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Chocolate Rain

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"Chocolate Rain"
Song

"Chocolate Rain" is a song and music video written and performed by Tay Zonday, a 25 year old songwriter and vocalist. After being posted on YouTube on April 22, 2007, the song quickly became a popular Internet meme with over 8 million views as of September 3, 2007. [1] The music video portrays a bespectacled Zonday in a recording studio wearing a white T-shirt and singing into a condenser microphone. Occasional cutbacks to Zonday playing a digital piano are also shown. The song, and its writer/performer, attracted major media attention. "Chocolate Rain" is ranked as the hottest viral video of Summer 2007 by CTV.ca[2] and as the number 2 viral video in the world by utalkmarketing.com.[3]

Critical response

The song is known for the deep voice of its singer and his unique mannerisms while singing, such as "moving away from the mic to breathe in” (and alerting the viewer of this fact via subtitles).[4][1] David Lowe of The Sun characterized Zonday's voice as being “gravelly as Rod Stewart but alas without the groove”, expressing no surprise at Zonday's lack of formal musical training.[5] Other reviews have been more favorable. Garth Montgomery of The Daily Telegraph praises the song's “hypnotic quality” while criticizing its “cheesy drum loop”.[4]

During a brief interview on The Opie and Anthony Show, Zonday referred to the song as "cheesy", and stated that its cryptic lyrics dealt with racism.[6] This echoes Zonday's comments posted to the video's page on YouTube.[7]

Performances

Clips of the video have been played or referenced on TV and radio shows, including G4TV's Attack of the Show,[8] Last Call with Carson Daly and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. On August 9, 2007, Zonday performed the song on the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, as part of its "Internet Talent Showcase".[9] It has also been performed live on the BBC Radio 1 Chris Moyles Show.[10]

Spoofs and tributes

Major musical artists, such as singer John Mayer[11][12] and Green Day drummer Tré Cool[13] have expressed admiration for the song, or have covered it. See John Mayer's tribute and Tré Cool's cover. It is the subject of thousands of parodies, tributes, remixes and covers on the Internet.[4][1][2] Notable parodies include a song entitled "Vanilla Snow",[14], a spoof of a McDonald's commercial,[15] a [remixed] version reminiscent of classic 8-bit video games[16] such as Mega Man[17], and a mashup of the song with Radiohead's "Talk Show Host."[18] Zonday himself appeared on the August 3, 2007 episode of VH1's Best Week Ever and performed a parody of his song called "Summer Break".[19] Alex Albrecht spoofed the song in a fake commercial for Nestlé in the podcast Diggnation.[20]

License

"Chocolate Rain" has explicit licensing terms provided by its creator. The song and video are licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-nd license. Although this license is not completely free, it has been suggested that the relative openness of the license has helped encourage the song's spread. Creative Commons has praised Zonday specifically for this very reason[21]. Zonday has expressed his own thoughts on the licensing situation on his MySpace blog stating, "I want nonprofit radio and small mom/pop cafes to be able to play my music for free. But I also want giant corporations who can afford to give me a dime or two to pay fair royalties."[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c Chocolate Rain on YouTube
  2. ^ a b Droganes, Constance (August 1, 2007), "10 hottest viral videos of the summer (so far)", CTV.ca{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  3. ^ Top 5 Viral Videos utalkmarketing.com
  4. ^ a b c Montgomery, Garth (August 3, 2007), "Chocolate Rain goes huge", The Daily Telegraph{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. ^ Lowe, David (August 1, 2007), "Web crooner with 3m fans", The Sun{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  6. ^ "Tay Zonday on the Opie & Anthony show". 2007-07-19. Retrieved 2007-07-20. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  7. ^ "All Comments to "Chocolate Rain"". YouTube. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  8. ^ Tay Zonday on Attack of the Show’s Daily Video Podcast
  9. ^ Zonday performs "Chocolate Rain" on Jimmy Kimmel Live, August 9, 2007
  10. ^ Zonday performs "Chocolate Rain" on The Chris Moyles Show
  11. ^ Keiper, Nicole (August 4, 2007), "Concert Review: John Mayer brings soul to Nashville", The Tennessean{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  12. ^ MTV News Staff (August 6, 2007), "Jennifer Lopez And Marc Anthony Roll Out Tour Dates; Plus Lindsay Lohan, Gwen Stefani, Nas, Amy Winehouse & More, In For The Record", MTV News{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  13. ^ Cashmere, Tim (August 3 2007). "Green Day Drummer Tre Cool Covers Tay Zonday". Undercover. Retrieved 2007-08-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "Vanilla Snow" on YouTube
  15. ^ Spoof on YouTube
  16. ^ Remix on YouTube
  17. ^ Chocolate Rain 8Bit Remix Video Gaming Today
  18. ^ Mashup on YouTube
  19. ^ "Summer Break" from ifilm.com
  20. ^ Albrecht, Alex. Diggnation podcast 110.
  21. ^ Parkins, Cameron (August 1, 2007). "Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain"". Creative Commons weblog.
  22. ^ Tay Zonday's MySpace page
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