Here at Soundfly, we’re all about helping people find their voice through music. So much so that our tag line is “Find Your Sound.” This week, we found evidence of people finding their sound all over the internet. From the silly, to the the serious, to the scandalous (Zac Efron personally* stole our slogan to promote his new DJ movie!) check out all the people finding their sound with our recap of the best of the musical internet!
* not personally. Also, not stolen.
1. Finding your voice when you were born without a mouth
Vimeo: This award-winning short about a world whose population was born without mouths is by turns endearing, macabre, gross, and delightful. (For children or workplace-viewers — depending on your stance on animated violence and sexuality, the video could be considered PG-13, and gets a touch bluer at the 3:00 mark.)
2. Finding the sound of the ’60s
Pitchfork analyzed the revolutionary ways music was used in the late, beloved Mad Men to establish the show’s world and develop its characters.
3. Find your sound on Letterman
Entertainment Weekly: We also said goodbye this week to the Late Show with David Letterman. The show has featured hundreds of musical performances over the years, introducing undiscovered artists to mainstream audiences and playing host to some of the most memorable musical acts of all time. EW put together a list of 17 of their all time faves.
4. Find your sound right in your browser
Online Sequencer allows you to compose and share elaborate loops for 13 different instruments, simply by clicking squares in a grid. It also offers some preset examples if you need a little inspiration to get started.
5. Find your sound in the words of a third grader
Consequence of Sound this week featured a study of pop, country, rock, and hip-hop, analyzing the complexity of the lyrics in terms of grade school reading level. It turns out most of what we listen to comes in below grade three and it’s only getting worse.
6. Finding your sound in the face of gender norms
WQXR Radio explored the gender norms around instrument choice (girls play “feminine” instruments, flute, piccolo, violin, and clarinet; boys gravitate towards trumpets, tubas, and percussion) and featured artists who are tearing down those standards.
7. Finding your sound while playing Mario Kart
Youtube: You think you’re just watching someone play Mario Kart. You are wrong.
8. Finding someone else’s sound
Youtube: Scandal! Zac Efron’s new DJ movie, We Are Your Friends, uses our same tag line! Could it be a simple coincidence? I’ll leave that for you to decide… but I will note that the movie features known villains, Walking Dead‘s Evil Shane and the naked girl from “Blurred Lines”.
9. Finding your sound in reverse
Youtube: This guy reversed every element of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” — including all the instrumentation, the words in the lyrics, everything — so that when the resulting video was played backwards, it perfectly plays the song forwards. It’s a trip.
