Top 10 songs the Web brought backThere's a lot to love about silly Internet "memes" and fads, and one reason is that they can dig up something old and make it cool again. Music is no exception: Anything from a 1970s rock anthem to a 1990s one-hit wonder can be given new life if the YouTube or 4chan hordes get their hands on it.
Editors' note:This feature was first published on our sister site CNET.com. References made to products or services in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia.10. Say It ain't So by WeezerWeezer, which was doing the nerd rock thing way before it was cool, is no stranger to revivals: Considered by much of the mainstream to be a 1990s novelty act after its hit single Buddy Holly, the alternative rock band bounced back in the early 2000s with songs like Island in the Sun and Beverly Hills. More recently, the band enlisted YouTube stars to appear in its video for last year's single Pork and Beans. But Weezer got an additional push of digital buzz when its songs proved to be some of the most popular on video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The 1994 song Say It ain't So, in particular, has seen a resurgence in party playlists all over. On one hand, it really is one of Weezer's best tracks. On the other, a dark and painful song about addiction and domestic abuse has officially made the leap to drunk frat-boy karaoke staple. So it goes. 9. Take on Me by A-HaSpeaking of karaoke, Take on Me will always have a place in pop culture as the song that's impossible to sing at a karaoke bar without botching it beyond belief--even a decent singing voice will make those high notes of the chorus sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. But it hit the viral video circuit when some enterprising online comedian rewrote the lyrics so that they say exactly what's going on in A-Ha's odd music video for the song. The Take on Me: Literal Version video has been a moderate hit, and thankfully, the singer manages to hit the high notes without too much trouble. 8. (Don't Fear) the Reaper by Blue Oyster CultTo be fair, this 1976 song never really disappeared from the classic rock airwaves, and the reason it's on this list technically has to do with television, not the Web. A 2000 Saturday Night Live sketch starred Will Ferrell as a fictional member of Blue Oyster Cult (the cowbell player) and guest Christopher Walken as a record producer who seemed to think Ferrell's instrumentals weren't forceful enough. But thanks to the proliferation of the aforementioned SNL clip online several years later, it's now almost impossible to extricate (Don't Fear) the Reaper from Walken's insistence on "I gotta have more cowbell!" and the phenomenon has gone from forgotten TV catchphrase to full-out Internet meme. SNL network NBC has been notoriously protective when it comes to unauthorized clips of the Walken sketch (and anything else it's aired) circulating around the Web, and an ambitious project to make the entire comedy show's archives available online hasn't yet gotten off the ground. Until then, scattered pirated versions are available--as well as hilarious high school talent show re-enactments, coming from a generation that probably never knew of Blue Oyster Cult before it was associated with "more cowbell". 7. Heartbeats by The KnifeThis one's sort of cheating since Heartbeats wasn't a huge hit to begin with. But it's a fascinating story about the way media can make its way all over the Web: Late in 2006, The Knife was a little-known Swedish indie band that had been around since the late 1990s when another artist's recording of their 2004 song Heartbeats became a viral hit. Acoustic singer Jose Gonzales had covered the track for his album Veneer, and it rose to popularity as the soundtrack of a commercial for Sony Bravia televisions. The Bravia ad, which depicted hundreds of colorful bouncy balls descending on San Francisco, was never televised in the US, and therefore received most of its buzz from clips on YouTube and elsewhere across the Web. Fans of the Gonzalez song soon learned that it was actually a cover; the Knife started getting extra momentum, and now the band is a favorite of edgy music bloggers and DJs all over. 6. Flagpole Sitta by Harvey DangerThis Seattle-based band put out several well-received albums but only hit the mainstream with Flagpole Sitta. Almost a decade later, digital comedy powerhouse CollegeHumor taped a video in which the entire office (mostly a bunch of teen hipsters) lip-synced to the song in a single take. The wildly popular video also spurred a fad of other "lip dub" videos among the Web's young and camera-happy. As for CollegeHumor, the beer-pong-friendly office became the subject of a fictionalized miniseries on MTV earlier this year. Tags: Song, Beverly Hills, TV, movie, video |
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