Bed Intruder song

The NY Times has an interesting story on the Gregory Brothers a Brooklyn band who lifted a clip off a tv news item, autotuned it, andf turned it into a bonafide chart hit - From Viral Video to Billboard 100.

"The song’s source material could not have been more unlikely: A local TV news report from Huntsville, Ala., about an intruder who climbed into a woman’s bed and tried to assault her.

But with some clever editing and the use of software that can turn speech into singing, the Gregory Brothers ... transformed an animated and angry rant by the victim’s brother into something genuinely catchy.

The resulting track, “Bed Intruder Song,” has sold more than 91,000 copies on iTunes, and last week it was at No. 39 on the iTunes singles chart. Its video has been viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube.

Russ Crupnick, an analyst at NPD, said the song’s success pointed to a shift in how music is shared and discovered. Around 70 million Americans buy a CD each year, he said, which is on par with the number of people who are now listening to and finding new music on YouTube.

Some of the group’s online traction stems from the way they turn their songs into viral video franchises by posting the chords and lyrics and encouraging others to create their own versions of the songs, said Kenyatta Cheese, one of the creators of a Web video series called “Know Your Meme” that documents online phenomena.

“They made it more participatory, which increases the value of their original work,” Mr. Cheese said. “They embraced the remix culture and understood they have to contribute back in order to make it spread even further.”


The group's previous successes with videos include the Autotune the news series, and the double rainbow song (featured below, plus original)


Double rainbow- original




Double rainbow song