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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 singer and songwriter.

After being posted on YouTube on April 22, 2007, the song quickly became popular with over 30 million views as of October 21, 2008, and has gained further popularity thanks to the help of a recent South Park episode that features his likeness. 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 video is also famous for a caption displayed early in the video "**I move away from the mic to breathe in", which has been parodied many times. 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] It was the winner in the Music category in the 2007 YouTube Awards.[4][5]

Critical response

The song is known for the deep voice of its singer and his unique mannerisms while singing, telling the viewer "**I move away from the mic to breathe in" via subtitles.[6][7] 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.[8] Other reviews have been more favorable. Garth Montgomery of The Daily Telegraph praises the song's “hypnotic quality” while criticizing its “cheesy drum loop”.[6]

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 deep racism.[9] This echoes Zonday's comments posted to the video's page on YouTube.[10]

Many attribute the initial spread of the popularity of the song to 4chan.[11] Tay Zonday said,

I'm pretty sure the "Chocolate Rain" attention started as a joke at 4chan.org, an image board that is credited with starting lots of popular internet phenomena. It spread to a general audience and people started uploading spoofs. I don't know what causes people to listen to my music. If I could speak it, there would be no reason to write songs.[12]

The song deals with many race issues in America, invoking high prison rates among African Americans ("The prisons make you wonder where it went"), economic racism ("Raised your neighborhood insurance rates") and in many instances how society glosses over racial problems ("Every February washed away," referring to Black History Month in the U.S. and Canada).

Performances

Clips of the video have been played or referenced on TV and radio shows, including G4TV's Attack of the Show,[13] 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".[14] It has also been performed live on the BBC Radio 1 Chris Moyles Show.[15]. More recently, Zonday appeared on Lily Allen's show, Lily Allen and Friends, where he sang a live performance of Lily's song 'Smile'.

Spoofs and tributes

"Chocolate Rain" is the subject of numerous parodies, tributes, remixes and covers on the Internet. Major musical artists, such as singer John Mayer[16] and Green Day drummer Tré Cool[17][18] have spoofed the song on television and YouTube.com, respectively. Blamesociety Productions produced its own parody using Chad Vader.[19] He goes on to make his own lyrics, breathe away from the microphone as in the original, and runs out of lyrics that fit the structure. During some 2007 and 2008 performances, LeRoi Moore, the Saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band, integrated the melody into an outro on the band's song "The Dreaming Tree".[6][7][2] Notable parodies include a song entitled "Vanilla Snow",[20] also a spoof of a McDonald's commercial,[21] a [remixed] version reminiscent of classic 8-bit video games on YouTube such as Mega Man,[22], another 8-bit remix by Chiptune artist Epichunt featuring several added lead lines [23] and a mashup of the song with Radiohead's "Talk Show Host."[24] There was also a parody by "Stuttering Craig" (of screwattack.com) about a video game called "Vampire Rain" during the SAGY nominees of "Worst 360 Game of the Year." Jon Hampton even recently did a parody of Chocolate Rain, about Republican Presidential Candidate, John McCain.[25]

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".[26] Alex Albrecht spoofed the song in a fake commercial for Nestlé in the podcast Diggnation.[27] Tina Fey's character on 30 Rock referred to the character of Toofer as "Chocolate Rain" in the 2007 season premiere. Paul Reubens debuted a spoof educational film called Journey to Banana Land that beckoned Chocolate Rain when the narrator mentions cocoa trees. Zonday's Youtube video is used as Reubens sings along.

American rock band Weezer picked famous internet viral celebrities for the video to their song Pork and Beans_(song). Zonday appears to be singing their song in various parts of the video. In addition to this collaboration, Weezer's Brian Bell_(musician) appeared in a YouTube performance with Zonday to play an acoustic version of Pork and Beans.[28]

On April 2, 2008, South Park aired the episode "Canada On Strike" that contained an appearance of Zonday talking about "Chocolate Rain", along with other internet memes such as Tron Guy and Chris Crocker. Zonday was killed at the end of this scene when a stare from the Dramatic Prairie Dog caused his head to explode. The title of the hit was humorously manipulated in the phrase "get ready for some chocolate pain" within the episode. The episode brought back the video's popularity and boosted its views by over one million in the days following its airing. On an episode of The Office entitled "Business Ethics", Michael Scott confesses that when he discovered YouTube, he "watched Cookie Monster sings Chocolate Rain about a thousand times". This prompted the creation of several said videos a few days later.

On April 8, 2008, Rich Alvarez (Mario for Stupid Mario Brothers) did a spoof of Chocolate Rain. He had dressed up as Mario and sang in an Italian accent. He later made a remake with 8 bit background music.

Comedy.com made a video in November 2008 spoofing not only the song, but its status as a viral video. The video looked at how different directors, such as Quentin Tarantino, would have approached the making of the Chocolate Rain video.[1]

SpongeBob SquarePants aired the episode "Boating Buddies" on August 7, 2008 in which SpongeBob spills Squidward's drink, and exclaims "Coffee Rain!", and Squidward says that his drink was Hot Chocolate, then SpongeBob says, "Chocolate Rain!".

In the game Guitar Hero World Tour, you sometimes get the message "Tip: Move away from the mic to breathe in," when playing vocals before a song or selecting a song with no vocals.

Advertisements

In November 2007, Tay Zonday licensed the song and recorded spoof lyrics to Comedy Central as a promo clip for their show Last Laugh with Lewis Black.[29]

On November 28, 2007, Zonday released a spoof/sequel to the song entitled "Cherry Chocolate Rain". The music video is professionally shot, and makes many allusions to the original song. The song makes fun of itself with its over-the-top visuals and mentions how Zonday was "paid a hefty, hefty fee" to do the video, as well as featuring professional rapper Mista Johnson who repeats "He moves his mouth away from the mic so he can breathe". The video and song was created as part of a promotional campaign for Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper.[30]

License

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 to encourage the song's spread. Creative Commons has praised Zonday specifically for this very reason.[31] 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."[32]

References

  1. ^ Gil Kaufman (2007-08-13). "'Chocolate Rain' Creator Talks Of Life Beyond His 15 Minutes Of Fame". MTV. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  2. ^ a b Droganes, Constance (August 1, 2007), "10 hottest viral videos of the summer (so far)", CTV.ca
  3. ^ Top 5 Viral Videos utalkmarketing.com
  4. ^ Carlson, Erin (March 20, 2008). "Will the Obama Girl win a YouTube award?". Associated Press. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  5. ^ Associated Press (March 21, 2008). "Viral videos win big at second YouTube Awards". CNN.com. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
  6. ^ a b c Montgomery, Garth (August 3, 2007), "Chocolate Rain goes huge", The Daily Telegraph
  7. ^ a b Chocolate Rain on YouTube
  8. ^ Lowe, David (2007-08-01), "Web crooner with 3m fans", The Sun
  9. ^ "Tay Zonday on the Opie & Anthony show". 2007-07-19. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  10. ^ "All Comments to "Chocolate Rain"". YouTube. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  11. ^ Mathew Ingram (2007-08-15). "Who is Tay Zonday?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  12. ^ "Make It Rain: Tay Zonday". HHNLiv. 2007-07-30. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  13. ^ Tay Zonday on Attack of the Show’s Daily Video Podcast
  14. ^ Zonday performs "Chocolate Rain" on Jimmy Kimmel Live, August 9, 2007
  15. ^ Zonday performs "Chocolate Rain" on The Chris Moyles Show
  16. ^ MTV News Staff (2007-08-06), "Jennifer Lopez And Marc Anthony Roll Out Tour Dates; Plus Lindsay Lohan, Gwen Stefani, Nas, Amy Winehouse & More, In For The Record", MTV News
  17. ^ Cashmere, Tim (August 3, 2007). "Green Day Drummer Tre Cool Covers Tay Zonday". Undercover. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
  18. ^ Tré Cool's parody cover
  19. ^ Chad Vader parody
  20. ^ "Vanilla Snow" on YouTube
  21. ^ Spoof on YouTube
  22. ^ Chocolate Rain 8Bit Remix Video Gaming Today
  23. ^ Chocolate Rain on Epichunt's MySpace page
  24. ^ Mashup on YouTube
  25. ^ "John McCain (Parody of Chocolate Rain)" on Youtube
  26. ^ "Summer Break" from ifilm.com
  27. ^ Albrecht, Alex. Diggnation podcast 110.
  28. ^ [http://www.insideonlinevideo.com/2008/06/04/pork-and-beans-by-tay-zonday/ "Acoustic Pork and Beans"
  29. ^ Last Laugh 07 promo on YouTube
  30. ^ Cherry Chocolate Rain on YouTube
  31. ^ Parkins, Cameron (2007-08-01). "Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain"". Creative Commons weblog.
  32. ^ Tay Zonday's MySpace page
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