Crazy Frog History
Mobile tune makes history
Via IHT
A mobile phone ring tone based on the sound of a revving Swedish moped was expected to top the British singles chart on Sunday.
Through Friday, "Crazy Frog Axel F," the first tune created for mobile phones to cross into mainstream music charts, was already outselling the new single of the group Coldplay by about four to one, the Official UK Charts Co. said.
This milestone may make little sense to anyone who has never downloaded a ring tone, but with children as young as 10 years old personalizing the sound of their cellphones, it is a sign that digital music in all forms has become a major entertainment medium for the under-30 set............
"Listen to this song and you can hear the death knell of the traditional music industry," Malcolm McLaren said.
McLaren, who has managed such best-selling acts as the Sex Pistols, Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow and Boy George, added, "The world focus of creative expression is on the Internet, and the old-fashioned retail world is only now trying to catch up."
The single was expected to sell 150,000 copies in the seven days that end Sunday, far outstripping the 50,000 sales level that often merits top place on the charts, but still well below the cumulative one million copies sold this year of the best-selling single "Show Me the Way to Amarillo," by Tony Christie.
Compiled since 1952, the singles chart is based on sales at 5,600 retail shops across Britain. Sales over the Internet via digital download have been included since the chart of April 17, but almost all sales of the "Crazy Frog Axel F" came from retail stores selling the CD single, according to Paul Clifford, operations director of the Official UK Charts Co., a joint venture of the British Association of Record Dealers and the British Phonographic Industry.
HMV, the British music retailing chain, is selling the recording for £2.99, or $5.46.
"This song is incredibly irritating and puerile and we're still trying to understand why people like it," Gennaro Castaldo, a spokesman for HMV, said.
Indeed, the story of the song itself is a tale of Internet collaboration over time and across international borders between people who never met.
About five years after Malmedahl sent an e-mail message containing his moped MP3 recording to friends, it reached another Swede whom he had never met.
That Swede, Erik Wernquist, used the noise as soundtrack to a cartoon entitled "The Annoying Thing" that featured a blue frog with a goofy grin, motorcycle helmet and leather jacket. Nearly two years later, the sound was picked up by a company specializing in ring tones, Jambal, and quickly became their most popular download, becoming known as the "crazy frog" ring tone.
This year, two German club disc jockeys, Reinhard Raith and Wolfgang Boss, mixed the noise in with "Axel F," a tune from the 1984 Eddie Murphy film "Beverly Hills Cop," and released it this week as a CD single. Other versions of it are available for sale on various Web sites.
Via IHT
A mobile phone ring tone based on the sound of a revving Swedish moped was expected to top the British singles chart on Sunday.
Through Friday, "Crazy Frog Axel F," the first tune created for mobile phones to cross into mainstream music charts, was already outselling the new single of the group Coldplay by about four to one, the Official UK Charts Co. said.
This milestone may make little sense to anyone who has never downloaded a ring tone, but with children as young as 10 years old personalizing the sound of their cellphones, it is a sign that digital music in all forms has become a major entertainment medium for the under-30 set............
"Listen to this song and you can hear the death knell of the traditional music industry," Malcolm McLaren said.
McLaren, who has managed such best-selling acts as the Sex Pistols, Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow and Boy George, added, "The world focus of creative expression is on the Internet, and the old-fashioned retail world is only now trying to catch up."
The single was expected to sell 150,000 copies in the seven days that end Sunday, far outstripping the 50,000 sales level that often merits top place on the charts, but still well below the cumulative one million copies sold this year of the best-selling single "Show Me the Way to Amarillo," by Tony Christie.
Compiled since 1952, the singles chart is based on sales at 5,600 retail shops across Britain. Sales over the Internet via digital download have been included since the chart of April 17, but almost all sales of the "Crazy Frog Axel F" came from retail stores selling the CD single, according to Paul Clifford, operations director of the Official UK Charts Co., a joint venture of the British Association of Record Dealers and the British Phonographic Industry.
HMV, the British music retailing chain, is selling the recording for £2.99, or $5.46.
"This song is incredibly irritating and puerile and we're still trying to understand why people like it," Gennaro Castaldo, a spokesman for HMV, said.
Indeed, the story of the song itself is a tale of Internet collaboration over time and across international borders between people who never met.
About five years after Malmedahl sent an e-mail message containing his moped MP3 recording to friends, it reached another Swede whom he had never met.
That Swede, Erik Wernquist, used the noise as soundtrack to a cartoon entitled "The Annoying Thing" that featured a blue frog with a goofy grin, motorcycle helmet and leather jacket. Nearly two years later, the sound was picked up by a company specializing in ring tones, Jambal, and quickly became their most popular download, becoming known as the "crazy frog" ring tone.
This year, two German club disc jockeys, Reinhard Raith and Wolfgang Boss, mixed the noise in with "Axel F," a tune from the 1984 Eddie Murphy film "Beverly Hills Cop," and released it this week as a CD single. Other versions of it are available for sale on various Web sites.
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