Humorless Guitarists Take Down Amusing YouTube Mashup Video
from the not-the-intended-use dept
About a month ago, there was an amusing viral video getting passed around that showed various famous heavy metal guitarists, where the filmmaker dubbed over the films really, really bad guitar playing. It was incredibly well done, as the bad guitar playing was perfectly timed to the actions of the guitarists. It was clearly amusing satire -- yet at least one of the guitarists in question was a bit too sensitive about it. The video has been forced offline, and the creator has had his account cut off. The video was pretty clearly a satire on the way these guitar players play -- and it's difficult to see how the video would hurt the artists in any way. Yes, some might claim that people would think they really played that bad, but the videos seemed to be pretty clearly labeled as dubbed. Of course, like so many other efforts to make some kind of content disappear, it wouldn't be surprising to find this video showing up on other sites (and potentially getting even more attention).
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: copyright, guitar, music, online, satire, videos
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Guess you're right about the attention thing.
Anyone have a link?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
A ninja cookie...
I'm curious to see it myself now...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NOT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Steve Vai
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Funny Videos
Search for similar tags to find the others...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
@funny guitar
I can't see how this wouldn't be parody, even in the very strictest sense. And .. goodness .. that's just well done. In the video linked, the comments are riddled with people who actually think that Clapton had an "off night".
Hysterical.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Streisand Effect
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Anonymous Coward
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Yeah Anonymous Coward
[ link to this | view in thread ]
"shit man, clapton is about as good in experimental music as bush is at succesfully subduing nations. Terrible. Really bad actually, i would've loved to see experimental guitarplayin g from clapton, even some freejazz, but this was just aweful. Yuk."
how fucking stupid can one person be... he thinks it's Clapton and he managed to blame Bush...
this guy wins for dumbest asshat of all time... i'm gonna smack his mom after i pay her the 2 dollars... lol
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Maybe too close to the truth
For instance, if it weren't for vocalizers, pitch shifters, key straighteners, dubbing, chorus effects, patching, etc. we wouldn't have a lot of the manufactured chick singers we have now. I mean, does anybody really think Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, or Jennifer Lopez can sing? I'd bet dollars to donut holes that the raw tracks sound like nightmares.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Maybe too close to the truth
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No stop - it hurts, please stop
The link has duly been sent to all my mates for a bit of Friday fun
Bruce Dickinson cracks me up when he goes "It's the Monstuuur" LOL
Anyone have any idea which guitarist complained? He deserves a public shunning for such a total lack of humour
And kgwagner - yeah I spent a lot of time working in studios - used to be my job. Yes you can pitch shift etc etc but really, us engineers ain't THAT great!! (Thanks for the compliment though). Its a bit of an urban myth the extent to which we can realistically improve performances - hitting all the wrong notes is never going to sound good, and the guys that do the kind of sampling and editing required to get close with these sources wouldn't waste their time (they produce their own albums using better source samples)
Roadied on a Janet Jackson gig once and yeah, hate to break it to you but the lady can sing something amazing - sure her engineer tweaks a few knobs to improve it further and make her voice sit better in the mix (arenas ain't exactly the most acoustic of buildings) but she, and in my experience most of the megastar performers perform well without assistance. Sure theres the occasional Millie Vanilli and more than one performer who mimes during the extreme dance moves (you try singing pitch perfect at volume while doing a gymnastic marathon), but on the whole why bother polishing a turd when you can get real talent almost as easy?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
How about Hillary's head on some naked fat pigs body?
How about Rosie O'Donnels head onto a naked fat pig? Wait, she already is one. Nevermind.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
What a great idea!
Allowing that there are guitarists with no sense of humor at all, I would bet that the legal eagles are driving the censoring, not so much the musicians. I remember hearing Robert Plant talking about the "Gilligan's Island version" of Stairway to Heaven, a real classic. The maker of the song had been sued, and Plant explained that he loved it, but the lawyers insisted they had to do it.
Allowing the some musicians do lie, I bought his story, as he rattled off a whole bunch of Zep parodies, including the lovely Hairway to Steven, etc.
Having said that, I remember a lurid story years ago where Eddie Van Halen was being interviewed for a magazine. The interviewer had the Unmitigated Audacity to suggest that Vinnie Colaiuta might be a more advanced and challenging drummer than brother Alex Van Halen, and would he consider a side project like that? Alex plays great, but if you've heard Vinnie Colaiuta, this idea is far from absurd.
Eddie's reaction? No real surprise... he got all familial and went ballistic, awarding the interviewer with a barrage of profanity, heavily laced with nice anti-Semitic slurs.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
They probably got it offline on a technicality, the fact that they used actual footage of the guitarists.
How lame of him to do something like that. And I'm a Vai fan too! I'm very disappointed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Maybe too close to the truth
Britney, Janet, and Lopez aren't Musicians. They are "ARTISTS"(which is as vague as you can get). BIG Difference. To be a musician, you have to actually be able to play a musical instrument..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: What a great idea!
I love him as a guitarist, and Idolize his solos and riffs, but as a Band I freagin hate Van Halen. How such an amazing guitarist created such a shitty band is something I'll never understand. And all their singers were awful. The one good singer they had (Gary Cherone from Extreme), ended up leaving after one album.
Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme is my Idol, his versatility is unmatched, and even though he listed Van Halen as his Idols, I think he surpassed Eddie Van Halen in talent many times over.(Listen to Cupid's Dead)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Linkies
[ link to this | view in thread ]