Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Gotta love a nerd



Anyone who ever watched footie at a stadium (live or as a telecast) and/or is a hardcore rock music fan would know this iconic STOMP-STOMP-CLAP. I even had Generation Z students who used this song as template for a performance to explain mitosis.

This masterpiece is the brain child of one Dr Brian May, lead guitarist of the quintessential arena rock band, Queen. Dr May is more than a wild-haired electric guitar virtuoso, he is also an astrophysicist who wrote a book on the cosmology (aptly named Bang! A History of the Universe) based on his work on interstellar dust.

Yup, wild-haired brainy dude.(Thanks Wikimedia Commons!)

Initially, the sound effect was not to be included in the final cut of the song; but he was intrigued by the feedback from the audience during a concert that he thought deeply of how he could incorporate the audience participation in their live act - "a means of uniting the audience".

"I was thinking, 'What can you give an audience that they could do while they're standing there? They can stamp and they can clap and they can sing some kind of chant,' " he says. "To me, it was a uniting thing. It was an expression of strength." - excerpted from NPR interview.


He drew from his physics and mathematics background to create a distinctive sound of thousands of feet stomping and clapping in unison, building sound using old boards and prime numbers. Bet when you were swotting through mathematics, calculus, algebra and geometry, you never thought that you can use it to create a song that nets you millions in royalties, no?

Dr Brian May is the reason why girls love wild haired musicians: the guitar will loosen the knickers, but that brain? Totally meltworthy.

6 comments:

soren said...

intelligent men are sexy. enuff said :P

en_me said...

salam pagi kamis akak tewww.. ehehe

Seorang Blogger said...

aku suke 'research' mu yang ini beb..

detailnya menarik dan aku membaca serta membaca link sambil merasa wow dan wow dan wow dan wow juga

;-)

Snuze said...

Martian: Kan? *swoons*

Tuan Jurugambar Tersohor: Salam pagi Khamis pada Tuan jua.

Cik Pid: Timacih! Aku menggilai Queen sejak darjah satu lagi.

Pemuzik bijak macam Dr Brian May dan Dexter Holland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Holland) membuatkan lututku cair bak coklat terdedah di dashboard kereta. Dexter Holland (penyanyi Offspring) tu adalah ABD (all but dissertation). Ada MSc Molecular Biology, you!

Seorang Blogger said...

kat mesia ada tak??

Snuze said...

Cik Pid: Klu ada aku dah sambar dah ... :p