Sounds Like Music

About

Sounds Like Music refers to various video clips which contain sounds produced by people, animals or non-musical objects that resemble beats or melodies heard in popular music.

Origin

On February 27th, 2009, YouTuber astark92 uploaded a video titled "Fire Alarm Jam Session," in which a band incorporates the noise made by a fire alarm into a live performance (shown below). Over the next seven years, the video gained over 820,000 views and 1,200 comments.

Spread

On October 8th, 2009, YouTuber Fadem12 uploaded a video titled "Super Mario Ping Pong," featuring footage of a ping pong ball which sounds like the theme song for Super Mario Bros. as it lands on the table (shown below).

On August 4th, 2010, YouTuber dddeluxe uploaded a video titled "Death Metal Drumming Washing Machine," featuring a recording of a washing machine set to the death metal song "The Lords of Plasticine" by eZah (shown below, left). Within six years, the video received more than 2.1 million views and 2,100 comments. On April 30th, 2011, YouTuber Ryan Flynn uploaded a recording of himself singing the 2005 alternative rock song "Feel Good Inc" by Gorillaz with a wild bird (shown below, right).

On January 21st, 2012, YouTuber rawrderder uploaded a remix video featuring two children smashing their heads with books and a desk set to the tune of the Super Mario Bros. theme (shown below, left). Within four years, the video accumulated upwards of 4.5 million views and 2,700 comments. On January 12th, 2014, the /r/unexpectedmusic^[2] subreddit was launched for users to submit "videos of people and the world making music together." On October 27th, the /r/JammingWithThings^[1] wubreddit was launched, featuring videos of music produced with "unusual instruments" and "everyday-use objects." On April 30th, YouTuber Sergey Ivanushin uploaded footage of an auctioneer set to a hip-hop beat, which received more than 1.4 million views and 900 comments in two years (shown below).

On May 17th, 2015, YouTuber Shonky Brothers uploaded a recording of a fart sounding like a "major seventh arpeggio in the key of B flat," garnering upwards of 3.7 million views and 1,500 comments over the next year (shown below, left). On July 6th, YouTuber isgsagFeed posted a video titled "Smells Like Teen Shovel Coub," featuring a clip of a boy dropping a shovel on the ice remixed to the tune of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (shown below, right). Within 1 year, the video gained over 6.7 million views and 1,100 comments.

The following day, Redditor manapod created the /r/SoundsLikeMusic^[3] subreddit for videos containing "random noise" that "Sounds just like that song you know." On January 21st, 2016, YouTuber Viralzo uploaded a compilation of "Sounds Like Music" remix videos (shown below, left). On March 6th, 2016, YouTuber DCwars12 published a similar montage featuring .webm videos taken from "you laugh you lose" threads on 4chan (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Goat Edition Remixes

Many pop songs have been edited with clips of yelling goats added to the chorus following a remix of the Taylor Swift song "I Knew You Were Trouble" uploaded by YouTuber Goosik in February 2013 (shown below).

TikTok #AccidentalMusic

On March 30th, 2019, TikTok user @ugly_scorpio uploaded a video in which they sing "Tricky" by RUN-DMC to the clicking sound of a gas stove (shown below, left). The video gained over 159,000 likes and 6,400 shares in a month. In Early May 2019, the hashtag #accidentalmusic began trending and spawned more videos of non-musical objects being played to sound like music. On May 7th, TikTok user @CJOperAmericano used their electric toothbrush as an instrument in a video (shown below, center). The video gained over 1,600 likes in two days. On May 8th, TikTok user gdun posted a video about the hashtag trending (shown below, right). The video gained over 2,756 likes in a day.

Search Interest

Not available.

External References