Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/26/songsmith/
Microsoft Songsmith ad trumps Seinfeld shocker
The day the music died, and then some
Posted in Bootnotes, 26th January 2009 11:15 GMT
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Those of you who are still recovering from exposure to Microsoft's Seinfeld (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/seinfeld_campaign_over/) advertising campaign are advised to look away now, because Redmond has pulled off the impossible and produced something worse - a "pseudoinfomercial" so profoundly traumatising it could "make you want to kill your family", as Gawker.com puts it (http://gawker.com/5130701/microsoft-ad-and-product-advertised-could-both-conceivably-make-you-want-to-kill-your-family):
Killed your family yet? If not, get yourself down to Songsmith (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/), where the introductory demo vid should quickly push you over the edge.
For the record, Songsmith was released on 8 January, and has already attracted the attention of remixers* eager to unleash its awesome musical power on rock classics such as Roxanne (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypycpKQxXR0) and Billy Idol's White Wedding (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCWo1qdTdE) - the latter a truly inspired use of Redmond's digital banjos. May God have mercy on us all. ®
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*Yup, cue copyright attack lawyers, cue cease-and-desist, just as soon as the laughter's died down.