Word: songful
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INDIE HITS Want a hot idea for a popular rock song? How about one that deals with mammalian metabolism? No? What about particle physics or James K. Polk? Such improbable topics have made They Might Be Giants a phenomenon in the indie-rock world for more than 20 years--and that same sense of curiosity and ingenuousness is now making them just as popular with kids...
...want to sell your music, that aesthetic has to appeal to listeners too. In the case of They Might Be Giants, it surely did, at least among rock fans, and Flansburgh and Linnell decided kids might also get it. In 2002 they released their first collection of children's songs--an album simply titled No! They soon became a fixture on the Disney Channel, writing the theme song for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, as well as for Higglytown Heroes, an animated show in which the characters are modeled on Russian nesting dolls--a vaguely surreal concept that is perfectly suited...
...hits--2005's Here Come the ABCs and 2008's Here Come the 123s--deal with stuff that could not be more basic, but they do so in a decidedly unbasic way. There aren't many musicians who teach the concept of the number seven with a song about a gang of sevens invading a home and demanding cake. Think that's too edgy for your kids? Show it to them once--and then see if you can pull them away...
...benign-looking link that takes them to the video for Astley's hit Never Gonna Give You Up. By now millions of people have inadvertently watched the video, which came out in 1987, a more innocent time when people actually listened to generic soft-core pop on purpose--the song went...
Astley, who is currently on a 1980s revival tour with Bananarama and Cutting Crew, is reportedly bemused by the whole phenomenon, which continues to escalate. In April pranksters hijacked an online poll held by the Mets, resulting in the song being played at a Major League Baseball game, thereby effectively rickrolling thousands of unsuspecting fans and players. If Moises Alou isn't safe...