track Paper Planes, sung by the characters on screen. The gun fire from Pulp Fiction was perfect.

Cy Ho is a master of the harmonica. Among the tracks you’ll find on his YouTube channel is this live cover version of Lalo Shifrin’s classic theme song from Mission Impossible. Be sure to check out his performances of Billie Jean and Flight of the Bumblebee too.

A fantastic take on the Deadmau5 track Gula, as performed on brass, drums, glockenspiel, and other traditional marching band instruments by Hamburg, Germany-based techno band MEUTE, while on the streets of Lisbon, Portugal.

Following up on the success of their hit cover version of Toto’s Africa, Weezer dropped a surprise release featuring that track, and nine other solid cover versions, including songs from Eurythmics, A-ha, ELO, and Michael Jackson.

Musician Marc Martel has wowed us before with his incredible vocal impression of the late Freddie Mercury. His latest performance is a powerful and heartfelt rendition of the song Mercury wrote for Mary Austin. We’ve seriously got chills. (Thanks Jason!)

(PG-13:Language) Ruckus created a custom Beat Saber level based on the South Park classic Kyle’s Mom’s a Bitch, resulting in one of the most challenging but awesome levels we’ve seen in the popular VR game.

(PG-13: Language) With his dapper outfit and handlebar moustache, musician Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq. seems like quite the gentleman. But don’t let his looks fool you. He’s got the mouth of a truck driver, and he’s not taking any guff from anyone.

My, my, my, we ain’t too proud to beg. Bill McClintock’s latest musical mashup combines the motown sounds of The Temptations with the wailing vocals of ’80s hair band Great White. However wrong the idea may seems, it comes together brilliantly.

There’s quite literally something electric in the air with this high voltage performance of Queen’s rock opera. Electronics wiz Fabrício H. Franzoli programmed a duo of solid state Tesla coils to “sing” a portion of the track. His take on Daft Punk is pretty awesome too.

Albums are typically a collection of an artist or a group’s new songs. Then there are concept albums, which are centered around a theme. Polyphonic explains how Frank Sinatra’s 1955 release In the Wee Small Hours laid the foundation for the concept album.

His piercing glance burning a hole through the lens, pianist Vinheteiro performs a brief snippet from 26 different classical pieces of music, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet. We never knew what Gymnopedie No. 1 was called, but we recognized it immediately.

Musician Taylor Davis presents a beautiful multitrack violin version of the famed theme from Doctor Who, ready to send us on a journey through space and time without leaving the comfort of our desks.

In a video that is the very embodiment of “don’t try this at home,” guitarist Davidlap performs a brief solo while it looks like his hands are ablaze. He created special gloves to protect his hands from injury, and the fire was far enough from the guitar that it didn’t get damaged.

After filling our eyes and ears with some of Queen’s most epic performances of the 1970s, the official Queen channel is back with a reel of the band’s best moments in the decade of Pac-Man and big hair. Despite the controversy, we never thought adding synths hurt their sound.

“It makes it sound a bit Russian.” In his segment at the We Are Most Amused and Amazed 2018, comedian and musician Bill Bailey focused on the difference between the major and minor keys, and gamely provided transposed examples to prove his point.

World-famous computer parts orchestra The Floppotron is back with another meme-worthy tune, Kenny Loggins’ track, Danger Zone, best known for its appearances on the Top Gun soundtrack – and its even better use in Archer.

Composer William Zeitler demonstrates a strange and wonderful musical instrument. The glass armonica was invented by Benjamin Franklin back in 1761, and is a spinning series of custom-blown wine glasses, each of which plays a different musical note based on its size.

Get Schwifty with musician Scott Bradlee (of Postmodern Jukebox fame), as he performs his arrangement of the theme song from Rick and Morty, played in a smooth, jazzy style. We’d love to see the versions of Rick and Morty that exist in the jazz quadrant of the multiverse.

By now, you’ve heard a thousand and one cover versions of Toto’s Africa, and it’s starting to wear out its welcome. But we couldn’t resist posting Toni “Pupsi” Patanen’s version, in which he performs the track using some delicious veggies and fruits. More edible fun here.