Walk Off The Earth: A YouTube Fairytale
WOTE: A Fairytale of New York and YouTube
It’s fantastic how more and more people are using the Internet to start and build their careers. It gives a strong indication of what the online public wants, it creates entrepreneurs and employment and it gives us more variety and choice when spending time on the Internet.
YouTube specifically is becoming the most impressive stage for career launching. Look at someone like Ray William Johnson who basically creates YouTube videos about YouTube videos and gets millions of views within days. He has a full production crew, merchandise, a charity and cool hair.
One group that I have been lucky to discover only this year via YouTube are Walk Off The Earth. They’re probably most famously known for their rendition of Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye, which they all play on one guitar. This has racked up nearly 105 million views on YouTube. There is also a great parody of this by The Key of Awesome btw.
The Key Of Awesome WOTE Parody – Somebody That I Used To Know
But I digress. Walk Off The Earth are fantastic. The group consists of freelance musicians and a couple of members who were doing their own thing on the web. They have come together as Walk Off The Earth and have fast become quite well known. They have been featured on a few talk shows including The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Walk Off The Earth also have their own Wikipedia entry. Here’s a short splurb about their early beginnings:
“Walk off the Earth is a Canadian indie band formed in 2006 in Burlington, Ontario. They have gained success around the world by making low-budget music videos of covers and originals. The band built their fan base independently with no help from record labels, booking agents or management” – Wikipedia
Part of their success has come from allowing YouTube viewers to suggest covers for Walk Off The Earth to play. In fact much of their work encourages interactivity or participation by fans.
One fan suggested a particular favourite of mine which I honestly can’t get enough of. It’s Fairytale of New York by Sarah Blackwood and Gianni Luminati. To date the video has received over 1 million views. I’m responsible for just over half of that and is what I really want to show you.
Fairytale of New York – Gianni and Sarah
I have such a crush on Sarah Blackwood.
PS: Can anyone work out the chords and tabs that the two lovebirds are using in this song? I’m dead keen to learn how to play this!
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