A Great Big World f/ Christina Aguilera "Say Something" (Christopher Sims, dir.)

The presence of Christina Aguilera on this gorgously stripped-down pop ballad threatens to drown out brainy NYC duo A Great Big World, much in the same way that not many people noticed Mikky Ekko on his similarly fantastic Rihanna collaboration.

That said, Christina has already invited them to perform with her on The Voice, while also providing the name recognition that will open many mainstream radio and pop radio doors. And, unsuprisingly, she hits all the notes perfectly.

The World's First 24 Hour Music Video by Pharrell and We Are From L.A.

Do you have 24 hours to spare? If so, I want you to watch the new Pharrell clip "Get Happy," which is the world's first 24 hours video. Wisely, the intention here — besides getting those "holy shit, 24 hours!" headlines — seems to be for you to click along the circular timeline to explore different scenes, including interior dots that take you directly to Pharrell doing his thing as the song plays on repeat. You can then share that timecode — especlally if you happen to catch one of the video's famous guest stars, or other Easter Eggs — through a nifty tool.

So go on, get happy @ 24hoursofhappy.com

Arcade Fire "Afterlife" (Emily Kai Bock, dir.)

He sells flowers on a streetcorner all day, comes home for a spaghetti dinner, prodding his youngest son to speak spanish and his eldest to spare him a drive to his friend's house. At nightfall they all mine different dreamscapes, but she's at the center of all of them — only existing in their thoughts until they hopefully meet on the other side.

Beautiful.

The Trouble with Gaga

Enough with the thinkpieces about why Lady Gaga Artpop is a commercial disappointment: It debuted at #1 with over 200k sold, which is pretty damn good for an album which hasn't yet spawned a true hit single. And that's a key clause there: "Applause" got a golf clap, at best, and it remains to be seen if any of the other tracks thrown at the virtual wall will stick (I'd bet on the R. Kelly collabo "Do What U Want," especially if the video lives up to the single art). 

The other issue is that Lady Gaga has proven able to be an iconoclast, it feels like she's now trying awfully hard without any real focus. This brand new ARTPOP film feels like a demo reel of various guises she's trying out, from some Marilyn Manson mugging, monster mashing and other looks that veer heavily on the edge of wackiness.

Livin On A Prayer Re-Enters The Billboard Hot 100 Because of This Dude...

Still on the fence about Billboard's decision to include YouTube data in their Hot 100 chart tabulation? Well, get off it because Bon Jovi "Livin On A Prayer" has re-entered the charts thanks to some dancing dude in Boston.

Meet Jeremy Fry. Back in 2008 he did a passionate lip-sync dance to thie 1987 Bon Jovi hit "Livin On A Prayer" when it was played at a Celtics game. Here's a 2008 YouTube upload of it which caught the attention of Huffington Post Comedy.

The reason why a five year old "viral" is making a 26 year old song chart is apparently because a version of it was uploaded and promoted by viral aggregator utrend.tv, netting 11 million fresh views. And Billboard — who to their credit, is amazingly transparent about this stuff — says that those views account for 94% of the "chart points," and the other 6% from the 4,000 downloads sold that week (an 11% rise from the previous) and approximately 500 radio plays.

How you choose to view all this depends on how cynical you are, but it's clear that the Hot 100 is going to someday essentially be an online chart. Which might be what it should be...

In the meantime, I can promise you that somebody somewhere is probably realizing that the Payola window has moved from radio stations to the Internet... 

150th Anniversary Of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address; 10th Anniversary of Electric 6 "Gay Bar"

Seven score and 10 years ago today — that's 150 years — Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. And it was only 10 years ago that directors Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire delivered the epic Electric Six "Gay Bar" video, imagining a more fabulous side of our 16th president.

Thus concludes today's history lesson.

Bob Dylan Interactive TV with Maron, Property Brothers, Pawn Stars and more!

So many channels, so little to watch — unless you're a fan of Bob Dylan. This fantastic interactive video imagines that every show was nothing but Dylan and his classic song, "Like A Rolling Stone." Use your directional keys to surf through the program guide and see everyone from the Pawn Stars, Maron and even The Property Brothers lip-sync within the context of their typical episodes. We also get Price Is Right, a History Channel doc, some generic kids, news and sports channels, but the best ones might be the video channels: One shows a vintage live clip of Dylan himself, the other stars Danny Brown, who gets trippy with the matzo.

Actually, who am I kidding. The best one is Property Brothers, which I like to think is Dylan's favorite show.

Check out: BobTV!

Kanye West "Bound 2" (Nick Knight, dir.)

Even though the video is best described as a Romance book cover come to life, it's still got an edge: "Bound 2" is essentially Kanye West riding his naked fiancee/babymama Kim Kardashian on a motorcycle through the desert, and most love songs don't have lyrics like, "I wanna fuck you hard on the sink."

But the best part of this glimpse into the "softer" side of Kanye? It premiered in entirety on the Ellen DeGeneris show, which is amazing on so many levels, but mostly in that housewives across the country watched this for five minutes and just might head to the store to enjoy the full Yeezus experience. 

UPDATE: I still think it's best watched via ellentv.com so you get that intro and the Ellen watermark — and a slight curvature which makes me think/hope they taped it off a monitor — but the official "uncensored" version is now on YouTube (embedded above). But, don't go looking at Kanye's channel: It's posted by Kim Kardashian, perhaps telling us which of the video's starts this release is meant to promote.

PS: I think "uncensored" refers to the audio, but feel free to get all Zapruder in search of a nipslip. Kim K won't mind those viewcounts.