One of the many excellent things about my job is that I’m often tasked with finding new & interesting ways of using the web to connect with people. And recently, whilst doing just that, I was sent a link to the video above by my colleague Laurence from WCRS. It’s one half of a video for the track Semi Babe by Pop Levi and very interesting it is too.
As you’ll see if you watch it, it’s tied with another video which, when watching the first one on YouTube, can be found in the related videos section down the right of the page. To make things easier I’ve put part 2 below. What you then do is play both video simultaneously – ideally you need dual monitors to really get the full effect.
Because what the creators of the video, those innovative chaps at Ninja Tunes (Pop Levi is signed to their offshoot Counter Records), have done is to use the videos like the different tracks of an old record. That is, the first video only plays the keyboards and drums of the track, whilst the second part of Semi Babe, the vocals and guitar, are on the second video. That is except for the bit when the lead singer of Pop Levi (Mr Levi) wanders into the first video at which point that video has all of the different parts of the song (and the second is silent).
It’s a very simple idea but it works brilliantly, helped by the fact that Semi Babe is such a lovely song to start with and one made for this execution: simple, sweet and very, very catchy. I really do love everything about this song: the vocals, the melody and especially the fact that the video has obviously been made entirely with YouTube in mind, and people seem to have responded to this. For though there is a version which includes all parts of the song it’s had much fewer views than either of the two separate videos.
What I do find strange though is the fact that the first part of Semi Babe has had more than twice as many views as the second part, suggesting that tens of thousands of people are happy to listen to just half of the track. I’m also not quite sure how much the ‘third’ (unofficial) part created by James Bignutz, AKA Adam of Adam & Joe, adds to the process but it certainly made me chuckle.
