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November 25, 2007

Get Creative. Can Do. Rock On. Hahahaha

Michael Arrington

100 comments »

I couldn’t not post this. The Singapore Media Development Authority made this video to sex up the Singapore tech scene a little. I’d say they definitely succeeded - there’s nothing as cool as middle aged men in suits rapping. Dan, dude, you’ve got to get on this immediately and make it go viral. :-)

I would have paid good money to have done a cameo in this video.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Web 2.0 News & Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Oracle

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:19 pm

    For good or bad, all the Asian tigers are rocking and rolling:

    Hong Kong Will Rock You

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=w2Ksr8mvh68

  2. Michael Arrington

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    wow. that video may be even more entertaining.

  3. redgirl

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:26 pm

    i must move to singapore immediately!

  4. Hilarious

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:28 pm

    I think rhymes are thing of the past as was clearly demonstrated in this video.

  5. Lak

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:30 pm

    I love it!!!
    Now I need to “copy” this idea and make a similar video for my company… :p

  6. w00t?

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

    That was teh great3st th1ng I have evar s33n in my h0le life.

    I can die now happy.

  7. Joel

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:35 pm

    Wow. That’s… incredible? They really pushed some of that rapping to the limit… of my patience… and rhyme-ability. At least they’re trying hard, I suppose. But I’ll stick to real rappers from the US of A for now. Thanks for posting, Michael. That was pretty awesome. *grin*

  8. sgmda

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

    I come from Singapore. The video’s disgraceful, but somehow it’s kind of addictive… painfully addictive.

  9. Nino

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:40 pm

    Excellent video !

    When will we see it in Europe ?

  10. Charles Polanco

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:41 pm

    This just makes me cry… USA must follow, maybe with Bush has the president.

  11. Dan B

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:45 pm

    Is it just me, or does everyone else wanna get with the “numbers girl” too?

  12. Travis

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:46 pm

    Wow. That tune is going to be running through my head all night. I still hear it and it isn’t playing.

  13. lawrence

    November 25th, 2007 at 3:49 pm

    1.) are they even singing?

    2.) the clip is too long to be funny

    3.) there’s only a few seconds of the heads dancing, it looks like their same dance is just repeated throughout (boring)

  14. Dan Schawbel

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:00 pm

    They seem desperate BUT I bet that video is seen by thousands of people (at least in Singapore).

  15. ed

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:05 pm

    One of the dumbest things I have seen. Only major league dorks will like this crap. Embarrassing that company had to sink that low….DORKS!

  16. Angela Hayden

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

    i’ve been laughing my ass off. my 11 year old daughter came in and told me “lame ol’, i’m not wasting my time on that movie.

    i did.

    i think I’ll do a version for my daugher’s class of me and my mates.

  17. Steve Ballmer

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

    I liked that, it was fun, what rap used to be!

    http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

  18. Chris Walker

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:08 pm

    Cheap idea - and way too long to hold my attention. I agree with ed - it is pretty embarrassing. It looks to me like these guys got sold an expensive, crappy idea by a bunch of over-creative video producers.

  19. Dan Ackerman Greenberg

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

    Mike - Sweet, I’m all over it.

    :)

  20. 113.com

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:12 pm

    Welcome to HK..

    The Singapore video way too looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.

    The HK one could be better… (well, anything could be better..)

    ;-)

  21. Sahar Sarid

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    It is too long, would have been better if they kept it shorter. The only reason it will do well virally is because of who’s behind it, not the video itself.
    My two cents.
    Sahar

  22. Steve Jobs

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    The amount of videos that generate traffic spikes is growing. I found that if I make 3 a week, I can get over 2900 people to my websites.

  23. R. K.

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:31 pm

    you know, it’s hard to appreciate how painful this video is unless you are Singaporean. You’ll realize that the video ISN’T meant to be funny.

    That said, perhaps it is the saving grace that you guys find it hilarious and some little bit of sick dignity is saved.

    By the way, the Media Development Authority is the Singapore government agency that bans things left and right. Their privacy practices are also questionable, in my personal opinion. So whatever they say in the video… I find wholly ironic.

  24. Igor Jablokov

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

    After seeing Michael Yap’s performance, I’m not sure if my 1st action item tomorrow isn’t changing the name of our Company. Not that I could sing any better… :-)

  25. Rob La Gesse

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

    Just when I thought it would end… it didn’t.

  26. Luis Neng

    November 25th, 2007 at 4:50 pm

    Very cool! :)

  27. Ah meng

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:13 pm

    I’m Singaporean. Seeing the government folks doing this, it’s definitely funny and nice. It brings the government closer to the people - i think that’s what all governments should do. In this age, doing this video and having it posted at youtube, etc is definitely the way to do it.

  28. 113.com

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:17 pm

    The original video box did not come out when seeing this post via
    firefox (firefox 2.0.0.9).. tried many times.. I’d wonder if anyone’s
    seeing a blank post other than the text that begins with “I couldn’t
    not post this”… another reason why i’ve been bitching about the
    this firefox rubbish.. /ac.

  29. =Jason

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    stupid

  30. Nina Hartley

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:41 pm

    Works fine in my firefox browser. You might be running an add-on that is causing issues.

  31. Jon

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

    …and who says public servants and executives can’t dance?

    Jon

  32. Hi-Tech-IT

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

    All very strange :D

  33. EOT

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:46 pm

    Reasons this video will go viral:

    1) It’s on TechCrunch
    2) It so laughably bad that people will want to forward it so that we can all have a good laugh.

    Viral or not, I doubt this video will aid the world in seeing Singapore as a media hub, which from my inference was the original intention.

  34. 113.com

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

    @30 - no, zero add-on.. and very clean os (purposefully kept that way)… well, lost cause… /ac.

  35. Gregor J. Rothfuss

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

    This continues the fine tradition of the 2005 Microsoft South Korea Video for Visual Studio.

    http://web.archive.org/web/200.....s_song.asp

  36. Ron Kurti

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:48 pm

    dude! where’s my techcrunch???

  37. 113.com

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    from a HK’er angle –

    1) SG is not a media hub and highly unlikely to be
    2) HK is not a place to be for the tech geeks — don’t come, it kills your soul…

    now go make this viral… ;-) /ac.

  38. java user

    November 25th, 2007 at 5:54 pm

    Does anyone other than me find it odd that one of the most socially oppressive governments in the world would put out propaganda claiming to “give the people a voice” ?

  39. 113.com

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:05 pm

    @37 — what would you expect, if chewing gum in SG is illegal…
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C....._Singapore

  40. nemrut

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

    There’s only one thing worse than watching white people dance and that’s Asian executives trying to get their groove…lol

  41. William Hung

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:25 pm

    Awww… come on… they’re as good as me in dancing… give them some credit. They have no regrets.

  42. Video Lover

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:28 pm

    Michael, I’m sure that if you contacted them and asked for a cameo in their next video, they would gladly include you in at no charge.

  43. David

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

    I think they did great…
    As Ah Meng said, they did let people feel they are getting closer to the people. As for the government, it is very cool to do it… as least, it is relevant to what their focus is-media.
    HK & Singapore are great… instead of competing… they should work with each other… anyway, both has their unique attractions… Singapore people speak better English I have to say…
    We have many students from NUS at SV to learn entrepreneurship. I am one of them just left the Bay Area.

  44. CarlosPC

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:32 pm

    For those of you who speak Spanish check this nice rap, performed by veteran artists, Les Luthiers:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PULB4MjXCPg

  45. David

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

    by the way, the HK one seems more entertaining… short and sweet…
    but it is not original… the MDA rap is original…
    one is info video… not a song..
    the other one is of both - info & a song. =p
    my two cents

  46. 113.com

    November 25th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

    @44 — I think it’s called a remix… and originality no value if bland..

  47. Stan

    November 25th, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    I’m from Singapore, and to say that the video is bad is an understatement. It’s uber lame, corny and very wannabe. I think I speak on behalf of most Singaporeans. I’m embarrassed this actually made it to Techcrunch.

  48. sriram

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:12 pm

    you know it’s the lowest of lows when there is english subtitle provided for an english rap. .. sigh and i study in singapore.

  49. Knowledge is power

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:32 pm

    TechCrunch = pre-screening services for the next American Idol :-)

  50. Rachel

    November 25th, 2007 at 8:32 pm

    I’m a Singaporean. And I can’t say enough how embarrassed I am about this video. It’s painful to watch.

  51. Rajeev

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:05 pm

    Innovative Event Marketing/

    http://tekno-world.blogspot.com

  52. file2fone

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:09 pm

    It’s lacking creativity.

  53. jd

    November 25th, 2007 at 10:32 pm

    if we lose the youth olympics bid its because of this

  54. Jon

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:01 pm

    Oh man, that was painful to watch. I felt embarrassed just watching them.

  55. Meredith

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:07 pm

    Wow. Memo to the rappers of tomorrow, Singaporean or otherwise: acronyms do not belong in lyrics. (Okay, unless you’re Allan Sherman, though “Harvey and Sheila” isn’t rap.)

  56. Fine Banana

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:09 pm

    This is the same agency which banned the Mass Effect game and later lifted it. It’s not that bad after all, they can be open minded too. Do they really have to ‘dance’?

  57. Michael Arrington

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:34 pm

    quick show of hands - who has watched this at least three times all the way through like I have? I can’t stop watching it.

  58. sriram

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:38 pm

    this serves as a good morale booster for screwing up exams…

  59. sriram

    November 25th, 2007 at 11:39 pm

    to know that more people screwed up worse than you . . .

  60. PyramidView

    November 26th, 2007 at 12:11 am

    @56 Yes. I admit it. I can’t stop watching. Michael, if you do appear in a video make sure you’re not the one to wear the tights & cape.

  61. mike bartlett

    November 26th, 2007 at 2:17 am

    I really don’t get how everyone panned the Nokia video and then give this one props. Kids thing adults trying to be cool are quite the opposite, at least Nokia didn’t make that fatal mistake.

  62. RandellFever

    November 26th, 2007 at 5:34 am

    This has just made my day! I gotta get all the peeps on board.

  63. Andrew Davies

    November 26th, 2007 at 5:46 am

    Tham Wai Kin at 3:14 has got the best moves. Absolutely love it.

  64. nick of cebu

    November 26th, 2007 at 6:07 am

    One time is all I can bear, boss. :-) But thanks for this post! This is really incredible considering the uptight and heavy-handed image the government of Singapore continues to have. In fact, we didn’t launch in S’pore because the government continues to control all real estate, leaving no space for a listings engine like ours.

  65. MP

    November 26th, 2007 at 6:44 am

    Guys, why is it so hard to see that this video is tongue-in-cheek (and in that sense quite funny)?

    I find performances like the weekly video podcast of Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel (http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Webs/BK/DE/Aktuelles/VideoPodcast/video-podcast.html) much more lame in their wannabe-seriousness than such an appearance.

    I like it, and it at least alters my view of the sometimes stiff Asian manner a little bit.

  66. Ed

    November 26th, 2007 at 6:49 am

    Hilarious! I was constantly laughing for four minutes. But the fact that this is crafted by the government of a totalitarian state clouds the happiness quite a bit :(

  67. Fake Dan Ackerman Greenberg

    November 26th, 2007 at 7:13 am

    I made this viral

  68. StarDust

    November 26th, 2007 at 7:17 am

    Too funny. I think if Casandra Tay had a longer spot - it would have been even better - she has the looks and the moves compared to the others.

    On a business side - listen to what they are saying about building a global economy. They are not just focused on Singapore - but more about bringing business from the rest of the world to Singapore.

    Now that made me wonder - if all countries are looking at a global market as a source of revenue - then just who is the market? Every country seems to assume that other markets have the greater $$.

  69. Jia

    November 26th, 2007 at 7:41 am

    Funny enough! I bet Taiwan administration might try something like this later, but never for Beijing. :P

  70. Hi-Tech-IT

    November 26th, 2007 at 8:17 am

    Damn that was bad. Would it make me stand up listen because they rapped? no.

  71. jer

    November 26th, 2007 at 8:32 am

    I highly doubt this is a tongue in cheek video considering its on the homepage of the MDA as well as its “Interactive Annual Report”

    http://www.mda.gov.sg

  72. Saagar

    November 26th, 2007 at 8:38 am

    And I was thinking only Duncan had trouble in finding the right titles for the posts :)

  73. Matt (the Duncan force)

    November 26th, 2007 at 9:36 am

    ok… could we get Mike, Duncan, Erick, and the whole gang to PLEEEEEASE go to gizmoz and get your 3d avatars to do a parody of this video??

    I would pay money for such a thing.

    and #71… leave duncan alone… who are you to talk? what kind a title is “statement.setMaxrows in JDBC vs Oracle rownum in SQL”? yeah… that title just yanks me right in to read your damn graph!! grrrrr. what’s that you say? there was no graph? oh… well i would have known that had i actually gave enough pellets of crap to actually read your entry. (which i didn’t). :-D (i suppose you’ll lay off of Duncan in future episodes….)

    p.s. if you can’t tell i’m a reformed duncan-slammer… his recent troll post really opened my eyes dammit! (and i’m not being sarcastic, in case you were wondering. i really feel compelled to stand up for duncan now as opposed to just joining the herd and taking the easy cuts.) We need another Figueroa to get people off of Duncan’s ass already.

    p.p.s. ok… so i couldn’t stand another Figueroa either… bad idea.

  74. Skorch

    November 26th, 2007 at 9:40 am

    Yes yes y’all please please stop.

  75. K.Kaviraj

    November 26th, 2007 at 10:09 am

    cassandra tay - Director ( The lady in full black out fit ) — is really cool ;-)

  76. Ken

    November 26th, 2007 at 10:45 am

    That is 4.5 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Damn you TechCrunch! Damn you Singapore MDA Execs!

  77. bigmac

    November 26th, 2007 at 10:59 am

    Mike, that’s what MDA will like to do to get into Techcrunch ! Look like MDA make it at last. Now MDA will be world famous and very capable of censoring Techcrunch in notime.
    Mike, it’s time for you to come out your own video so that it can be put into MDA’s site. YoYo YO, come on.

  78. bigmac

    November 26th, 2007 at 11:04 am

    Mike, thank you for helping Singapore to identify William Hung of Singapore. You realize that it is not just a individual but a whole bunch of expensive gahmen who will censor anything except themselves.

    The proposed name for MDA

    MDA = WHC = William Hung Corporation

  79. biased

    November 26th, 2007 at 3:50 pm

    This video is biased, SG is multi cultural society and this video has only chinese dance to the music. Why can’t they show malay, indian, arab and others in the video??

  80. James Chia

    November 26th, 2007 at 4:47 pm

    I am embarrassed to tell you I am Singaporean!

  81. ExPat

    November 26th, 2007 at 6:12 pm

    That was just a sad sad video. I’m so glad I’m Malaysian!

    Media Hub?!? Time to lose the old plans thats proven unworkable. Move on with the times. Look at South Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, etc. There are many contries out there which are taking serious initiatives and they’ll be ahead of us in 20 to 30 years time.

    As a Malaysian Kiwi, we’re always looking ahead and changing with the times. No point in beating an old drum, or in this case, an old rap ;)

  82. m3nt0r

    November 26th, 2007 at 7:12 pm

    WTH?! this is some scary movie.. song.. whatever :D

  83. rocks

    November 26th, 2007 at 7:57 pm

    haha no doubt its not cool, but it shows the government’s initiative/seriousness about spicing media/tech scene up, which is more than I can say abt a lot of others…

  84. julie

    November 26th, 2007 at 8:14 pm

    Mikey is obviously a dork! Big surprise!

    VERY STUPID.

  85. Ultronesia

    November 26th, 2007 at 8:45 pm

    This… is amazing in all kinds of ways.

    The sad part is, that beat isn’t too bad. It could have been used for more pleasant purposes.

    Cassandra Tay is smokin’ hot, though. She could rule me in a totalitarian manner any day.

  86. Shamir

    November 26th, 2007 at 9:18 pm

    I’m Singaporean too, and I must say, the fact that it’s on TechCrunch with 84 comments is a resounding success in itself, as ‘bad’ as some of the rapping might be.. “yes yes y’all, we don’t stop, get connected worlwide rock on” ;>

  87. goodmeat

    November 27th, 2007 at 5:32 am

    i could had sworn i saw william hung in the video

  88. GRex

    November 27th, 2007 at 6:31 am

    And I’m embarrassed coz Kuala Lumpur is a few hours drive from where this masterpiece was made.

  89. Harro!

    November 27th, 2007 at 9:06 am

    Isn’t William Hung dead?

  90. Fernando

    November 27th, 2007 at 10:52 pm

    So I’ve lived in Singapore for the last couple of years. Here’s the deal - people here are motivated, generally optimistic, and they trust the government. The government takes its responsibilities to the people very seriously even though they have a pretty harsh controls in place on certain stuff. Basically, just don’t break the law. And interestingly, cynicism is pretty rare - the video is honest, if lame!

    What most people who don’t live here don’t get is that Singapore has created all kinds of industries right up from scratch - from petrochemicals to biotech to tourism - and they actually ARE succeeding at creating a regional media hub.

    My two bits.

  91. Benita

    November 28th, 2007 at 1:58 am

    Thanks, Fernando.

    As much as such cringe-worthy things do emerge every now and then, which country doesn’t have its fair share of wannabe-mistakes? And think about it this way — give our Confucian culture-ed, square and straight-laced generation some credit for breaking out of their shells. It probably wouldn’t be half as bad if some teens who had more rhythmic sense did the rap. Honest, albeit over optimistic…

    P.S. A response to the chewing gum mention @39: This wouldn’t have happened if inconsiderate jokers could stop stuffing their gum on lift doors and buttons, seats, train doors and everything you can put a finger on. This topic included, from now.

  92. maths

    November 29th, 2007 at 1:04 am

    This is one video that as the appointed censor board, the MDA should have self-censored as so many Singaporeans find it so cringe-worthy. And because it’s gone so totally over the edge, it falls into the “so-bad it’s good” category hence the thru-the-roof global audience.

    And though the occasional positive comments have focused on the fact that a bunch of civil servants were willing to break out of the bureaucrat strait-jacket mould, the harsh reality is that on the execution front, the creative/ production team should have done much, much better. It’s produced lyrically and visually as a relic from the 80’s, and since the message is that Singapore is going to be “No.1 in content” and as they are the organization promoting creative content, they should have drawn on better producers.

    And objectively speaking, it is that disconnect between the message and the execution that is extremely jarring and serves to undermine the message. Sure it has raised awareness of Singapore’s media industry but more likely along the lines of “Creative media hub? - you must be having a laugh!”….which is unfortunate, especially as there are pockets of great creativity in Singapore especially the advertising agencies which are constantly winners at the global award shows.

    It’s interesting to note that one article in Singapore’s Straits Times tried to put a positive spin on it without even mentioning that the majority of the comments on YouTube are derisory- “MDA video on global high list” (http://digital.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20071127-38663.html ) . But thankfully, another Straits Times article balanced it out “Corporate rap videos cool or fools?” (http://digital.asiaone.com/Digital/Features/Story/A1Story20071125-38245.html )

  93. canadiandollars

    December 1st, 2007 at 10:12 am

    “I know good directors like the back of my hand” awwww jeah!!!

  94. california eagle

    December 1st, 2007 at 5:04 pm

    This is a lame video. But full marks for coming up with the idea and get the world talking about it. As for propagating the MDA message, it will still take other avenues. The critical mass for ideas are required in the media scene. It does not happen. Relax the censorship and the only needed guideline is to treasure religious diversity.
    IT should not be part of MDA. Seems like this is one re-organization too many. Creativity and the delivery mechanism do not mix.

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