She Amazed Me – the Music Video

Several blog posts ago, I observed that many popular songs have nonsense lyrics. So I asked readers to submit random lyrics that could be strung together to create a hit song that means absolutely nothing.

German band RIVO DREI took it one step further by putting the best random lyrics together, writing the music, and performing it.

Now the final piece falls into place. Dilbert Blog reader Jem8472, who wishes to be otherwise anonymous, has created the music video and posted it to youtube.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TiH9dbAsAp0

The funniest thing about this whole exercise is that it works. You can convince yourself the lyrics mean something to someone, they sound great put to music, and the music video is completely entertaining.

If you know any musicians, send them a copy so they can see how it is done.

Comments

[Steffen]

Just found "Bob" from "Weird Al" on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg
Apparently the random text generator is not so new... Maybe, one should write a normal text and then use babelfish or something similar to translate it into another language and then back. The result will still be readable but some strange statements will be included.

Let us try this approach with parts of Scotts entry above. Translating the text into Italian, then French, then German, then back into English: (used Yahoo Babel Fish)

Start:
"Several blog posts ago, I observed that many popular songs have nonsense lyrics. So I asked readers to submit random lyrics that could be strung together to create a hit song that means absolutely nothing.

German band RIVO DREI took it one step further by putting the best random lyrics together, writing the music, and performing it.

Now the final piece falls into place. Dilbert Blog reader Jem8472, who wishes to be otherwise anonymous, has created the music video and posted it to youtube."

End:
"Much blog it there to alberini the j'ai, which it was observed that many volkslieder have lyrics d'absurdité. Thus j'ai asked the readers, which lyrics to present coincidentally, that could be placed together by l'ensemble, in order to cause a blow song, absoluement did not mean anything. The German volume RIVO THREE seized it it later a measure, by it the improved lyrics coincidentally connected, by it the music written, and by having l'effectuant has. The final part maintained falls into the place. The reader Jem8472 de Dilbert Blog, which wishes, to be at l'contraire anonymity caused l'écran von Musik and he for l'a, which was sent to youtube."

As one can observe this is a fully incomprehensible and some parts actually made it from Italian to French but not to german and stayed there... Nevertheless, I guess with the right lyrics, one could do quite a lot...

[Explosivo]

Check out Word Disassociation by Lemon Demon for an incredible song composed of a seemingly random string of words. It's very hooky and very TMBG.

And the main guy in Lemon Demon is also the guy who did Potter Puppet Pals.

[ldahlke]

Often times, I'll really listen to the lyrics of a song only after it has been out for a few years.

That in mind, this song is catchy. Dammit.

Fun video though. I would urge the person that did this video to do an alternate version that has nothing to do with the lyrics. That seems to be the blueprint for most music videos!

[John Reedy]

It's hillarious how good this all turned out...Most musicians over think things. Dear local musician: You're not deep or troubled / we don't care about your inner-sufferings / you're not the only one who has thought to sing "My love is an ocean".

Great Job.

http://awritersblock.com

[Sergio]

Scott,

Your next goal should be to try to get someone on American Idol to sing this during the competition.

[nelly]

scott adams, you amaze me. :)

[ilor]

this is brilliant!
i could suddenly see the power of social networking and similar trends for a fleeting - 3min moment.

[Esn]

neopolitan:
"This does confirm what I have thought for a long time, that art really is about the ability to bullshit afterwards."

It depends. It would be hard to bullshit your way into being a good jazz player, for example.

[bahuja]

Hey Scott, you should check out Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book Fooled by Randomness. In chapter 4 he does something related in that he uses a computer program to randomly create nonsense prose (he's essentially making fun of literary intellectuals).

[TomB]

1) Thanks to Nobuddy for posting the vixy converter link. I've been looking for just such a thing.

2) Props to the band for their catchy beat and trying to make lemonade with lemons. As a tribute to their ability, it was better than a lot of modern pop songs (damned with faint praise, I suppose). The "amaze me/tazed me" refrain was a good one to latch onto.

3) The picture of the two kittens in the coffee mugs was the clincher. It has kittens. Caturday lives! It can't fail to win acclaim just for that alone.

4) The band's tune and performance as what made this kind of catchy. Without that, it wouldn't have had any zing. So, there may not be any invention in the underlying beat nor in the arrangement (not sure), and there may not be anything terribly unique about vocals and the words may be gibberish, but the tune had to be a bit catchy, the execution had to be reasonably good, and the particular selections of lyric had to fit at least somewhat musically. So, at worst, this shows that most Pop can follow some sort of formula. It is just a bit too opaque to speak to teen angst and tap that market, but with even modest effort at weaving a story into the narrative, you could easily envision a hit that tapped into the usual teen complaints about the world and makes millions of dollars without saying a whole lot that's new or worthy.

A fascinating thought experiment and a wonderful result.

[argenbert]

outerspaced me it's a brand new word. it should really catch on.

[Julie]

This is the great thing I've ever beheld. Great song! wow. The power of nonsense!!

[Tygerblade]

Just like all sucessful pop songs, your song is stuck in my head like a carnivorous centipede....

By the way, I'm curious: what is it about the Adams gene pool that lends itself to great comedic writing? I mean there's Scott Adams....Douglas Adams.....um...Patch Adams....Uncle Fester Adams.....admit it!!! Dogbert is the illegitimate lovechild of Cousin It, isn't he?!?!? It's time to come clean Scott....

[Boozeheimer]

I am also amazed! Honestly, great stuff! (and I don't say that because I am a Kraut too ;-)

[Sque]

Wow... I'm speechless...
That really is amazing!!

[Dan]

.mp3 download please!

[mmiied]

I can just imagem crowds of pepols at a concet singing "whoo she amase me, with her love she taze me.." it just works

[Mike]

cool, i really liked it :)

[Me]

Loved it, loved it, looooved it!!! Thanks!

I have to say, you make it sound easy, but many of your blog readers are just very creative... not everybody has that!

[Tatter]

That was astonishingly good.

Can we get this on a music download site somewhere; where download only tracks are included in he chart (like the UK)?

For few thousand downloads (about a dollar and a bit each), we could get this in the top 20. How cool would that be! Hundreds of people could say they had a hit single :D

[Kostja]

Great song! and a landmark experiment too. Although I would have preferred if images were a bit more random as well.

Apart from the point on pop music, there is just one more theory that it supports - evolution (!). There is actually sence emerging from nonsense and chaos in this song, just like DNA springing out from the primordial soup.

[Jeffus]

Just played it in office and one of the girls really liked it. It's got appeal.

[Steve]

Oh, if only there were an "official" music video, so we could see Scott dancing around on VH-1.

I'd watch that. :D

[Jan]

I spoke too fast: there's already a tool to generate metal nonsense lyrics:
http://discarded-ideas.org/battlecry/

[quantum_flux]

It really picks up there at the end too! lol:

oh, oh, she amazed me, with her love she tazed me

oh, oh, she amazed me,

the splender per chryson, she took to the skies, tear drops asunder, no shadow no cry, Apple core, osterige, dancing like fairees

and it escapes me, how she outer-spaced me

[neopolitan]

This does confirm what I have thought for a long time, that art really is about the ability to bullshit afterwards. That is what is removed from this process. We all know that the lyrics are strung together nonsense. The band do have some wriggle room because they can say they selected the phrases which spoke to them, and which together created a powerful message of teenage alienation. But we are too bright to get baffled by that, aren't we?

Think about a "serious" art for a moment. For christ's sake there is even a piece of art made from cow manure. Well, for christ's mum's sake, to be more precise. If that is not very very close to bullshit, nothing is.

If I were better at bullshitting people, I too would be making millions from throwing paint at canvas, or stringing nonsense phrases together. Sadly I am an engineer, dedicated to cleaning up the mess after someone else bullshits their way into trouble.

cheers,

neopolitan

[Clumpy]

I thought that the lyrics sucked when I read them, but I'll be danged if the song doesn't work wonderfully.

[quantum_flux]

You inspire so much. Anyhow, what happened to your Dilbert cartoon? That is so hilarious!

[Johan Hjelm]

Next time, start with the pictures... All it needs now is some serious marketing. How about a gig at Staceys?

//Johan

[Kevin Kunreuther]

A fun project, I just hope this was copyrighted under Creative Commons license, so nobody feels like they were taken advantage.

[fawn]

Jem8472 rocks!!!

[Liza]

I showed this to my husband who is a musician and he's already seen it somehow. Good marketing.

[Becs]

I love it. It's already going around in my head and making me dance like one of the kids in the "Charlie Brown Christmas" show.

[Luke]

I really liked the song ("she spins round and round with a frog in her ear" is really great and deep) but the "music video" is pretty much what everyone does to songs they like. Show pictures. It's not really a music video. You see them all over on youtube.

[RJH]

reminds me somewhat of the llama song...
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama

[Sarah]

Awesome, I want another one.

[Don]

What a great song. And it's getting an awfull lot of hits on Youtube...

[Ripsnorter]

You know I think this could very well be the next Eurovision winner.
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/home

[Jackrabbit]

Nice. Pretty repetitive video; could use more variation. Still, an outstanding first effort. And I totally agree that we should continue the project.

Oh, and our band name should be: Blog Brain.

[Nobuddy]

Scarily good, I must admit.

Even better; the "Related Videos" display led me to this cool video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BKRAy4Rr_SE

of Scott at a speaking engagement. If you want to save the video, go here

http://vixy.net/

and just pop in the URL.

[Maria]

loves!

[ID]

You know what this means, that maybe your crazy idea to become a president might just work. I wouldn't vote for you but there are other crazies that just might.

[Jan]

Excellent!

Now how about some other genres?

Metal?

[Oliver]

Is it bad that I have a feeling of accomplishment, though I had no direct input into this song? I mean, really, I was there for moral support, all the way.

I enjoyed the song, as simple as it seemed. Thanks everyone for this.

[Rachel]

I loved this. But you have to admit, it mostly works because the guys who did it came up with a good tune. McCartney may have used nonsense lyrics, but he had some seriously catchy beats.

[Shalene Boring]

Hilarious, you Go Jenwhatsthenumbersagain!!!!! Wonderful idea!

Personally, if I saw one of my pics used I'd be flattered; plus, you can find pictures all over the internet for free use. I don't think there will be a copyright problem. Nice ending tho ;-)

PS Hope you made something from this Scott and RIVO DREI

[tyler]

that sucked.

tell the kid who made the video to fuck off with his "windows movie maker"

and the band blows.

:)

[Cosmic Connie]

"I asked readers to submit random lyrics that could be strung together to create a hit song that means absolutely nothing."

Take away the music element, and you have the formula for most selfish-help/New-Wage books and other products. As you well know, this also seems to be the formula for all too many business-babble books and products and workshops too.

[turkce mirc]

Very good.

[Paul W]

I really enjoyed this video, and what really sells it is that it was well performed and recorded (even if some people didn't appreciate the style of it).

In a way, isn't a blog (your blog at least) just another vehicle of affirmations? You mention something on here, it happens in real life.

[John]

Good experiment, works very well. Only 214 view though?!?

[bbk]

More of a slideshow than a "music video," but it turned out pretty good.

[Laurens]

1) The video made my favs on youtube
2) If we get a whole CD I promise you I'll go out and buy it.
3) Thumbs up for making an arthouse moviescript this way :)

[Wynn]

Ok, I'm sold, i really enjoyed that song/video and by the time the last chorus came around I was singing along, much to the confusion of my husband in the other room, lol!!

Kudos, I eagerly await the next collaboration!

[CLB]

What fitting photos!

[Patrick]

Man, that is one AWFUL song.

Bleah. My ears hurt.

Gotta go listen to something good now to get the taste out of my head.

[Andy Coulter]

hook - isn't that what people used to call the refrain in the old days before the 3 chord cretins took over

how much intellectual property can u assign to g-c-d or a-d-e or e-a-b or any other I-IV-V combo used over and over in thousands of pop and rock songs

[August]

Two things!
1) Lets get a whole album together,
2) Lets try to write a movie script the same way!

[Andy Coulter]

sounds like my old garage band

[G]

Seriously, a work of art. HILARIOUS. You guys should seriously do another.

[Gillian]

They enunciate way too well to make this a hit song. Thats crucial if you have gibberish or gibberish-resembling lyrics. If you want the song to make sense that makes it much easier to cut out the parts that don't fit. You won't even know you're doing it. Try it. Listen to some of your favorite lyrics sometime and then look up several versions of the lyrics online. (I say several because, due to the above mentioned phenomenon, they may be different.) I apologize in advance if this ruins any songs for you.

[chuck]

The song, and video, demonstrate that it is very easy to write a song, even arrange music and make a video.

Which is exactly the problem - there are 1000s of bands all doing the same thing. All hoping that they'll get a record deal, sell millions of albums, and swim in swimming pools full of money. And with nothing to differentiate them from all the other crap, they will all ultimately fail.

[Jshope]

The best part of the video is the end. It emphasizes the fact that COPYRIGHT is holding back creativity and distribution in the attempt to glean every drop of profit from the piece.

[tjomas]

AWESOME!!!!!

[ND]

Oh great! Now I'm gonna have that @#$*!! song running through my head for the rest of the afternoon! Thanks! Thanks just loads!

[zoe]

My all time fave is the lyric "your a fine piece of real estate and I'm gonna get me some land"
lol

www.lightningselling.com

[Zoe]

You know, I listen to the radio and think to myself that most of the lyrics are so stupid all the time. My all time fave is "your a fine piece of real estate and im gonna get me some land" lol

[Joe]

Knowing where you are on copyright law, I find it hard to believe you're slapping this link up here for all to see. Wouldn't it have been fair for the owners of all those images to be able to control where and how their pictures had been used? Has the creator of this video not infringed on all their rights?

[Alicia]

That song amazed me! So many gems were left out though...I think another song should be made using some more of the submitted nonsense lyrics, and then there should be a video of RIVO DREI performing their two new hits at an open mic.

[jenjenns]

i truly do love this song. it's ridiculous, yet fantastic. i had the tune in my head all weekend, and had to keep convincing myself it 'wasn't a real song'.

i agree with those who think we should do another!

[rita mae]

I like it. You did good.

Rita Mae

[Scott Weston]

Scott - Another money making scheme for you on the talent of your blog readers?

You go boy!

[Alcanzar]

Very cool... Dugg: http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Scott_Adams_inspires_random_song

[catfromtex]

Great - now I'll have the chorus from that stuck in my head all day.

Oh well - it can't be any worse than having the chorus from Wanderlust King by GOGOL BORDELLO stuck in your head.

[Tom]

The song is catchy, but the video needs hot chicks.

[mellerbeck]

I was actually pretty impressed. And the song is pretty catchy.

[Diana W]

Wow, that's actually pretty good. I like the video images (how long did they have to look for a frog on an ear?).

The nonsense lyrics remind me of being a kid singing along to America's "Horse with no Name" and my mother hating the song because it didn't make sense. I actually prefer meaningful lyrics, but a good melody and singing voice can go a long way.

[The horse with no name is heroin. That song actually had meaning. (Or did you know that?) -- Scott]

[Arne]

Nice song and a perfect publicity stunt of Rivo Drei to jump that wagon by producing an actual song of the lyrics. Reading Jem8472 final words in the video, I'm wondering how the credits for the lyrics of this song will look like!

On an unrelated topic: Scott, thanks for switching back to the full monty RSS feed instead of the preview thing you used for several weeks.

[Some Moist Robot]

This reminds me of "Song Poems", the most famous is "Peace & Love (Blind Man's Penis)". Truly a work of art if you've never heard it: http://www.songpoemmusic.com/trubee.htm

[Tony]

Unlike the Dilberito this is a hit!
When do the royalty checks begin to flow?

#1

[The Dude]

I see one small problem with the plan. I'd bet that most people are going to think that the song pretty much sucks and won't buy it. Then again, it always amazes me what utter crap some people will spend their money on, so who knows? I suppose if it's marketed well even crap can make money.

[BadManSports]

Sounds better than anything John Mayer ever put out there.

[dsg]

Hi Scott,

Jem8472 wishes to remain anonymous because of all the criticism to be received from all the people who will say they could do it better. Jem8472, I think you did a fine job. The song is pretty good too, certainly by the standards of what passes for pop music these days.

Eons ago, back in the late 80s, I played bass in a basement band. We did mostly cover stuff for fun, but even managed to play a couple of gigs. We had fun, but fell apart when we learned something painful. Making good music, even passable music, is quite hard. We tried to start writing our own music, but failed miserably. We discovered that there were no real artists among us. Oh well, we fell apart. Now I see that music can be generated in the blogsphere. Perhaps I’ll get the old band together. We are all still younger than any of the Rolling Stones. Heck, I think we are even younger than most members of Pearl Jam. Excellent, I hope I remember how to play.

dsg

[timprovphilly]

Kind of reminds me of the message behind the song Hook by Blues Traveler. All you really need is a good hook and this song actually has a very catchy hook to it. I could easily see this as a number one hit somewhere!

[azw88]

The video even fits the theme of random nonsense making sense when put to music.

I love the copyright infringement acknowledgment at the end too!!

[Real Live Girl]

Great work everyone who contributed!! Very lovely and whimsical. Makes me want marshmallows too (but hold the kittens).

[Adrian]

The song is not bad

[Erkanas]

This is serious - I remember one famous Lithuanian singer once said that he used to sing in fake English, mixing familiar words randomly. He was talking about times when we were in soviet union and when very few people understood this language, so majority of his fans thought that he is so cool since he can sing real English.

[Adam]

Slightly off topic in relation to your post, but I believe what you wrote about is one of the biggest reasons the RIAA is going the way of the dinosaurs. For less than $500, you can buy the equipment necessary to record an album (minus the cost of instruments, of course) For roughly $5,000, you can buy equipment necessary to record an album that sounds PHENOMINAL. After recording your album on a small budget, you can distribute it to people all over the world literally for free.

Upload your music to YouTube, or MySpace, of any number of Internet Radio Stations. Post it up on all of the newsgroups, torrent sites, and P2P networks. Total cost of distribution? Your monthly fee that you pay to whichever ISP you use.

No one needs a big company now to release an album. In a way, having that big company around can make things harder.

http://www.livingwithanerd.com

[Berto]

Voltaire had it right: Anything too stupid to be said is sung...

Great idea, Scott!

[DF]

You make it sound so easy!

And now the musicians of the world will attempt to assassinate you as well....

[pdwalker]

Holy Crap Batman!

You have a #1 hit there!

[abcdefghijk]

sweet!

Let's do another!
Let's form a band! We can call it "The blog"