I know that a ten second song about twitter doesn’t seem like it deserves critical analysis, but it does.
First, the video, don’t forget the sounds that Andrew has designed to accompany the appearance of his logo, to accompany the appearance of the question and to transition into the music video itself, as well as the distortion on the spoken vocals.
Ending out with the faux unenthusiastic social media call-out which is, in itself, a commentary on “social media strategy” and how idiotic it can be.
As for the actual song, it’s easily good enough to be something that Twitter paid over six figures for. The instrumentation is tight, extremely well-mixed. Despite the fact that the song is literally ten seconds long, it has a beginning a middle and an end, and it follows a musical arc that I fell straight into, but somehow actually left me feeling satisfied.
Lyrically, we have an introduction that makes sense but isnt (and doesn’t need to be) called back to, followed by the only rhyme scheme in the song “I’ll be sure to tweet and keep it short and sweet” which is the only rhyme the song needs. But not just because the song is so short, also because it is a freaking genius rhyme. First, it’s three syllables and three words, not the sort of rhyme you tease out of rhymezone, but one that slaps you in the face and makes you feel like a super hero when it lands in your lap.
Beyond being a three word rhyme, it’s got assonance and consonance working for it as well. So much so that, when listening, you’re not even sure that the words are different from one another.
The rhythm of the language reflects the actual rhythm of speaking without sacrificing the musicality and, overall, it ties together not just as a musical piece, but as a commentary on our short-attention-span society.
Andrew Huang, you win.
Announcing a new way to use video to create customized lessons: the “Flip This Lesson” feature from TED-Ed, now in beta at ed.ted.com.
With this feature, educators can use, tweak, or completely redo any video lesson featured on TED-Ed, or create lessons from scratch based on a TEDTalk or any video from YouTube. How? Just plug the video in and start writing questions, comments, even quizzes — then save the lesson as a private link and share with your students. The site allows you to see who’s completed the lessons and track individual progress. It’s still in beta, but we’re so excited about this feature we had to share.
Click through for a short video on how it works.
(via TED Blog | Flip this lesson! A new way to teach with video from TED-Ed)
Ingredients of life
Illustrations of Chemical compounds by Rex
I love all of these.
Sidenote: I find it really interesting that happiness appears to have the simplest chemical structure, while love is the most complex.
