Everyone's been there- you're at a bar, or a restaurant, or an NRA meeting, and suddenly a song comes on that you just can't place. There have been paid mobile services for such a situation in the past, but it's only now that a new app, by Shazam, has made the whole process absolutely painless. The app is available on pretty much any machine out there, but who honestly carries their iPad around with them on a night out? Moreover, it's absolutely free, with no limits on how many songs you can check until 2012 (they're currently sponsored by eBay, though they reckon this might end at the beginning of next year). So, while we can, let's really put it to the test, with ten of the most obscure songs I can think of. You'll find the first five here, and the other five in a later post. If you're visiting and have a suggestion for a song, do leave it in the comments! You'll find the rest of the list in a later post.
#10: Taken By A Stanger
It was Germany's entry in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest, performed by sultry German twenty-year old Lena Meyer-Landrut. It soared to number two in the German charts, but was quickly forgotten about even before the Eurovision aired, and as a result she placed tenth in the contest. It's not exactly the epitome of outlandishness, though without even placing in both the UK and US charts, it's not well known.
Result: Win. Shazam recognised it without breaking a sweat. It didn't have an album cover, but it did tell me a bit about her tour dates. Nice.
#9: Kyrrlátt kvöld
An obscure song from an obscure nation; Kyrrlátt kvöld is a song by Icelandic punk band Utangarðsmenn, and the theme of award-winning comedy series Næturvaktin, also from Iceland. The song itself is actually quite well known to several non-Icelandic people; the YouTube clip has over 22,000 views, and the band's other songs have viewing figures well into the thousands.
Result: Fail. After three attempts, one with a snippet of the verse and the other two from the chorus, it's safe to say that this one was a total failure. Not that it ever stood a chance; even Icelandic Wikipedia doesn't know the song.
#8: Cooking By The Book
Cooking By The Book is, admittedly, a very well known tune. Over five million hits on one YouTube video alone indicates towards its cyberpopularity. However, despite its viral emergence, neither the Lazy Town song nor its parent soundtrack charted in any country. With that in mind, this should theoretically be impossible, right?
Result: Win. The app picked it up first time. It also managed to pick up a number of other songs from the Lazy Town soundtrack, including the astringent "You Are A Pirate". In fact, it recognised every single song that I tested from the soundtrack, which was about three. Then I got bored.
#7: Electro Gypsy
Despite the fact that it looks like a flash movie (and I'll explain that in a bit), Savlonic's Electro Gypsy is actually a real song with a real following. A song quite popular in the light rave/techno circles, and very popular on the internets, it came to be known by way of Weebl creating a complementary music video (Weebl is responsible for that badger-badger-mushroom thing, which explains pretty much everything). It hasn't charted, but we know by now that this counts for nothing.
Result: Fail. Surprisingly, Shazam failed on this one too. You would expect it to do pretty well with any piece of music which has received well over three million hits on 'Tube, but clearly it's just a little too cliquey for it to interpret. It's even listed on iTunes, so a strage result.
#6: Trapped In The Closet
I'm not entirely sure what R Kelly was smoking when he wrote his epic 22-part "hip-hopera", but whatever it was, it must have been pretty good, because Trapped In The Closet is the best hip-hopera ever written. Kelly has also been lauded for his poetic narrative ("He says move, she says no, he says move, she says no, 'Bitch move!', she moves"!) and stamina; the whole song (and it is just one big song) lasts no less than 83 minutes. Could Shakespeare have written an 83 minute poem? I know Hamlet when performed is over five hours long, but don't forget: it didn't have music.
Result: Win. This one made me particularly happy. The ability to recognise a ten-second clip of music from a piece of 83 minutes is really very impressive, or would be if the 83 minutes weren't just the same couple of bars over and over again. Shockingly enough, Trapped In The Closet never gets boring, mainly because it doesn't give you a chance. Seriously, go and watch it.
So, that's the first half of The Shazam Test over and done with. Pop back in a couple of days to see the other half, which I promise won't contain any cop-outs. Not many, anyway. Also, if you enjoyed this, email it to your friends. There's a little email button in the bar below this post. See you next time!
Click here to get Shazam.
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