For the Record: Branching Out to New Media

By Yumna Yousry On Nov 24, 2013

Comedy duo and brothers Ylvis have signed a book deal with Simon and Schuster to turn their YouTube hit “The Fox” into an illustrated children’s book. The book will be out internationally next month.

Despite recent allegations of racial profiling at the store, Jay Z has gone ahead with his Barneys collection, so you can you finally get started on your Christmas shopping. Need a vinyl tie? Get one for just $560. How about some leather boxing shorts? They’ll only set you back about $2,590. Or if you had your heart set on a crocodile jacket, look no further… and for just $58,000, that’s gotta be a bargain.

Just 38 short years after the song’s release, Bob Dylan has finally gotten around to releasing a video for his hit single “Like A Rolling Stone”, and it doesn’t disappoint. The interactive video provides 16 television channels you can flip through, each with a different interpretation, and features Drew Carry and rapper Danny Brown.

Meanwhile, Pharrell’s breaking records with the longest music video ever recorded; his new “Happy” video goes on for a full 24 hours, with the song, at four minutes long, repeated 360 times. The song will be featured on the soundtrack of Despicable Me 2.

And Queens of the Stone Age offer their own somewhat creepy interactive video for fantastic new single “Vampyre of Time and Memory”; check it out at vampyreoftimeandmemory.com.

David Guetta is turning to Twitter to spread some more #love. Partnering up with the United Nations, Guetta has helped launch the The World Needs More… campaign that depends on social media to raise funds for victims of natural disasters and conflict, and endorsed the word “love'” which means that every time someone tweets #theworldneedsmore and #love, he donates $1. Check out the accompanying video One Voice with Mikky Ekko that was projected onto the UN building in New York last Friday:

And Kelly Clarkson also turned to Twitter this week to announce her pregnancy, tweeting: “I’m pregnant!!! Brandon and I are so excited! Best early Christmas present ever :)”. The announcement came five weeks after she announced her marriage to Brandon Blackstock, also on Twitter.

Tumblr is launching a new interview series titled Dashboard Confessions to provide a platform for fans to interact with musicians and artists. The program kicked off this week with a live Q&A with John Mayer, who is promoting his current tour.

Les Claypool is releasing a bluegrass album titled Four Foot Shack in February, including select Primus tracks as well as covers of Bee Gees and Alice in Chains songs, and some solo material.

Metallica’s 3D concert film Through the Never is coming out on DVD and Blu-ray this January, with extras such as behind-the-scenes and making-of footage, and interviews with the cast and crew.

Next week brings us new single High Hopes by Bruce Springsteen featuring guitar work by Tom Morello, and U2’s first single in four years, titled “Ordinary Love”. The track was written for the upcoming Nelson Mandela biopic and is already available on the band’s Facebook page.

WE SAID THIS: Check out last week’s For the Record: Pop Princesses here.