Request-A-Song.com
Request-A-Song.com (commonly abbreviated to RAS) is an American pop/rock/alternative duo and experimental music project consisting of brothers Benj Edwards and Jeremy Edwards. They are perhaps the world's first and only "dot-com" band, having taken their group name from their website address.
The group is most well-known for the unique way they go about writing their songs. Visitors to the RAS website submit "requests" — song titles and/or ideas for songs that the brothers Edwards then read over, looking for songwriting inspiration. If a submission catches their fancy, they write, record, produce, and release an original song based on the request in MP3 format on their website. Before submitting a request, the submitter must legally agree to transfer ownership of the submission over to RAS, to avoid possible future legal complications.
Some of RAS's most famous songs that have been created using this method are "My Dad Thinks I'm Gay," "I Saw Janet Jackson's Boob," "Cheer Up Emo Kid," "I Flipped My Biscuit," "Traumatized By Goatse," "Butter Ghost," and "Violent House Panda."
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History
Raleigh, NC USA-based Request-A-Song.com was first conceived in July 2000 by Benj Edwards, then 19 and working as a web designer, while looking for new and creative ways to take advantage of his insatiable hunger for songwriting. Some time early in that year, Edwards was sitting at his $500 Yamaha DJX keyboard he bought the year before, struggling to come up with new material for a song. After many attempts that led nowhere, he turned around to his brother Jeremy, who was sitting behind him at his computer, and asked him to say anything, and the first words out of his mouth would be the song title for a song that Benj would write then and there. Jeremy first suggested "It's Raining Big-Ass Boulders," and Benj did as promised, writing it on the spot — playing the chords on his keyboard and singing along. To the brothers' mutual surprise, the song wasn't bad, although incomplete. Jeremy suggested a few more song titles, and Benj quickly responded by writing songs based on them like the first.
About a month later, after accidentally discovering the explodingdog website, Benj realized that the same thing that had been happening on a small scale in his music room between him and his brother could be extended worldwide thanks to the Internet. Instead of one person standing next to him suggesting titles, thousands of random people who encountered his website could request songs via email, even anonymously. He could pick the submissions he liked the best and turn them into full songs for free.
Edwards set about working on the design for his website, which he decided to call "Request-A-Song.com," the name being inspired by They Might Be Giants' Dial-A-Song service. His plan ultimately took over two years to come to fruition, however, due to financial constraints and delays involving work and college. The site officially went online on October 1st, 2002 at 3 AM in the morning, with six previously prepared songs available for download in MP3 format.
A few milestones for RAS over the years include writing and releasing a song inspired by the Internet's Goatse.cx phenomenon in January 2003, "Traumatized By Goatse," which for over a year was their most downloaded song, and writing and releasing a humorous quick-reaction song after the infamous Janet Jackson 2004 Superbowl halftime show called "I Saw Janet Jackson's Boob," which saw phenomenal download rates, radio airplay on the Dr. Demento radio show (their second song to be featured on the show), and much media attention.
In June 2003, RAS released their first CD, a "greatest hits" album of songs from their first six months online, "Best Of Request – Vol. 1 (October 2002 – March 2003)" on their own label, Hollow Earth Productions.
In October 2004 the group celebrated its second anniversary with a complete site relaunch, including an integrated online music store (one of the first of its kind for independent artists) with certain individual songs for sale in MP3 format for 88 cents (US) a piece.
Musical Proclivity
RAS gained attention early on by writing and releasing as many requested songs as quickly as possible, as many as eight new songs a month during one six-month period. But over time their style and sound became more complicated and songs became longer in running time, taking longer to produce and finish. This naturally led to the reduction of their song output from the aforementioned eight a month, down to six a month, then one a week, and eventually even less than that. But this slower release schedule has corresponded with a dramatic increase in production quality, a natural extension of the brothers Edwards' desire to constantly improve themselves as songwriters, musicians, and producers. In their first year online they released 76 songs, and as of April 2005, they have released 126 songs — a total of over five and a half hours of original music.
The Band's Name
The name "Request-A-Song.com" was inspired by They Might Be Giants' Dial-A-Song service, but with the obvious difference being that the songs would be inspired by visitor requests; thus the "Request" part of the name. The band also is sometimes referred to as simply "Request-A-Song" or "Requestasong.com." The choice to officially include the ".com" top-level domain in their band name has been controversial, but the RAS creators insist that it is a key part of their identity.
Concept Influences and Inspirations
Request-A-Song.com was originally intended to be a musical counterpart of explodingdog.com, but the group's work has drifted over the years into increasingly more complex studio productions — instead of short, simple, quickly released one-offs (which would be the audio-analogy of explodingdog's simplistic yet poignant illustrated works). A similar site to RAS, Narbotic.com (now defunct), which later turned into Song Fight!, existed before RAS went public in 2002, but Benj Edwards claims that he was not aware of its existence upon the creation of RAS and that the inspiration must have struck both him and the creator of Narbotic around the same time in 2000.
Early 2004 saw the birth of two new musical by-request projects — the explodingdog-inspired Songs To Wear Pants To, and the RAS-tribute Request-A-Rave.co.uk — suggesting that the songs-composed-by-request concept pioneered by RAS had reached broader acceptance in the Internet community.
Discography
Online Website Releases
CD Albums
External links
- Request-A-Song.com – Official RAS Home Page (www.requestasong.com also works).
- Dial-A-Song.com – They Might Be Giants' Dial-A-Song service online.
- explodingdog – Illustrations inspired by emailed suggestions.
Categories: Webmusic | Online Music | Experimental Music | Internet memes | Songwriters | United States musicians | Rock music groups