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Dictionaraoke - Fair-Use meets Karaoke

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the amuse-yourself-to-death dept.

stu42j writes "NPR's On the Media today interview's David Dixon from Dictionaraoke.com where 'A group of fair-use artists have created songs using the spoken pronunciation guides of words in online dictionaries. The result is an entertaining blend of computerized music and monotone singing.'"

6 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. entertaining? by tps12 · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Entertaining blend"? This must be some new, magical definition of the word "entertaining" with which I am not familiar.

    A much better project would be a neural network system that takes the entire works of Led Zeppelin and J.R.R. Tolkien as input, and provides us with some amazing new fantasy rock as output.

    I have determined that every Led Zeppelin tune can be interpretted in terms of Tolkien's Middle Earth with little difficulty. Please post challenges here.

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  2. When It Gets /.ed off the planet... by spudwiser · · Score: 4, Informative

    here's the official list of mirrors

    http://dictionaraoke.mirrors.gweep.net/

    --
    .cig - what you do after winning a good flame war
  3. One of these words does not fit by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    The result is an entertaining blend of computerized music and monotone singing.

    Can you spot the word that doesn't belong?

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    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  4. Pronunciation good, grammar bad by travdaddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh yeah, I remember hearing one of their computerized, monotone songs a few years ago. They did get all the pronunciation right but they messed up on the grammar a bit. I think they called it "All Your Base."

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    Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
  5. Is it just me by MBCook · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or does this sound like William Shatner "singing"?

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    Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  6. Aside from sounding ghastly, it's a political goal by 2Flower · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm surprised nobody's really picked up on this -- the radio interviewer even disregarded it ("Putting aside the politics, insert smarky comment here").

    It does call into question the nature of copyright, once you break something down to its core elements. The reason why MIDI was used? Because it's a mathematical representation of a string of notes, rather than a copy of an actual copyrighted performance of those notes. The reason why dictionary samples were used instead of a better synthesizer? Well, think about this: are the sampled words copyrighted? The dictionary sites they were lifted from could claim copyright, but do they really own the rights to a sound bite of a proununciation of an english word? What if I recorded myself saying it? What if you take their recordings and make sentences, who owns the rights then, the composer/assembler or the dictionary or what?

    I LOVE how jumbled the legal issues get surrounding this. Of course, I'm sure the RIAA will get them shut down ASAP to prove they own the right to every aspect of our culture, including our own commentary upon that culture.