Crazy Frog v Coldplay

About this episode

The episode explores the rise of Crazy Frog and its impact on music and culture, particularly in relation to Coldplay.

‘The Annoying Thing’ is how the begenitaled amphibian animated by Erik Wernquist was first described; but by the time he released his first single ‘Axel F’ he was universally known as The Crazy Frog, and beat Coldplay’s ‘Speed of Sound’ to UK #1 on 4th June, 2005. The tale of how this possibly could have happened is unique to the early days of the internet - a teenager messing about imitating motorbike noises emailed the sound to some friends, Wernquist stumbled across it and put it in his portfolio, and then it was adopted for sale by mobile ringtone company Jamster. In this episode, Olly, Arion and Rebecca consider the value of Crazy Frog’s musical legacy, reveal that he’s not even a frog, and applaud the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority for standing up to protest, and permitting us to witness his visible scrotum… Further Reading: • Crazy Frog - Axel F (2005): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85mRPqvMbE • ‘Find out how the world’s most annoying noise came about’ - The Sun commemorates Crazy Frog’s 20th birthday (2017): https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/2974489/crazy-frog-just-turned-20-relive-his-hellish-magic-here/ • Not So Crazy Frog (Documentary, 2017)…

People in this episode

Hosts: Olly, Arion, Rebecca

Topics covered

• Crazy Frog
• Coldplay
• UK music history
• internet culture
• advertising standards
• musical legacy

Keywords

• Crazy Frog
• Coldplay
• Axel F
• UK #1
• internet history
• mobile ringtones
• advertising standards

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Crazy Frog, Coldplay, Jamster, UK’s Advertising Standards Authority

Books & works: Axel F, Not So Crazy Frog

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