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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 almost 12 million views as of December 07, 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, saying "**I move away from the mic to breathe in" 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]

Tay Zonday stated his initial popularity is due to postings on 4chan, and attributes his "phenomenon" status to the site. [1][2]

"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."

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

Chocolate Rain is the subject of numerous parodies, tributes, remixes and covers on the Internet. Major musical artists, such as singer John Mayer[11][12] and Green Day drummer Tré Cool[13] have spoofed the song on television and YouTube.com, respectively. See John Mayer's spoof and Tré Cool's parody cover. Even Blamesociety Productions produced its own parody using Chad Vader. 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 performances, LeRoi Moore, the Saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band, has interpolated the melody into an outro on the bands song "The Dreaming Tree".[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 on YouTube such as Mega Man[16], and a mashup of the song with Radiohead's "Talk Show Host."[17]

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".[18] Alex Albrecht spoofed the song in a fake commercial for Nestlé in the podcast Diggnation.[19] 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.

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.[20]

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 video and song was created as part of a promotional campaign for Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper.[21]

License

"Chocolate Rain" has explicit licensing terms that are 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 to encourage the song's spread. Creative Commons has praised Zonday specifically for this very reason.[22] 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."[23]

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. ^ Chocolate Rain 8Bit Remix Video Gaming Today
  17. ^ Mashup on YouTube
  18. ^ "Summer Break" from ifilm.com
  19. ^ Albrecht, Alex. Diggnation podcast 110.
  20. ^ Last Laugh 07 promo on YouTube
  21. ^ Cherry Chocolate Rain on YouTube
  22. ^ Parkins, Cameron (August 1, 2007). "Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain"". Creative Commons weblog.
  23. ^ Tay Zonday's MySpace page
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