The Gregory Brothers Auto-Tune the Net
From the New York Times:
“When Diana Radcliff stepped into a convenience store in Kansas City, Mo., on the morning of Sept. 1, 2010, she had no idea she’d be a witness to a botched robbery and a frantic escape accompanied by a hail of bullets; or that her account of the thwarted crime, as recorded by a local ABC television station, would become an Internet viral sensation; or that this video, in turn, would make her, at least for a short while, a pop-music star.
“Speaking to a reporter for KMBC-TV, Radcliff described her ordeal. “When I’m on my knees, I’m backin’ up, backin’ up, backin’ up, backin’ up, backin’ up, backin’ up, ’cause my daddy taught me good,” she said, while hunching down and shuffling backward to recreate the scene. And that was how numerous Internet users were introduced to Radcliff in a video clip that was posted about a year ago.
“Many millions of viewers know her from a different video, though, one in which she does not merely recite the story of her ordeal, but rather sings it, accompanied by snappy electronic percussion:
I’m backin’ up, backin’ up,
backin’ up, backin’ up,
’Cause my daddy taught me go-oo-d
I’m backin’ the hell out of there
And I’m like oh, my God
Oh, my God, my God
“This might not seem like the kind of thing you would hear on a Top 40 radio station or see on MTV — not yet, anyway — but “Backin Up Song (feat. Diana),” a video produced by a Brooklyn-based group of musicians-slash-Internet comedians called the Gregory Brothers, has been viewed more than 10 million times.”
Read the rest of the article here.
