rick astley

"Awesome! thanks for this Karen."
  Shystie

Smells Like Teen Spirit: Rick Astley, Nirvana Remix—Love it or Hate It?

Published July 20th, 2009 by Karen

ABOVE: Pop and grunge unite in one of the strangest mash-ups in recent memory. Love it? Hate it? Hope you never hear it again? Hear more of DJ Morgoth’s strange mash-ups, below.

Blame Germany for this latest musical horror, as DJ Morgoth got the warped idea to mash together Rick Astley’s cheeseball 1987 dance hit, “Never Gonna Give You Up,” with Nirvana’s 1991 grunge smash, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

The combination actually works surprisingly well, and it just might get stuck in your head, whether you like it or not.

Thankfully, this video hasn’t turned into another “rickrolling” plague like the one that invaded the web a while back…but it might.

Among Morgoth’s other twisted musical concoctions are a mix of the Prodigy’s “Firestarter” and Judas Priest’s “You Got Another Thing Coming”, and a cheerful reworking of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” mixed up with the Gorillaz.

LISTEN: “Ace of Spades Feels Good”–Gorillaz vs. Motorhead (”Ace of Spades” + “Feel Good, Inc.”)

DOWNLOAD: “Firestarter Comin’”Prodigy vs. Judas Priest (”Firestarte” + “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming”)

"rick astley was ahead of his time and a black guy in a corny white guys body,. Thats what is funny, becuz people are so uncomfortable with what they..."
  Timrolled

Who is YouTube Star Rick Astley and Why is He Awesome?

Published April 1st, 2008 by Karen

Anyone with a computer has probably been RickRolled by now—even if you don’t know what that is.

Don’t worry, your computer isn’t broken, but it is a little more awesome.

In short, RickRolling is what happens when you click a link, but instead of getting the webpage you expected, you are greeted with the 1987 music video of Rick Astley’s hit song, “Never Gonna Give You Up.” See the video here, if you haven’t already.

For its part, the song is a silly bit of disposable dance-pop. It’s really not anything special, and Astley was something of a one-hit-wonder in the ‘80s. The fact that the song has been resurrected in this way is random and weird and, most of all, entertaining (for now).

This online fad was born once net-dorks rediscovered the video and recognized the inherent comedic value in the (unintentionally) funny video and catchy song. It’s endearing because it’s such a weird bit of harmless fun (yeah, who knew “hacking” could be harmless fun? Go figure).

In a recent interview with the LA Times, Astley seemed confused and reluctantly flattered by the trend, but seems to have a sense of humor about it.

In fact, today the featured video section of YouTube has been hacked so that all of the video links lead to Astley.

Which, let’s face it, this silly video is probably better than most of YouTube’s videos of kids falling off of their skateboards anyway.

And for the record, Astley, now 42, is still a working musician—that might be the most surprising part of this whole story. Check out his website. Oh, and his hair is still fantastic.

In honor of Astley and RickRollers everywhere, we present today’s list:

The Most Awesome Things about Rick Astley

Super-sweet dance moves
While his big, booming voice is radio-gold, Astley’s dance moves are not. This may be the key to the whole video. In short, this must be where Napoleon Dynamite copped all of his dance moves. Awkward, nerdy, stiff and utterly devoid of rhythm, Rick Astley is a monument to bad dancing—and we love him for it.

Hair As evidenced by the now inescapable video, Astley has the biggest, shiniest pompadour since Elvis. You want to touch it, but you really shouldn’t.

Sunglasses
Over-sized ‘80s sunglasses? Yeah, he’s rockin’ em. So what?

Cheesy ‘80s synth music
This is after all, dance music. So cheesy keyboards are mandatory—and hilarious.

Fashion
A particularly suave wardrobe choice finds our star dressed in head to toe denim, all one color, all bleached/stonewashed. And his high-wasted pants practically come up to his nipples. Classy.

Incompetent backing dancers
Blond girls with big, um, hair, in tight dresses dance around Astley in several scenes of the video, and while Astley himself is no Fred Astaire, these ladies are worse than any Dancing with the Stars cast-off. The dancing bartender is also awesomely awful.

Hair, again.
Seriously, watch the video. This guy’s hair is beyond human. Perfectly sculpted and shellacked, it is surely indestructible and a wonder to behold. But, much like the sun, it is probably best not to stare directly at it.

Fun Fact:
In 1989 Astley was nominated for the Best New Artist award at the Grammys, but lost to Tracy Chapman. Yeah, well, who is laughing now, Tracy? Well, Tracy probably isn’t laughing, but then again, she doesn’t seem like much fun.

And…
Astley’s other hit song, “Together Forever” is almost as sweet as “Never Gonna Give You Up.” If that one catches on, Astley’s revived 15 minutes of fame might just last a little longer.

Your turn…
What’s the most awesome thing about Rick Astley? Leave a comment and tell us!